The Pistons are in for a ROLLER COASTER RIDE of a Season!

The Pistons are in for a ROLLER COASTER RIDE of a Season!

It’s your man 100 grand Russ with the rock never stops. These Detroit Pistons are in for one hell of a season. Matter of fact, it’s going to be a roller coaster ride. Ups and downs, twirls, unforeseen turns. This is going to be a very, very entertaining and interesting season, and I want to dive into that in this video. But before I do, uh, if you enjoy my videos, enjoy my content, please smash the like button for me. Hit subscribe and the bell for notifications. Uh, hitting the like button is a small thing, but it’s a big thing for the channel. Even more so if you subscribe or become a patron. U, but I appreciate all the love and support. Really do. It’s been a lot of fun. Looking forward to going to another year. It’s year three following the Detroit Pistons. Always follow the NBA, uh, but more closely the Detroit Pistons. So, I hope y’all enjoying this uh, content. and I look forward to more uh with you all. Let me just start off by this. The Detroit Pistons are a really good team. They’re a really good team. And I want to start with that fundamentally. And when I say a really good team, they have certain elements of a winning franchise or organization. Meaning that they play defense. They’re bought into defense. If you’re not bought into defense, I don’t take you seriously. You have to have an insane level of offense in order to make up for having a pedestrian defense. But you can have a great defense and a lesser offense and go much further. You can get to first, second round of the playoffs with a mediocre offense, but an amazing defense versus the other way around, you can have a great offense, but then when it comes to the defensive side of things, if you’re not at least mid, you’re not going to go far. You’re probably going to get to the playin at best. Now, the Detroit Pistons, let me just start off with it starts and ends with Kate Cunningham this season is all about him. He’s our MVP candidate. I think he has the potential to be a top three to top five MVP uh player this season. That means with Luca, Anthony Edwards, Victor Winyama, which are probably the more clear-cut candidates um right there at the top. And then you got other people like Stephen Curry. Um, don’t leave out guys like Jaylen Brown. Depending upon how well the Boston Celtics play, if they stay healthy, they could be a top five seed. Jiannis Antmpo, he’s he’s right there as well. But Kate Cunningham is different. And when I say different, even amongst the best players of the league, his combination of offense and defense, I’d probably say the only one who’s probably close to him is Anthony Edwards playing on both sides of the ball. Giannis and Dumbo is also dominant on both sides of the ball. And I forgot to shout out Joic as well. But Kate Cunningham, Kate Cunningham will be leaned on more heavily than I think any of these other MVP candidates. More than SGA, more than Jokic, more than Ant-Man, more than Giannis, though Giannis will be close. more than Stephen Curry, more than Luca, this team will rise and fall by what Kate Cunningham does night in and night out on that court. And this is what I want to get into about this roster, its construction, its outlook, that this team is going to have some interesting terms. Let’s just start off with where they’re beginning the season. Jayden Ivy is out. Let’s just count him out for 2025. Expect him in the new year. That’s that’s where I would anticipate seeing Jaden Ivy return. It’s four weeks until the re-evaluation, right? That means all you’re basically doing is resting and rehabbing. That’s it. And then if everything goes as planned, let’s start ramping you up and getting you ready for competition. Not regular basketball competition. Not like we play regular basketball. We go to the gym. Even if you’re in your 20s, you’re playing regular basketball. You might play four or five games in a row. You’re on a win streak. That’s not NBA basketball. That’s not even college. That’s not even NCA. That’s not even GLeague. This is the NBA, which is a marathon combined with a sprint where the most athletic players in the world are playing against United and night out. It it it will take Jayen Ivy at least about a month to ramp up. Not a week, not a couple weeks. So, for 2025, the Detroit Pistons probably second best scoring option, playmaker, shot creator, clutch shooter, uh, volume three-point shooter, probably has the second most gravity offensively, is going to be out for almost the first half of the season. That is significant. That is no small matter. And yet, I think the Pistons will figure it out. I think they’ll be able to hover around 500. And I want to get into just how. But before I do, I want to get into some of some more of this roster to begin the season. This team has so many question marks. When I look at the Orlando Magic, I know who they are. I know who Paulo Fron, Desmond Bane, Taius Jones, Anthony Black. I know who these guys are. Wendell Carter Jr., Jonathan Isaac. I know who these guys are. I know what to expect. I know what we’re going to see from them. When I look at the Atlanta Hawks, Trey Young, when I look at Chris Debs, Porzingis, Jaylen Johnson, Zachary Reese, Dyson Daniels, I know exactly what I’m going to get from even a Zachary Reese who’s getting better. If Jaylen Johnson is getting better, we kind of know who they are and what we’re going to get from them. Boston, Philly, Milwaukee, they have a couple question marks with Kevin Porter Jr., but you pretty much know what you’re going to get from them. I kind of don’t know what in the world to expect from these Detroit Pistons. And I’m going to do some videos later on on this. Is Jaylen Duran ready to be Robin to Cade Cunningham’s Batman? because that is what they need desperately. They don’t just need Jaylen Duran, who we anticipate at the beginning of the season, during the off season, to come in and just be really good, right? We wanted him to be a version of what we saw in the playoffs. Can you give us 16 and 12, right? Can you can you look really good like, ah, he’s on his way. He’s figured out a way to be consistent. No more foul trouble, but still mediocre expectations. We practically need Jaylen Duran to be an all-star level player. We’re leaning on Jaylen Duran to be a fringe allstar to be that one Miles Turner Jared Allen allstar season level play, high efficiency, consistency, moments of dominance, being able to play that strong second fiddle decade. That’s what we need. Can he do it? We saw one preseason game where it looked like maybe he can do it, but that’s what this team needs. Assar Thompson, it looked ugly at times and it looked great at times. Offensively, it was a struggle creating his own shot, trying to get downhill. And yet when he settled in and just did the things that we know he can already do from last season, playing amazing defense, especially off the ball, weak side shot blocker, disrupting passing lanes and drives, rebounding the ball, strong on both ends, getting out in transition, moving without the ball, and doing some facilitation, taking Kade off the ball to preserve his energy. He looked great. And yet, I think we’re all hoping for a little bit more. We see his talent, see his potential, we want a little bit more. What assar Thompson are we going to see this season? The one that reminds us of Amen Thompson or the one who reminds us that he’s not Amen Thompson. I would guess the latter with moments of the former. And then we got the supporting cast. These veterans do not look excited to be here. I’m going to be honest with you. They say all the right things because they’re veterans and they know better. But their body language. Malik Beasley and Tim Hardway Jr. last season, for all their limitations, looked hungry, looked bought in. They looked like they were ready to prove something. Duncan Robinson and Caris Levert look like they’re walking around like they’ve already proven it. And to an extent they have 31 years old. We know exactly who they are and who they aren’t. And first time Duncan Robinson is playing in the NBA outside of Miami and under Eric Spolstra in that system. Kerisvert looks more and more like father time and those injuries are catching up to him. He looks slower. He looks more labored in his movements. I don’t know exactly what we’ll be able to expect from him. I’m sure moments and I’m sure a lot of underwhelming moments, but he’s coming off the bench. He’s not a starter, but I do think if I’m honest with you, we would have almost hoped he could have been one. And it looks like from preseason he absolutely cannot be at this point. If we have to start him, we’re in a bad space. He’s not going to be able to defend, rebound. He’s not going to be disruptive. Uh and I think he’s going to give us solid okay at best shot creation. Tobias Harris, he looks locked in. I’m not worried about him at all. And then there’s my question marks. And the funnest one that I’ve had thinking about is Marcus Sasser because this team needs him to be absolutely him. Exactly who he is. We don’t need him to be Dennis Schroeder facilitating setting the table. We don’t need that at all. The Detroit Pistons need Marcus Sasser to be an absolute bucket. But can he? I believe he can. I think most of us believe that he can. I think most of us have looked at his talent and said, “We know he can get a bucket, but can he do these other things?” And I think to an extent, we’ve asked him to be more than that up until this point. But right now, we need the bucket. We need go get it. We need green light unconscious Jordan Crawford, Lou Williams. We need Jason Terry. We need those alltime great six men, Vinnie Johnson, right? Shout out Vinnie Johnson. The microwave coming off the bench and get us 20. Get us 20 in the crunch time. Get us 20 when Kade gets into foul trouble. Get us 20 on an off night when nobody seems to have it. Get us 20 and make that defense look at you the moment you check in at that scorers table like, “Oh, shoot. Y’all get ready.” Be Pton Pritchard, TJ McConnell come in and get buckets. I’m excited to see it. But we haven’t seen it. Not when we’ve needed it. Then we got the young guys, Bobby Clintman, Ron Holland. We’ve seen flashes and moments. Ron Holland looks like he’s figured out that three-point shot. Bobby Clintman looks like he could become that movement forward shooter uh catching and releasing almost like a Cam Johnson. That’s who I’ve been comparing him to. Cam Johnson except he’s 610. I think he’s got more to give us than what he’s shown because he’s not necessarily a flashy give me the ball, get out the way type of a player. He’s more of a system guy, which is where Cam Johnson got his claim to fame in in North Carolina. System guy. Played all four years. system guy, 68 shooting uh power forward who can rebound enough, defend enough, strong enough to play on the interior and on the wing and lights out shooter. Went to the Phoenix Suns, Muel Bridges, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, DeAndre Aiden, a run to the NBA finals. We see how well he looks in a system and over time he’s grown his game. I think Bobby Clintman can be exactly that for us and I hope he gets some more minutes. And with the Ivy injury, I can completely see him being inserted next to Isaiah Stewart, bumping down Ron Holland, next to Caris Levert and Marcus Sasser, starting Duncan Robinson. This could be a blessing in disguise, but it’s going to have its growing pains. It’s going to have its ups and downs. It’s going to have the type of season where we don’t know what we’re going to get. We’re going to have flashes where we beat teams that we shouldn’t beat and we’re going to be like, “Wow, we did that.” And then we’re going to see us struggle against teams that were like, “We should be able to beat them. Why are we struggling against the Heat? Why are we struggling against the Wizards like in preseason? There’s going to be a lot placed on Kade Cunningham shoulders. There’s going to be a lot placed on JB Bickerstaff’s shoulders trying to figure out how to maximize this roster because I don’t know if he’ll be able to lean on the veterans this year as he was able to last year. Mega Hustler, I appreciate seeing you in the chat. I don’t think that Paul Reed is as much of an X factor. I know JB Big Staff wants to go big, but I think Paul Reed’s going to be a break in case of emergency. Even though he had he’s had a great preseason, I just don’t think he shoots it well enough and we as much as we might want to be able to see him play next to Isaiah Stewart, which I’m not counting out of the question that he could. But once again, has the NBA seen Paul Reed at power forward for extended stretches? He’s always been a backup center. All right. Is he skilled enough to play that role? Or maybe he’s backup center and Isaiah Stewart is the power forward. He’s shown the shooting, little bit of playmaking, off the bounce, passes, right? Maybe that’s what it is. But we haven’t seen it, right? And I know I know I see y’all in the chat. Y’all like Dannis Jenkins. I’m going to be honest with you. Dennis Jenkins looked like he was really, really, really good in preseason. When he was playing against third string, fourth string backups, G-Leaguers, that’s when he looked his best. When he was out there with the starters, he looked really uncertain of himself. I’m not saying he can’t get there. His shot, his three-point shooting looks pure. Looks good. I’m I’m sold on it. I like it. his little step back jumper. I like it. He does facilitate well. The problem is is that he’s somebody that is going to slow down the offense because a defense would know if I force the ball to him, he’ll hesitate. If I force the ball to him and put him in a position where he has to get the team 20, he’s going to hesitate because mentally he’s not in that space yet. Because if I’m honest with you, I don’t think there’s levels to this, right? There’s levels. There are some guys I think of like uh back in the day Marcus Thornton played I think at Florida State uh played for the Sacramento Kings. maybe play for the Boston Celtics also, but he was an undersized shooting guard, 6’2. Um, but his confidence was Kobe. It was Kobe. It was Melo. Carmelo, not LaMelo. But that level of confidence, it didn’t matter if you put him out there at the end of a game, at the beginning of the game, in the middle of the game, he was going to shoot that thing. He knew exactly who he was. Dennis Jenkins doesn’t have that level of confidence. Marcus Assasser is close. Jay Nivy is there that level of confidence. Kate Cunningham for sure. All-time great level of confidence. And he should have it. Dannis Jenkins hesitates because I told y’all throughout the offseason, it’s a big jump to go from GLeague to expectations on the main roster. Most of these guys take steps, go from GLeague into the bench, but you’re no longer in the G- League. You’re officially on the roster night in and night out practicing with the team, traveling with the team, and maybe an injury happens and there’s an opportunity and maybe in that opportunity, you get to show some flashes and then the following year, you build upon those flashes. Remember T.J. McConnell started off in Philly undrafted coming in Joel Embiid. Shoot, he might have actually been a part of uh not just Ben Simmons, but also like Nerland’s Noel way back then. He’s had a slow progression, right? What’s his name for the um Cleveland Cavaliers who’s now with the Memphis Grizzlies, the point guard uh out of Virginia, right? Y’all know who I’m talking about. He’s had a slow progression throughout his career. These guys don’t jump from G-League to starter. That is crazy rare. Yeah. Tai Jerome, right? It’s been progressive. If Dennis Jenkins is starting for us, a lot has gone wrong. Caris Levert’s not ready. Marcus Sasser is more hurt than he’s led on. Right. A lot of things aren’t going right if he’s starting right. Let’s be clear about that. That means Duncan Robinson and Caris Levert, they just don’t have it. Resting on their laurels. Not excited to be here. Nothing to prove because we haven’t seen it in preseason. And when I saw Dannis Jenkins out there with the starters in preeason, yeah, he knocked down an open three, had a little step back, and then there was a lot of wideopen layups he passed up. There was a lot of moments. But you see, I I hear you benchm in the chat, Ron Holland, before you resort to Dennis. Has Ron Holland really looked that good? I think we’re excited about his three-point shot. We are excited about Ron Holland’s three-point shot. Let’s let’s be real. Uh we that was what we had hoped to see, but I also saw Ron Holland who traveled multiple times after catching the ball and didn’t put the ball down first. First of all, the NBA don’t really call travels, period. So, if referees are calling travels on you, it’s because it’s almost egregious and they don’t respect you yet, which means you haven’t earned the respect of the referee’s benefit of the doubt. Ron Holland offensively, like it’s still here. Slow down. Slow down. You can get to your spots. Slow down. I think Ron Holland goes from potential DNP 8 to 12 minutes in a game to a consistent 10 to 15 minutes a game. Night in and night out. 10 to 15 plus minutes a game, you know, and I know that we want to see more shooting, but there’s a lot more to this. There’s a lot more to this than just shooting. How do you play off the ball? Do you know where to be? Are you running the offense? Are you defending within the scheme? Are you in the right place at the right time? There’s so much of this is cerebral at the highest speed of competition. We’ll see if he’s ready. Which is why I keep saying it’s going to be a roller coaster ride because one night Ron Holland might look amazing for us. Woo! Look at Ron Holland. Knocked down three threes in a game, got out in transition, maybe got a couple dunks, couple of assists, got to the free throw line, rebounded well, defended well. Okay, Ron Holland, here he comes. 18 points, four rebounds, three assists, great statline. In the next game, he’s going to have four, maybe two. That’s what I’m already bracing for. And we’ve got all that surrounding our MVP candidate player. This is where I think the Detroit Pistons land this season. As always, they’re going to have to fall back on their identity. Hard hat. Lunch pale. Defense. Physicality. More defense. More physicality. Get out in transition. Hopefully knock down open shots. The veteran shooters. Tobias Harris, Duncan Robinson, Marcus Sasser, Caris Levert, maybe some Bobby Clintman, Isaiah Stewart. It’s going to be by committee. Guys are going to have to step up. But it’s going to start and end with defense and that gritty, tough Detroit style of play because that’s what the league really doesn’t have a lot of answers for. Most the NBA does not play this brand of basketball. The Miami Heat, sure, maybe. Okay, they might be ready for it. Milwaukee, Indiana, but Pascal Seakum, I love Pascal Siakum. He’s not gritty. He’s not rough. The Lakers, they got some grit. They got some grit. But 48 minutes of this style of play. New Orleans, San Antonio, the league is not ready for that. That is our edge every single night of competition is our style of play that starts with the defense. And when we begin there and we’re locked in, we’re going to be in every single game and we’re going to have one of the best closers in the game. All right, this is this is what I would like to see if I’m honest with you. Assar Thompson, give us what you gave us last season. Because if Assar Thompson is that level of demon on defense, especially when he’s off ball, especially when he is off ball, not trying to guard all full court in the end because he picks up too many fouls too easily. I’m talking about seeing the ball, reacting to it, finding the angles, getting the deflections, getting the block shots, getting the rebound, starting the break, finding the open man, using his speed as gravity, right? Making the right reads. That guy with his size and athleticism and explosiveness, his quickness, hand eye coordination, his defensive IQ, that guy has the ability to probably close to single-handedly make us a top 10, 15 defense just alone. And if we get buy in from wherever else they slot in, is it going to be Duncan Robinson? Likely. But Isaiah Stewart, Duran, Cade, if we all jump on his back, this team will be defensive minded. This team will have the level of defense that allows us to hold other teams well below their average and give us an opportunity to close them out at the end with, as we all know, one of the best closers in the game and Kade Cunningham. The challenge is for JB Big Staff to create an offensive system that does not put everything on Cade. The first step, I think, is already Assara Thompson running the point. Get Cade off ball. He’s such he’s so much better of a scorer when he starts off ball because I think he doesn’t have to worry about one being guarded the full length of the court using up all this energy. Secondly, he doesn’t have to get caught up in overdribbling at the top of the key against some young, smaller, energetic defender who’s trying to rip him uh with the ball at half court. And mostly because when he’s not bringing it up, he doesn’t have to be stuck in the mindset of setting the table for everybody. He can at a high level. He can read the game, but that’s that doesn’t lean into his best attributes. Yes, we love him getting double digit assists, but I’d rather him only get six or seven. and get 35 points. I’d rather him average 32 six and four consistently on efficient numbers. 326 and four over 26 7 and 8. getting more assists, but also more turnovers and having to do far more. Ray Floyd, let me see this comment here. The thing is, Cade makes huge leaps every season. Everyone else gets incrementally better. They aren’t matching his timeline. Some may get left behind. That is an amazing point, Ray Floyd. I love my chat. Y’all be on it. Y’all be on it for real. For real. Speaking of on it, smash the like button for me. Hit subscribe and the bell for notifications if you haven’t already. Um, it’s a little thing, but it’s a big thing for the channel. Hitting the like button, it’s nothing. Especially if you’re already here, right? But it’s to say, these guys may not be on Cage’s timeline. And let me be clear, Trajan Langden knows that. It is why it’s very loose committ loose committal. Look, we all know Jay Na’vi’s talented. We all know Jaylen Dur’s talent. We all know these guys have talent, but you have a top three MVP candidate. You have a top five talent in the NBA right now. And if I’m honest with you, by the end of this season, we might be looking at Kade as better than Luca, better than Job, maybe better than Ant or close to it, better than Giannis. Right. We’re going to be having those conversations at the end of this season potentially, right? They know they can’t waste that timeline and they shouldn’t. They should not. Look, I don’t know if Lori Markin is the answer. Guys have been throwing that name out over and over. So, I want to acknowledge it. I want to acknowledge it. But they’re going to go out and get somebody if somebody on this team doesn’t step up and prove it. And that’s one of the biggest question marks again is can Jaylen Duran be Robin? Can he get us 22 8 and three, eight rebounds, three assists, but give us 22 to 25 points? Can you hoop? Can you hoop? Because I’m gonna be honest, we don’t need Jared Allen. We don’t even need Miles Turner. We need a bucket. We need a bucket. We need someone to go out there. Give me the rock. Get out the way. You get the ball. I lightweight. I want to see Demarcus Cousins type of energy from Jaylen Dur. Can you give me Boogie? Can you give me Big C? Can you give me some CE? That’s what this team needs. We need a guy who’s going to say, “I got you, Kate. At the end of the game, they’re going to have to worry about you and me.” That’s the mentality we need from Jaylen Dur. We need the consistency. We need the confidence that even if you mess up, you’re still going to keep shooting. You’re not going to pull back and get passive, start, you know, handing off to Tobias Harris to make plays. Yeah, Boogie was born to be a Piston. Boogie would have been so great in Detroit. Damn. Hey, we missed out. We missed out. But it’s to say and oh, and that’s another reason why we got to do away with the draft. Just let organizations sign guys out of college. Just let them sign them. If a guy doesn’t want to be there, they don’t think it’s a good fit, they don’t like the system, the coach, they shouldn’t have to go there, right? Why the hell was Zion in New Orleans all this time? Why? Why? I digress. Let me just say this season’s going to be a roller coaster. We’re going to get really big games out of Duran and games where he leaves us wanting. I think by the end of the season, we’re going to look back at this year and be like, there’s still more question marks. And I don’t think it’s going to be in a bad way. I think it’s going to be question marks where we are left that much more intrigued about the potential of this roster, that much more bought in on this roster, that much more hesitant to leverage the talents we currently have for somebody else, that much more hesitant to let go of Ron Holland, right? Bobby Clement, Duran, Ivy, Assar, Sass, Jenkins, Chaz. I think we’re gonna get to the end of the season like, dang, I still don’t know if we truly know what we got here. Guys are still getting better and the flashes outweigh maybe the consistency that we might see from somebody else, right? And I’m excited about that. That’s a good thing. That’s a good thing for this franchise, but it’s going to be a roller coaster ride. It’s going to be up and down, up and down, but it’s going to be one hell of a year. Look, the season starts on, I think, Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls against Modus Bzelis, Patrick Williams, Josh Giddy, uh Kobe White, Vousvich. That’s a team that’s still figuring things out. It’s going to be an interesting game because they’re gonna have uh Isaac Coral, formerly from the Cleveland Cavaliers. They’re going to be doing their thing, trying to get up and down. I think we’ll have a clear advantage against them. I might do some game previews uh throughout the season. Let me know if that’s something that you would want to see. I got 12 people in the chat. Please feel free to smash a like button for me. I appreciate it. It’s a small thing, but it’s a big thing for the channel. And it also reminds the YouTube algorithm that you might want to be notified when I’m on again. But hey, with that, I appreciate y’all. I love y’all. I appreciate y’all for being uh on this live with me. Um I look forward to more of them. I’m going to have some more content out on Jaylen Durren’s expectation for the year. Um maybe some Marcus Sasser stuff. Season starts on Wednesday. But as always, uh y’all have an amazing amazing rest of your day. Remember, life is not linear. Life is not linear. It’s not a straight line. It’s up and down, back and forth, two steps forward, three steps back, five steps forward, two steps back. But that’s natural. That’s how life is supposed to be. So enjoy the ride along the way. Take care of yourself, love yourself, spend time with your loved ones, and enjoy the ride. I’mma holl at y’all next time. Peace.