PREVIEW: Will The Detroit Pistons Reach Expectations This Season? | Critical Year For Young Core

PREVIEW: Will The Detroit Pistons Reach Expectations This Season? | Critical Year For Young Core

In today’s episode, we are joined by David Lee to talk about the Detroit Pistons upcoming season with the season starting this week to give a final preview and some questions about their roster. We’ll break it down today’s episode, Locked on Pistons podcast. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked On. Your team every day. studio. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host Cu. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years for the Lockdown Network. B credential media member over the last three years and I appreciate all of you guys who make Locked On Pistons your first list of every single day. We’re free and available on all your podcast platforms if you haven’t already. Head to the YouTube channel at Locked OnPistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review or whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. It’s another great way to support the podcast. And before we get into today’s episode, make sure you guys go to the description down below. If you want to watch the games live with me and the rest of the Pistons fan base, join the playback room. I’ll link it down below. And also currently for my substack where I have all the film breakdowns of written content for you guys, 50% off until November 3rd. Click the link down below so you get that deal if you want to join. It’s just $3 a month at this moment. So check that all out if you haven’t already. But today we are joined by David Lee, not the NBA player David Lee. Uh but we are joined by incredible content creator David Lee. David, go ahead and sh let everyone know where they can find you and all of your great work and I’ll let everyone know why I decided I really wanted to have you on the podcast after that as well. For sure, man. Thank you for having me on. As you said, David Lee aka Daily 43 on all platforms. I just started up a Substack. I’m on YouTube. I do a Hawks for Room podcast. I’ve got my own draft website where I’ll be dropping stuff throughout the week the week uh or throughout the season as well. And the David Lee shot is crazy. I used to be uh sort of accused of him being my father when I was younger. So, it’s a crazy shout. Fair enough. Fair enough. Um, I want to let everyone know the reason why I have David on the podcast today is because he did an incredible uh inc some incredible content on Twitter with his 30 teams in 30 days where he went through each NBA team and broke down their preview, his questions, his concerns, the strengths, did some really great stuff for all 30 teams. And he had the Pistons, I believe it was one of his last teams, the last I believe it was final two teams, right? I think it was the Pistons and Lakers, I believe. Um, so I saw his Pistons breakdown. I was following throughout the 30 days. Again, like I said, I thought it was great. Um, but he had a breakdown for the Pistons upcoming season. I was really impressed with what he what he put out. So, I want to have him on the podcast to talk about how he felt with this team. So, what I want to start with first, and I’m going to use screenshots from his content. So, if you guys like what you see here, make sure you guys go follow him again on Twitter, DLE43. Um, but the first place I want to start with is the Pistons roster. which I like how you colorcoded this. And for those of you guys listening on the podcast, we’ll break it down for you guys. You have the Pistons uh roster broken down into a few categories. You have franchise player, you have core pieces, key rotation players, rotation players, development, and shyro chamber, which is funny. Um so obviously you have Cade as a franchise player. He’s the only one uh with that color code of franchise player. Now, I think what fans will really like to understand or hear what your reasoning for it, the only player you have in the next tier of core piece is Assar Thompson. Can you give a little bit of an explanation for why you believe Assar is the only player you believe at this point as of October 21st should be given the core piece uh color code? Yeah, I think it’s a good question. And so, to sort of get some context on how I decide who gets what designation, so the franchise tag is going to be basically this is who we’re building around. This is our guy. And then the core is like these are the guys that long term are going to be complimenting our franchise guy. And so I think that Assar has sort of proven pretty much without a shadow of a doubt that like he should be a part of this team for the long term. When you guys made that that stretch run um starting really after January first when you especially when you bring in Dennis Schroeder a lot of that was Assar entering the lineups like you guys were so much better with him on the floor. Assaar in general had the second highest estimated plus minus which is just an impact metric per 100 possessions. He was in the 100th percentile and offensive rebounding percentage, shot 67% at the rim with 61% of his shots there. So even though he has his, you know, his issues as a shooter, he gives you value in all these other places. But when we talk about someone like Jaylen Duran or Jaden Ivy, these are guys that I feel like the Pistons want to have as part of their core. Like that those are the types of guys that their most realized version will make a lot of sense next to Cade. But unfortunately with the injuries and then you know the previous coach not wanting to play Ivy with Kate Cunningham which was one of the weirdest things I’ve seen over the last couple years. You have a smaller sample size and it’s kind of it’s hard to really tease out whether that pairing works because Ivy had his best shooting season last year. Like he shot 41%. But the Cade Ivy pairings were still pretty bad. And uh so that’s the thing like you guys want a 33 win pace before Ivy’s injury then after that you close on a 53 win pace. And I don’t think that’s all on Ivy. I just think it’s what Assar means for that lineup, how important it is to only maybe have Assar as a non-shooter, and then the fact that both Ivy and Jaylen Duran’s shooting effectiveness and spacing effectiveness can wax and Wayne and then there’s some things with Jaylen Duran defensively, too, especially as a free throw shooter. So, I think that the issue isn’t that these guys aren’t capable of it. They just haven’t shown it in a in a strong enough sample and that they’ve had some particularly like developmental issues that I think are holding them back a little bit. And also, the fact that you guys didn’t extend them, at least this offseason. also tells me, hey, they wanted to wait and see see what they look like this season. I was just going to bring that up. They chose not to extend them. I spoke throughout the offseason, how I had heard that it was unlikely they would come to an extension with either of these players, that the Pistons were on different wavelengths as far as what their value was at this time. Um, but yeah, I I completely agree with you. All my list I don’t need to get into all my listeners know I all the numbers you just brought up I brought up all season or all offseason with the Sar Thompson the onoff splits with him how the defense jumped from bottom five in the December as soon as he comes back to starting lamp it jumps to the top five the rest of the year we talk about how much of how how much better their offense is with him on the floor despite the fact that he’s not the greatest in the half court because they generate so much from the defensive side of the floor and is able to get out and run transition fast break like everyone knows how much I love Assar and and you did a great job of painting I’ve used the same numbers there. Now, I want to move on to the key rotation pieces. You have Levert, Tobias Harris, Jaylen Duran, Duncan Robinson, Ron Holland, Isaiah Stewart, and Ivy. I’m assuming you have him part, you know, rotation, part Chamber because he’s hurt at this point. Be my guest. I want to stay on Duran, Ivy, and Holland for a minute. Um, and we’re going to go deeper into this later on. I want to get your because you went on to talk about, we’ll bring it up in the next screenshot, the fit of all these guys together long term. So, I want to get into that and what you think about that as well. But of these guys, Duran, Holland, and Ivy, who are you the highest on proving them? I mean, this is a big year for the Pistons. These guys, two of them are restricted free agents after this year. You have to make some decisions. The next step of team building is always the hardest. You got to start making decisions. I I assume that this is going to be a really fun year. Hopefully, all of them get long extension. The Pistons have their core for championship teams for years to come. Like, everyone, that’s what their hope is. But as of right now, who are you the highest on proving to be like you mentioned, not franchise player, but the core that helps supplement Kade Cunningham moving forward? No, that’s that’s a great question, man. And I think like just based off my prior, Ron Holland would probably be the one because I had him second in the 2024 draft. I I love the idea of a guy who who played more forward in high school, then got an onball role, struggled a bit in Ignite, but you saw the ability to handle the ball and open handle in the open floor. Great athlete. I think he’s the only issue with him, of course, is now the overlaps with Assar. If they both can’t shoot, h might be tough. He takes a lot more threes than Assar, but it was only like 1.3 percentage points more effective. I think the volume is more encouraging for me, the free throw shooting, but he doesn’t always have to touch. So, I think the it’s less about what I think Ron can be and whether you can have Ron and Assar together. And then that’s the other part we’ll get to a little bit later, like the other guys who also fit into that. But and then I’d probably say Ivy because I just think he has a level of burst and and off the dribble creation that is there really isn’t anywhere else on the roster like it it’d be LeVert but he’s not that level athlete. And then Jaylen Duran I feel like I mean honestly I’m waiting for to see the defensive growth because he has all the tools. It’s all about the positioning. It’s about the timing, the foul issues. Like he’s been always been a horrible in terms of like suppressing his fouls. He’s always in the tops of the league in terms of fouls per 100. and um he should be a more impactful rim protector for his frame and for his athletic gifts, but you also have to consider the the two previous years, you know, the talent around him wasn’t as good. So, I I want to see him in a more conducive situation, which I’m assuming you guys will have this year, but I I’d say I go Holland Ivy, Jaylen Dur. All right. And to finish out the rotation, you have Sasser a part of the rotation, you have Paul Reed a part of the rotation, and you have Javvante Green a part of the rotation. Um, tell why do you have just give a give everyone your reasoning for Actually, you know what? Let’s pivot from that. I want to get your quick thoughts on Bobby Clipman. Actually, I just saw that. I just want to get your quick thoughts on that because there’s a lot of people in the fan base that really like Bobby. Um, do you see a pathway from your point of view to Bobby becoming an NBA player and being a backup for the Pistons where a lot of people believe the back of Ford position is one of the weakest spots on the Pistons last year and this year and moving forward. Do you believe that that’s something that he could eventually develop into or are you lower on Bobby’s future? Bobby was a guy that I was I was pretty interested in pre-draft as well. I think the issue with him is if he’s going to be playing the four, he has to be a lot bigger like in terms of his actual frame. And I I would agree though with most Piston fans. I do feel like the front court is a point of weakness. I mean, I only technically there’s three centers, but Paul Reed is a bit limited there. Um I think Isaiah Stewart can play with either Jaylen Duran or Paul Reed, which is really nice, and he’s an awesome defender. I think Clintman is like it it may be a little bit far-fetched to say that he could become a a valuable or like a valid or like a key rotation guy, but I’d say like as a spot rotation guy who guy can come in and give you 10 to 15 minutes a night, be competitive, get up and down the floor. I think that can happen. But um the rotation, the way I designate rotation is basically like your key rotation is going to be your starters plus your three to four. That’s your top eight to nine. Then rotation would be 9 to 12. And then developmental would be like all the young guys are the two ways. Fair enough. All right. Coming back from the ad break, I want to get into if I could just remove this from the screen real quick. Sorry about that everybody. Um when we come back, I want to talk with you about the areas of concern that you had for the team. I’ll give everyone on YouTube a quick preview if you want to see what we’re going to be talking about here. This is from David’s uh 30 teams in 30 days preview for the Detroit Pistons. I want to discuss the Pistons. If I could fix this up. Thank you. Um the areas of concern that you have for this team and why they can and maybe can’t hit the high expectations that a lot of fans have for them this season. We’ll discuss it coming up after the break. 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I’m going into in depth I would say on why I believe and we’re gonna talk about it here with David. I’m writing about why I believe people are maybe overhyping the loss of Malik Beasley and why I believe they’re going to be fine without him. But that’s something we’re going to get into here with David because he talked about the areas of concern that he has for the Detroit Pistons. And with this I want to talk about why reasons why they will reach expectations and reasons why maybe they won’t. We’ll hit both sides of this. I thought you did a great job uh with this, David. I love the graphics you did. I I I love this whole idea of the news or the the paper and then writing down your notes. I I think this is super dope. So, let’s start with this. Obviously, the Pistons lost Malik Beasley in the offseason. Um they replace him with Duncan Robinson. They replace uh Dennis Shruder with Caris Levert. Don’t really make any big moves. Kind of just bring everybody back and expect internal improvement. So, I want to start with you can pick whichever one of your you because you have four points here that you have for some concerns with the Pistons. I want you can start whichever one. What is your biggest concern or or area of weakness for the Detroit Pistons at this point? Yeah, I think I think when I was looking at this roster, the biggest thing that came to me was like the secondary creation. So, Cade had uh a lot of burden as a scorer last year. like he had the um the fourth highest like or eighth highest ISO share of his team’s overall ISO. So Detroit ran 400 to 500 ISOs. Kade ran 59% of those. And so like that’s a that’s a very heavy creation load. He had the highest creation load of his career overall in terms of pick and roll reps as well. And he was best efficiency yet. So he performed really well in that context. But when you look at the roster last year like he was very much so surrounded by guys who when he passed the ball to them the shot was going up. Like Michael Lee Beasley’s coming off a screen, he’s shooting it. And that’s a big reason why you guys were third lowest in the NBA in drive assist percentage, which is basically like how often did the player generate assists when they drove. And uh also fifth lowest in the league in the hockey assist per game, which is sort of like the swing swing pass. So like let’s say Kate swung to Malik Beasley, then he swung it to Tobias her hair in the Tobias Harris in the corner. And so now I saw you make this note as well on Twitter, but you add Caris Levert who he was a huge secondary playmaker for the Hawks this past season. came in, was able to take some of the ball handling duties, run some weak side pick and roll uh with the empty with the empty corner, and he was in the top 17th percentile and potential assist per one minute on the ball. And so what that means is for every one minute he was initiating offense, he was generating potential assists in like the top fifth of the league. And then Duncan Robinson was in the top 10%. If you watch his the way he plays with Sam Adabio, you know, switching, giving and going off of handoffs, cutting, uh, flaring out. So he has the he’s more than just a shooter. Both of these guys are more than just shooters where Malik Beasley and Tim Hardway Jr. were very much so like we’re going to shoot the ball. And I think that’s going to be a dramatic difference in the way the offense is created for the Pistons. And it’s something that everyone on the roster is going to have to adjust to because it’s also valuable to have those guys who’s just going to get a shot up because you guys were 28th in the NBA and open three-point attempt rate, which means that a a large portion of these shots were contested. But you can do that when it’s Malik Beasley who’s shooting 40% on like 12 or 13-point attempts per 100 possessions. So overall, the Pistons were outperforming their shot quality because they had great stationary shooters. What does that look like when it’s now movement or when it’s swing swing passes? I think that’s what I’ve been thinking about a lot this offseason. Yeah, I just want to add to it and you mentioned that I tweeted about this. This is going to be part of the article that I’m writing up here just to bring some other numbers to the table. Malipy this past year was in the 15th percentile in the pick and roll including passes. He scored just 7 point or 0.79 points per possession. You compare that to Duncan Robinson who was in the 51st percentile and scored 0.95 points per possession when you include passes in the pick and roll. Obviously, you just mentioned Caris Levert. He was also in the 86th percentile when you include passes in the pick and roll. So, like you mentioned, the Pistons offense this past year featured THJ Tim Jr. and Malik Beasley who like you mentioned were were great catch and shoot three-point shooters. Obviously Malik Beasley was had a historic season shooting wise season that we haven’t seen from anyone but him, Steph and Clay. Yep. On that kind of percentage and that kind of value, but that was their off like you mentioned that was their offense last year. Their offense relied a lot on that especially within the half court and that’s one of the reasons why they had a below average half court. Um I believe Synergy had them ranked at 18th half court offense points per possession just within the half court. It seems like the Pistons tried and I know there’s been and we’ll get to this. I want to get to the three-point generation part here as well, but this past year, the Pistons relied a ton on that. It seems like this offseason they went into uh the offseason saying we will trade some of that for more creation within the half court, more a driving ability, more driving kickability to create better shots to create create better shots within the half court to we’re not just relying on absurd three-point shot making or Kade incredible shot making in the mid-range or hitting tough shots at the rim or hitting tough shots from off the dribble from off the pick and roll from beyond the arc. trying to clean up their shot diet and get easier shots for themselves. And I think that’s the why they went out and got Duncan Robinson and Caris Liver like you mentioned. I want to go to the three-point generation part though because I I see a lot of people outside of Detroit are projecting this team to be worse than I think a lot of people in the in the fan base believes they will be. Um I’m not as high on what I think the season could be as the rest of the fan base. I think they can be fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. I think they’re going to be battling with Atlanta for the four five. That’s where I have them at. Um, but I’m seeing a lot of people outside of Detroit have them six seed or even some of them have them in the playin. And a lot of the concerns that I’ve seen in every single person’s reasoning for it is the loss of Malik Beasley. So, you talked about the three-point generation here. How much do you think they’re actually going to miss Malik Beasley? And is that part uh or is that a big enough reason, a big enough concern for you to have speculation about whether this team actually will succeed this year? No, it’s I think uh to your point like we can’t really undermine how great of a season that was from Malik Beasley. Like that was legitimately one of the best shooting season. Was going to be able to replicate that. Like it was Exactly. Yeah. Like that that’s not some that’s something that happens like once every couple seasons, you know what I mean? Um but I think that the it won’t be the the volume. I I think you may miss the ball, you may miss the play, the shotmaking, but I think the the biggest miss or like impact of him leaving is the way the offense has to shift. And that’s like because for one of my concerns with Kade in particular is that there are a lot of guys that turn the ball over. Like he basically averages the same amount of turnovers as James Harden and Trey Young, but when you look at his impact on his team’s turnovers, the Pistons are turning it over more with Kate on the floor than they are with him off. And that’s not a signal you see with Trey Young, James Harden, Luca, these high turnover guys because they suppress their team’s turnovers because of their decision-making. And when I watch Kadis, particularly in the playoffs, there are times where I feel like he’s either he’s moving at his own pace to the extent that like he he doesn’t see digs. Like that happened a lot with Male and OG. They would dig on his on his handle. But a lot of that is because those those types of guys can recover easily out to spot up shooters. Like if it’s Malik Beasley, Male can step five feet away from him, dig on Kad and then get back because of his the amount of length he covers and because the fact that Malik can’t put the ball on the floor now, will K be able to adjust and say, “Hey, I can get this ball over to Caris and he can drive that gap. He can drive this seam. I can get it to Duncan. He can flow into a handoff.” And I think that’s what will need to happen to help him get his turnovers down because I don’t think that he makes bad decisions, but I think he can be a bit careless because he plays at his own pace so much. Like it’s almost like it’s a curse of being nonchalant, I would say. and he doesn’t always use his frame to his size. Like he’s 6’8, but he doesn’t keep guys on his hip. Like he he crosses over to his other hand when he’s got, you know, guys on his hip. So, I think that I don’t want to speak like very, I guess, like in um firmly or concretely about Kade’s ability to take care of the ball because we have yet to see him in that situation where it’s like, hey, you don’t have to do any everything and we have the guys around you to keep defenders from crowding your driving lanes. But it has to happen this season in my opinion because if if it if the turnover rate continues this season then I think that Detroit has to consider whether you’re going to put Kade on the ball to the extent that they did like he was nearly on the ball for 50% of like he was among top three leaders in the league and you just can’t be on the ball that much if you’re going to be turning on the ball that much and he’s so big that you can still put him on the wing and he’ll be effective. And so that’s why I that’s what I’m really watching from K because I think that this is a better this is the best scenario he’s been in. But we’ve got to see the turnovers not be as detrimental as they I think he averaged almost five point five turnovers per 75 possessions in the playoffs and he was in the 18th percentile in reducing his team’s turnovers. So his team is turning over the ball I think like almost one or two more times per 100 possessions with him on the floor and that’s a problem and that’s something that I expect to be better because but he also has to take those individual leaps as well. So that’s why I think the creation matters and that’s why I think Malik Beasley’s sort of impact is going to be translated a little bit into hey we have more variability in the way we can attack. It doesn’t have to be just K. Yeah, and I think you saw some of that in the preseason. We’ve talked about this on the podcast uh after a few of their games that you saw Kade playing off ball a little bit more to even Assar Thompson to Assar get a lot on ball reps. You saw you didn’t really see much of Caris, but I’m sure you’re going to see more of Caris just the preseason, but even Dannis Jenkins when he was getting you saw Kate playing off ball a little bit to him. You saw them trying to get and K was still getting the ball. He was still getting the ball in his spots, but they were changing how he was getting this getting the ball. It wasn’t just him coming down the floor at the top of the defense with the defense set. He was coming off a pin down then working his way into a pick and roll or coming off a handoff and then working his way to the paint. Like he was still getting his touches and everything. He’s Cade Cunningham, but they were changing the way in which he was getting it. And then to your point, I think that will help hopefully with the turnovers. And I think your point on the ability to attack gaps is so important. And I’ve talked about this on the podcast all summer that the NBA is changing to every player on the floor needs to be able to attack gaps and make a decision off a drive. You have to be able to take two or three dribbles, attack a close, be able to either shoot the ball, get to the basket, or be able to make the next read and keep it going. You see all the great teams, they have multiple guys on the floor that are able to attack a close out, make the read, attack a gap, make a read, and just keep the offense going. The Pistons didn’t have that last year. Malik and THA, they were catching, shooting or catching and driving to shoot like that. They weren’t out there making reads like that and it was fine for the season they had last year. Like no one’s trying to take that away from it was fine for last year. But in order to take the next step, I do think they need some more of that creation on this team. Real quickly, we’re running long in this segment. We do got to go, but I want to get your final thoughts. You had one more on you. You had point of attack defenses. Real quickly hit on that and why that’s a concern for you. We’ve talked about on the podcast how the Pistons really just don’t I mean especially this past year Assar was really the only point of attack defender they really had and that he completely changed how they played defensively. Problem is with them we’ve heard JB talk about this is that there’s so many ways they want to use Assar whether it’s at the point of attack whether as a ROR whether it’s a weak side rim protector they want to spread him around because of how elite he is. Do you think that they’ve addressed that at all? Do you think that’s still going to be a problem that they’re going to have this year where if Assar is not on ball, you love to have him in these other areas, but if you don’t have him on ball, you’re just getting tore up. So, it’s like you have to have him on ball. Yeah, now that you put it that way, I probably should have put partially addressed because I think like a fully healthy Assar has the ability and the impact beyond, you know, like even if you don’t, you didn’t add anyone else who could play that level defense. But, I think that’s a good point because if he’s going to be on the ball, then he’s so great off the ball, too. Like minus 10% rim defensive field goal percentage when he can test shots. So, um, now that I think about it, I think it’s I was thinking more so like Beasley and Tim Hardaway, like they weren’t the best in space. They weren’t the best navigating screens. It wasn’t their strong suit. I think Caris is better at that when he when he has some issues off the ball. Like I watch that a lot in Atlanta where like he could be a little bit aggressive, but he’s very active in the passing lanes and so I think that will help on the weak side when Assar is like putting pressure on the ball. So, I think I’d probably change that to partially just with the point you made, but I think that I just I’m just so high on Assar’s ability to be that force on defense. Yeah. No, I everyone knows how high I am on Assar’s defense as well. I think he’s going to be everyone is seem to be saying that Amen is a better defender than him and I love the Thompson twins. They were the favorite prospects I’ve ever had to scout. I’ve absolutely loved them. I think Assar is going to be the better defender this year, but we’ll see. Um, that’s how high I am on Assar. But coming up, this is what I’m really looking forward to you uh talking with you about because you mentioned it a lot in your preview for this season in your 30 teams in 30 days. mentioned a little bit earlier and coming off what is it now 24 hours of the Pistons choosing not to extend Jay and Ivy Jaylen Duran everyone’s excited for this season I think it’s going to be a great year but in the back of everyone’s mind I think in the back of everyone’s thoughts as you in in a team building uh thought experiment do we all believe in the fit of the whole core together that this is the team that they will extend to long contracts moving forward before the season starts up I want to talk with David about that I thought he did a great job of giving his thoughts on it. We’ll discuss it coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you by a new sponsor, Rugette. Let’s be real, making excuses doesn’t solve anything. We’ve all heard them before. It’s just stress. I’m tired. It happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support, and that’s where Rugriette comes in. rugette.com offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED designed to help stop help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rugette makes it get started. You just connect with a board-certified doctor 100% online. No awkward waiting rooms and no inerson appointments. It prescribed your treatment ships discreetly straight to your door. The process is fast, simple, and private. It’s all handled by real doctors. It’s about confidence, connection, and getting back to the moments that matter. Visit rugg.com/locktonba to get 15% off your first order. That’s rugiette.com/locktonba. And don’t forget to use our code lockedmbba to know that we sent you rugette. Stop making excuses and start making moves. So I want to thank you guys again for making lockdown pistons your first listen every single day. We are free to available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at lockdown pistons. hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. It’s another great way to support the podcast. All right, Dave, I want to wrap up with this. Um, and then I want to get your prediction on the Pistons season as well um at the end of this, but there was one section of your 30 teams in 30 days with the Detroit Pistons that I was really I I there were actually it’s like two sections combined that I really was interested by. I want to get your thoughts on. If you don’t mind, I wanted to read a paragraph one of them if that’s okay with you. Um, cool. Their third point here is, can the Piston continue to play a 10-man rotation with three non-shooters and Assar Ron and Duran? And just to give it quickly, you talked about Assar’s three-point rate. You talked about how many threes he’s got and obviously how tough of a shooter he is. Same thing with Ron. Um, I’ll let you dive into it further, but then there was another part of this as well when you talked about how they did they decide not to extend Dur and Ivy and what they would need to prove in order to make uh Tan Link feel comfortable signing them to long-term extensions. This has been a conversation that was brought up in the offseason. It’s been a conversation that was brought up last offseason at the beginning of last season. When things are going great, you don’t really care about it. You kind of just enjoy it and you should. like last year, last year was great. Who cares about the future? Just like enjoy the wins, enjoy the season, see what happens. Like that’s how you should act. Um, but when you start talking about team building, this is something that always comes up. And I had heard throughout the offseason, I wrote about this, the Pistons were linked to Miles Turner, they were linked to Santi Alama, they were linked to these guys that can play the stretch five because I had heard throughout the offseason, the Pistons really do, and we saw it in the preseason, they want to play Assar and Ron together. And there’s a belief that in order obvious I think most people would agree with this is that in order to play them together you need someone that can shoot at the five. Playing Ron Assar and Duran together is going to be I’m sure we’re going to see some of it. They’ll try it but I think it’s going to be really tough to do without them multiple of them improving as scorers or shooters. So there’s been questions about the overall fit of all these guys. K will you ever be able to play Kade, Ivy, Assara, Ron and Duran together? Your five main guys. Will you ever be able to play all five of them together? Um, and obviously the questions come back up again now that they decide not to extend Ivy Endurance. So, I want to ask you, where do you stand with this core? And do you believe that this core will be at one point playable together or do you believe that the Pistons eventually will have to consolidate one or two of these guys and this core will look different maybe in a year from now? Yeah, I think I think it’ll have to look different because it’s I think it would be it would be bad faith for me to say that either of Assar or Ron are projectable NBA level three-point shooters just because I think Ron has a better chance, but like there’s there’s it would be the most anomalies of anomalies. They’d have to be like Aaron Gordonesque or Brook Lopez le for Asar to be a league average three-point shooter. And it’s not a matter of work ethic, but I do think there is like there’s there’s something mechanically where he’s he’s almost so explosive that his his jumper doesn’t always look extremely clean. It doesn’t look something that you can project to say that he’ll be able to hit these reliably. And I also don’t necessarily think that it’s worth asking to learn how to shoot because to me, I would rather have him either do what they’re doing with the men where they have a men initiate the offense on the top of the key or put him in the dunker spot and or can we just pause real quick right there? Just pause real quick. All my listeners, I I I promise you, Brad, I did not tell David to come on here and say these words. I I promise you I did not give him a script to read this because what you are saying is exactly what I’ve said. I’ve said over and over on the off and I’ll let you go. Is there at what point at what level would Assara have to reach to where you were saying we’d rather have Assar spotting up in the corner rather than doing literally anything else he’s good at? like he would have to reach such a level as a shooter to where you’re like, “Oh yeah, we’d rather him stay in the corner and just spot up rather than initiate the offense or run some DHOs or use as a roller in the short roll or using the dunker spot.” Like I just don’t see like we’d love to see him improve it, but like I also don’t see where it actually is more functional or more beneficial to the team than all these other things he can do. But go ahead. I just people are going to think that I was telling you to say this like I’ve been so I had to just I had to just make it clear. No, no, I think it makes sense. Like there’s no reason to turn him into PJ Tucker because he’s such a great pass in the open four because he’s such a great athlete. He has great timing when he’s cutting. Bring him in set some go screens. Let a team try to put their worst defender on Assar and then make the Assar come set a screen or make him have to defend him in the dunker spot. Like you saw Boston do that a lot. Like they’d have Tatum draw out a big and then Drew Holiday would go down to the to the dunker spot and now you’ve got Kyrie Irving in the finals was guarding the basket and you can replicate that. Incredibly smart. Joe Mul was like I think they were the first one I saw do it put the guard at the dunker spot. So the re the weak side rim protector is a small guard and can’t really contest drivers. I think I think they were the first one I’ve seen do it. It was incredibly smart. Indiana does it. OKC does it. All the best teams you’ll see Houston do it if someone tries to put their worst defender on a men and I think that’s that’s what makes the most sense to me. But when it comes down to the other thing is too I didn’t mention this but like Kate’s three-point shooting big leap last year. It hasn’t been there in the first two years. So, it’s like now that’s another factor where if Kay can’t shoot it either or at least reliably off the dribble, then it becomes even tougher. And I I do think there will have to be some sort of trade. I would personally be looking potentially at that center position. I’m I’m also big on Isaiah Stewart, so I I would want to see if they could mix in some Assar, Ron Holland, Isaiah Stewart. They may not be able to score, but they going it’s going to be it’s going to be rough for the other team. And that’s why I think like when you have your best player off the floor, you either have to try and approximate their impact as much as possible or you got to play a completely different way. Like the the Nuggets for example, they just kind of throw their bench minutes away because it’s like, hey, no one can be Jokish. But now they got Yonas. They’re going to try and play like they do with Y the Jokic. Hawks, you don’t really have another Trey Young on the roster. So let’s try to play through KP. With the Pistons have Kade off the floor. Put put the ball in Caris hands and Assar hands. Play as good defense as you can. Put Isaiah Stewart on the floor is what I’m thinking with Ron Holland. That’s how I would approach it. And then when Ivy comes back, maybe it’s Ivy leading the bench units with that strong defense around him. But it’s it’s something that they’re going to have to be very proactive about, I feel like, because there’s only so many stretch fives in a league. And I also do sort of feel like the value of a stretch five is a bit overblown. I don’t disagree that it would make something like this viable, but I also think like like Miles Turner isn’t less valuable, isn’t more valuable than Isaiah Hardinstein to me because as a as a passer, as a finisher, as a screener, I would almost I would almost always take someone like Isaiah Hardenstein over someone like Miles Turner. That’s just my personal philosophy. So like I think a dribble handoff big if if Bam was available and I’m Detroit, I’m making calls because I think Bam’s passing with Assar and Kade, I’m intrigued. And so that’s kind of just how I feel about it. I think stretch five is like a really nice thing to have. I don’t think it’s a necessity. You can create space without having static shooters, especially with someone like Assar. Yeah. And so I think the the issue that I think the Pistons are going to I mean it Traan is trying to answer these questions. They were talking like obviously it was something that they discussed a lot in the offseason. I obviously wrote about how it was something that they had discussed heavily and them not extending either Ivy or Duran is going to make this a conversation this entire year. They’re we’re going to see maybe even at the deadline or maybe they play so well that they extend them in the offseason like we’re going to get answers on this relatively soon within the next six seven months. Um I think the problem that the Pistons have is that Kate and Duran are so electric as a pick and roll pairing and Duran is so talented offensively. You bring up Bam Adabio, they want to run or Duran a lot like Bam Adabio from the high post area. He’s such a good passer. maybe not as good of a passer and definitely I would say more consistent passer as Bam is obviously but they try to run a lot of their actions with Duran. They’re going to want to run a lot of this stuff with Duran with a lot of DHOs, a lot of high post actions, a lot of that and if Duran can improve in that I think that gives kind of like what you’re mentioning some credence to being able to play him with another non-shooter. I mean I think you saw it even in the playoff series against the Knicks the interior passing of Duran and Assar were really giving the Knicks problems in games four, five, and six. So I think that if it was just Kada and Duran, I think they would have more confidence. I feel like if it was just, this is my personal opinion based on things I’ve heard and than my own analysis. I feel like if it was just Kasar and Duran, Dur would have been extended. I I feel like they would have been more confident extending him. But because it’s Cade, Ivy, Assar, Ron, and Duran, it’s like, okay, we are not sure if like this whole team, his whole fit can work. And like you mentioned this a little bit. I feel like that the center position is also probably the like unfortunately at least in my opinion probably the most expendable position. You can go find people to do what you need from a big for relatively cheaper. You don’t need to go out and pay 30 plus million dollars for a big unless they’re at gamechanging which is what Darren’s asking for. Um so I think that I think all of that is being considered along with the fact that they have like you mentioned these shooting concerns of Kade worked all offseason on this pull up three-point shooting and looked great in the preseason. He spoke I spoke with his trainer and his brother about this all offseason. They know that they’ve worked on it a ton. I know K’s been working on it and we’ll see if it makes that jump this year. That would be great. But like you said, because of the questions with Kade, is he going to be a lethal pull-up shooter and kind of change the way defenses guard him and have to come up on the screen and kind of open up space like that? Whereas four on threes on the weak side all the time. Is Assar going to improve as not a shooter, but a ball handler? That’s where I think his most needed improvement is is improving his handle so you can be trusted to run some action so he can be trusted to drive and kick and kind of move Kate off ball a little bit more. JB’s talked about wanting to do that a ton. So, can Assar make that jump? Can Ivy improve in every other area of the game that’s not catch and shoot threes? Can he make those steps? Can Jaylen Duran be more consistent as a offensive hub, more consistent as a offensive, as a passer, as and improve defensively? All these questions I feel like just make it hard for Traan to commit long term, which is why we didn’t see them commit long term to any of these guys right now. So, whatever you I kind of ranted there. That’s my fault. Whatever your thoughts on that are, go ahead. No, no, I think No, you’re good. That makes a lot of sense to me. I think that’s definitely the approach they’re taking. Like, in today’s NBA, you can’t just be handing out contracts. Like, I think a lot of people clown the Kings for extending Keegan Murray. I think that was a good deal, but that’s the type of deal that Detroit can’t afford with all these other young guys that got to lock up. Things only have one guy. That’s the only young prospect. And so they they they’re willing to overpay for something like that. And I think that you’ve got to be more mindful of the types of contracts you give out in this current CBA environment. It’s just really that simple. And as long as you have when you have the extra flexibility and then you have the also the pressures of restricted free agency because we saw how rough it was for restricted free agents this offseason. I’m sure teams are like, “You want to go through that?” I don’t think so. And so like they’re they’re using that to play I would I would imagine hard ball on on those extensions before they get to restricted free agency. And you know if the worst things come to worse you still you just match whatever you know people decide because we haven’t seen an offer sheet extended to a restricted free agent in in a while. I think the last one may have been may have been Aiden. Like there’s not a lot of cap space around the league and I don’t think I mean barring a massive massive leap from Jaden Ivy the teams that have cap space aren’t going to be throwing 40 35 million at people. So, like it still probably would land within the Pistons range anyways. I think it’s smart business. I think it’s a great way to evaluate, you know, who are you going to maintain. All right. And to wrap up the podcast, we want to get your prediction now. Where do you believe the Pistons will finish in the East? How many games you think they win? What is the biggest swing factor? And then we’ll end the podcast. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, I I agree with you. I think it’ll kind of be like right in the mix with Atlanta. I think that you guys have a floor that’s slightly higher. I think we have the Hawks have a a floor that’s slightly lower just because Hawks are relying on KP. KP ona and Jaylen Johnson is not the most reliable trio and those guys are all massively important to the Hawks. Ceiling wise though, I think that the Hawks are going to be a rung above just because they’ve got a little bit more proven talent. Um they’ve got different ways to play offensively. While I like Caris, I think it would be asking a lot of him to say, “Hey, can you be our secondary creator?” And there isn’t necessarily like that designated person for for the Pistons. I think they can do it by committee. You can give repsto. You can play through Duran. You can get Jay Ivy comes back, but it’s just a little bit more little more murky than it is for Trey. KP Jaylen Johnson’s a more natural hierarchy. So I see that team as the better offensive team. I see that team with a higher ceiling. So I’ve got you guys about like 37 wins for the floor, 48ish for the ceiling. I’d say like somewhere between 44 46 is probably where I’m at. And I think the swing factor, man, is really just can you figure out a way to get Assar more involved offensively and can you play him with Ron because I think that’s an awesome defensive duo. And if you can unlock them, then I think you’ll be able to win the non Kade minutes pretty easily and then if K gets his turnovers down then this will be a really really tough team and I think regardless you guys are going to be a nightmare in the playoffs. Like I think it’s no one’s going to want to play Detroit just like they didn’t want to play Orlando last year. You know it’s it’s not going to be fun to play against y’all. All right, we’ll wrap it up there. Dar, thank you for coming on the podcast man. let everyone know where they can find you and all your work. Man, shout out to y’all, man. Thank y’all. Um, Dly for Three all platforms just started Substack on YouTube, Hawks Room Podcast, Tik Tok, Instagram. If you want to find something about basketball, I’m there under DLE for three. Thank you again. Yeah, absolutely, man. Appreciate you coming on. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed your content. If you guys want to go check out his 30 teams in 30 days, again, follow him on Twitter, uh, DLE for three. I I thought it was great. I thought this was a tremendous 30 teams in 30 days. I was waiting for the Piston section to come up, but I enjoyed all the other ones. I really liked your um I really liked your Hawks one as well. I believe that you you’re Are you based in Atlanta? Yeah, I’m born and raised. Okay, figured. Yeah, cuz I really liked your Atlanta one as well. Um but yeah, we’ll wrap up the podcast there. Make sure you guys check out David and all his stuff that he does over on Twitter, Substack, all that good stuff. I appreciate you guys making lockdown pistons your first listen every single day. Free on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button to the YouTube channel. Leave us a fivestar review, whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. And until next time, I will see you guys later. Stay safe out there and peace out everybody.

Detroit Pistons’ roster shakeup: Can young core lead playoff push? Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson take center stage.

Host Ku Khahil and analyst David Lee break down the Pistons’ revamped lineup, exploring Ausar Thompson’s crucial role and potential chemistry issues. They analyze secondary scoring concerns, three-point shooting woes, and the long-term fit of key players like Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren. With roster decisions looming, the duo examines how Detroit’s youth movement impacts their playoff aspirations.

Tune in for expert predictions on the Pistons’ win total and discover which factors could make or break their season.

SUBSTACK: https://kukhahil.substack.com/SUBDEAL

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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