Detroit Pistons vs Houston Rockets Pregame Show With Bradeaux

want to welcome you back to Pistons Talk podcast. Hope you guys are having a great day so far. We have a first time special guest, Bretto. Uh if you guys have probably seen him, whether it’s on Twitter, I know I’ I’ve seen it on my timeline. One of the biggest Houston Rockets content creators, podcasters out there. Man, thank you so much for taking the time today. Had to come on Pistons Talk. I see your stuff all the time on my timeline. So, when you hit me up, I was like, “Oh yeah, let’s go talk some basketball.” And I know we have a match up coming up um on Friday, so I’m looking forward to that. I know I uh I went into one of the the spaces uh a couple of I think it was immediately after the OKC game and just listening to Rockets fans kind of crash out and I I probably would have crashed out too with that. The opening night game with OKC was crazy. Yeah, double overtime. But man, like uh what a way to to start off the NBA season. Yeah, that was probably the craziest first game of the season I’ve ever seen. And of course, it was my team and very stressful. Good to have Kevin there. Um, they got to work out some things, but I mean, they’re playing OKC game one. You lose by one, you can’t really be too upset. So, I’m excited for this year, though. A lot of the guys look look solid. Yeah. I mean, that NBC broadcast was great. Probably the funniest thing is they have no champions and then you got Chad Homegr saying, “What was it like to win a championship?” I was actually laughing. I was like, out of all the guys to ask him, you’re asking, you know, Melo, Trace McGrady, and Carter, I was I was kind of cracking up with that. But that is crazy. I mean, it’s just you can’t plan stuff like that sometimes. I did want to kind of recap your guys’ off seasonason because I felt like you guys had a very, very strong off season trading for Kevin Durant. I mean, like what were your thought process just with like, you know, going all in for KD? So, the first thing I tweeted after game seven was the guy to get is right here. And it was a highlight tape of KD. So, I was happy with the trade. I didn’t know who it was going to be, but um Jaylen Green um I was obviously a huge fan of his entire time in Houston, but just the way that that ended um you know, six games at like 11 or or lower having 137 point game, that was nice. But, I mean, six games again, 11 points or lower, it’s it’s tough. Um, I think he can turn out really well, but I don’t mind the KD move, especially because he’s the only young core guy that got moved. Houston still has five really solid young guys, so they’re good for the future. And now you add in Kevin Durant, all they were missing was a half court score, and now you have that with KD, so I love the move. Personally, it sucked losing Dylan Brooks. Suns fans are going to love him. Um, but yeah, they only lost like with the 2025 uh Suns pick, which is going to be it was um Mullatch. I think he’s going to be good, too. But yeah, it it was a good move. I would do the exact same thing. I went down the rabbit hole because I was like, I know the KD trade was like really big and I went on basketball reference and it’s like seven team trade and I like read everything that went out. I was like, good lord, man. That thing dragged out all the way to the NBA draft at the start of the season. Like that was a huge trade for you guys. Yeah, it ended up being the biggest trade in league history, right? They kept expanding it. I forgot about that. It looked a lot more crazy than it initially looked, but yeah, it was wild. It was crazy off season. Um, especially, of course, you move her a top 15, top 10 player of all time, it’s going to be a bunch of hype around the season. So, um, it it was it was cool. I like the moves they made outside of that. Bringing in Dory Finny Smith. I liked the deaf pick up with Clint Capella. You know, Joshua Ki is a good deaf piece, too. He he had some burn in that first game. Um, so yeah, it’s a good group of vets mixed with young guys ready to take that next step. So, it’s going to be an exciting season. Man, it’s funny. I I swear you got my prep sheet because those are the other two guys I was going to ask you about. Like I got Clint Capella coming back, Dorian Penny Smith, which I was I kind of laughed because like low-key, I don’t know if you’ve ever had interactions with Lakers fans, but they always think that they’re always bringing people back. And when I saw Dorian and Penny Smith go to the decline his like option and go to Houston, I was like, “Oh yeah, he didn’t want to be in LA. He wanted to go somewhere where, you know, he didn’t compete.” Like to me, I I love the Dorian Finny Smith pickup. Really good defender once he does come back. Josh Kogi, I don’t think people talk about him enough. He’s such an underrated player, you know, former lottery pick, really good defender. Had a huge block on uh chat in that fourth quarter. Him and uh I believe it was uh Yeah, they it was like a double block. Like I’ve seen a block like that in my life. It was wild, man. Yeah. No, I love both of those pickups. And Kogi’s around like 6’4, 6’5, but seven seven foot wingspan. That’s that’s what you may do wants. He wants those lengthy defenders. Same with Dorian Finny Smith, 67, 7 foot wingspan. And I looked when I was looking into the DFS signing, DFS had one of the best onoffs in the entire NBA. When he was on the Nets and when he was on the Lakers, like if you look at him separate, they were both like top tier onoffs. That’s how impactful he was for those teams. So to pick him up on ML money for four years was was huge. And he mentioned in the in the media that he was like, I just love playing with guys who love defense. And the Rockets built a team that has a bunch of guys like that and head coaches the same way. So, I love both of those two pickups that we just talked about because they they embody what Eme loves, which is defense. Yeah, I really felt like Detroit and Houston, I feel like kind of mirror each other in terms of like our rebuild, but I really felt like you guys had a little bit more to work with. Uh we had Andre Drummond and we got John Henson like out of it. But hey, I’m not comparing the two. I’ve always felt Houston has had a like a really good front office. You guys have always been competitive, a lot of good structure down there, but like kind of like looking at the the young cores, like what to make out of Reed Shepard because I I I see some people on the timeline talk reckless. I was I happened to you catch a game uh watching him in Vegas against, you know, the Detroit Pistons since he did struggle a little bit there against one of our two-ways, Don Jenkins. Like I kind of felt bad for Reed because I could hear the trash talk that was like kind of sad. That was like, man. But uh like the young core because I think a lot of people you mentioned you have like five young guys on the roster. Like what about Houston’s young core could like really coexist with the vets that you guys signed. You think? So for one, I just think they all fit so well together. You have literally every position in that young core. You have a one, two, three, four, and a five. Um they can roll that starting lineup out there and they would be solid. They just work really well together. They’re all lengthy defenders out with the exception of Reed Shepard who fixes oh the hope is he fixes Houston’s main issue which is shooting the basketball. They’ve been a bad shooting team in this rebuild and he was at Kentucky hitting like 52% and we haven’t seen it translate just yet but um hopefully it does. But yeah, they just they mix so well with the vets um in the sense that they again embody the defense. Shangoo not at first but when Eay came in he was like you’re not playing for my team if you’re not going to be locking up. And now he’s a sneaky I’m not going to say he’s an elite defender. I’m not I’m not biased now. But he if you watch him it’s okay he’s serviceable to the point where okay he he can hold his own. And that’s the same with Jabari Tari um and the rest of those guys. So I like how they fit with the rest of the vets. Um yeah Reed again he’s working on it. This all he focused on defense. Um and we’ll see what happens. SGA they were hunting him in that first game. So good luck to my guy Reed there. But I know he’s working at it. hopefully improves on that end. Yeah, as a Piston fan, I will have my eye locked on Tari E because we do not have a backup power forward. Tobias Harris gets injured. I don’t know what we do personally, but I was kind of shocked that he didn’t get an extension, but you know, reading into it more, sounded like it was pretty incentive based on like how many games he plays. I agree. Yeah, you saw the$und00 million news, too. I believe it was contract incentive related. maybe like played games cuz he’s been missing games, not playing back to backs. No details on that yet, but I’d have to I’m on the same page with you. Probably some incentives that pushed him away. Yeah, I don’t know if it was as bad as Zion Williams’ contract where you don’t don’t weigh 300 lb and we’ll pay you basically. I was like, man, that that’s the most wild contract I’ve ever read in my life. I was just like, he accepted it. He accepted it. Like, oh, he lost all this weight. Like, yeah, he wanted to get paid, you guys. Exactly what it was. Why that makes money? But um I I kind of wanted to get into the rivalry with Pistons fans and Rockets fans. Obviously, you know, we you had Kade Cunningham and Jaylen Green. I always felt like those all those games should have been on ESPN every time because Jaylen Green got some poster dunks. Cade won a couple of games. Um you got brothers into the mix. You got the Thompson twins. Uh what do you kind of make up just like the this fan rivalry between Pistons fans and Rockets fans? It definitely started with Jaylen and Kade because you know Rockers fans were all standing Jaylen obviously y’all are standing Kade same draft and they were beefing. I don’t know if they were beefing but they had that one moment at that team USA camp where Kade like flicked Jaylen I think like a boat like on the lip or something and Jaylen was like bro what then Jaylen came in with the poster and was yelling at the tech and I think fans were just chirping so it was a good little rivalry with two bottom of the barrel teams just finding something to chirp at. there was nothing really. Uh but it’s cool to see the twins on, you know, on on separate teams now. I mean, respected teams and that’s going to be a rivalry for a long time. So, that’s always going to be a fun matchup. But, um I don’t really look at it as a rivalry. I actually love the Pistons. Um well, I guess you could love a team and still have a rivalry. I just don’t see as a rivalry, you know? I just look at two fun teams. You got brothers on the other side. It’s going to be a good matchup for a long time. Yeah, for sure. Like, I I I never felt like it was a rivalry like between the teams. I felt like it was more of a rivalry between the fan bases. I agree. I agree. Yeah. Because like the like the fan bases like full transparency like Jaylen Green like tells people, “Yeah, I had Detroit scrambling. They wanted to take me first overall.” Like the Pistons didn’t even know who they wanted to take first overall. Like there was talks about Evan Mobley. There was talk about Cage, Alen Green. Like that draft class, it was just really stacked at the top in my opinion. Um, but the the Thompson twin thing I I I think there is like legitimate like rivalry there. They both want to destroy each other. Like I I already I already know like when they’re going to do the pregame tomorrow, Sar’s going to talk reckless. He always does when it comes to his brother. I can’t wait for it because I know it’s just going to be just musty TV because I think the last time we guys played you, uh, we did get a win, the lights went out from what I remember in the first quarter. That was kind That was kind of crazy. Yeah, I think that day that was MLK game. Yeah, one of those games. Yeah, it was ugly. Y’all had a nice win. It was ugly for us. Not a good day for Rockets fans, but y’all look good in that game. So, it’ll be a good match up. I mean, y’all are much better. Um, last year I saw the league coming off my boys, hey, that that game y’all are just counted as a win. I wouldn’t do that. And, you know, Pistons got the win. So, it’ll be a good matchup. I didn’t get a chance to watch out’s first game, but um I mean again, it’s not like you don’t want to get into that. So, yeah, I I feel like both teams are going to come in really aggressive, really hungry because they both lost. Uh at least you guys could say we were competitive and we had a lead against Houston. We were down 23 to the Bulls and it was just we couldn’t do anything in transition. Matas Pazales looked like he was like the the white Michael Jordan out there, man. I saw that one poster on the cut. That’s all I saw. Dude, he had multiple posters. I was like, man, it’s just it was crazy. We did fight back into it. You know, Isaiah Stewart probably had his best uh game as a Piston as he’s not really known for scoring, but I mean, he did pretty well. Um, but what are you kind of expecting with with this game with on Houston’s side in terms of like how they want to attack Detroit? So, they’re going with that jumbo lineup um double big. So they’re going to just try to dominate on the rebounding rebounding battle. That’s how they’ve been winning games. It’s ugly offense. They don’t really have a point guard with Prevan Fleet being off of the year. Um so their offense is technically the second chance shots. They get over 50% of their offensive rebound. All offensive misses in that lineup when they go with Steven Adams and Auburn Shangon. So it’s just literally a grit and grind. You lock up on defense. You get on the other side. Hopefully get in transition. If not, um if it’s not Shangon, it’s going to be trying to get Katie a shot in in in the in between game. But it’s literally just just musling people and trying to get the board second chance points. I think that’s what they’re going to focus on. It wouldn’t surprise me if we matched your double bigs. Uh because I saw that lineup and I was like that that is a huge lineup. You might have to play Isaiah Stewart and Jaylen Dur next to each other because I don’t I don’t know how you compete with the way you guys just crash the glass offensively. It’s a very tall lineup. And then you have to you have to deal with Kevin Durant, which I know Kade and him kind of have a a very long history dating back to when he was in high school. Uh KD is still a little salty that Kade went to Oklahoma State, not Texas. Still lets them know to this day. Oh, I didn’t know about that. Yeah. Yeah. There there’s there’s uh more rivalry there between like Kate Cunningham and Kevin Durant. And there’s a lot of actual Pistons that are from Texas. I mean, you got Marcus Sasser, Ron Holland, Kade, Donis Jenkins. So, we we got a lot of Texas boys up here in Detroit. Yeah, that’s a good point. I love my boy Marcus Sassy, a Houston some guy. So, yeah, you’ll do have a bunch of Texas guys. Yeah. Yeah. Hope hopefully uh maybe he’s good to go. I mean, he’s actually out injured with a hip injury right now, but um I want you to give me the one Houston Rockets hottake you have going into this season. My hot take was they were going to win 60 games, but I didn’t even think it was a hot take. That was before the Fred injury. Um, I mean, they won 52 last year with Jaylen Green being inconsistent, getting benched at the end games, and you replace that with, as I mentioned, KD, who fixes their main issue, which was half court scoring. So, I was, oh yeah, they’re winning 60, like no no brainer to me. But with the Fred injury, it’s not as like, okay, they’re winning 60. But, uh, if they stay healthy enough, I still think they can mess around and get like 60 realistically, maybe 57. They’re still a much better team than last year when they won 52 games. Um, you bring in so many vets. Um, and they finally again since they’ve been running double big, they went 12 and four last year when they started going with that lineup. They’re going to be doing that for the entire season. So, just the depth they have again adding in those defensive pieces and you fix your main issue again which is half court scoring. Um, that’s my hot take. They’re going to still be like a second seed fringe 60 wins. That’s what I would say. I got two hot takes is from an outsider perspective. I think amen Thompson’s gonna make the All-Star team this year. Um I I just think with him having the ball in his hands, just distributing out there. I think it’s gonna be a really big year for him and I have you guys coming out of the West. I think I think you guys will be in the NBA finals. I’m clipping this. I’m putting this on my uh page. I’m putting this on my page. I really think that I I think the addition of Kevin Durant is really going to put you guys over the top if you guys can stay healthy. Um, who knows what you guys do with the trading deadline. Maybe you can get um kind of a low-end point guard. I I I really thought uh Spencer Denwy might have been an option, but I just saw today he’s going overseas. So, who knows how long that’ll actually last. I don’t know if they have crypto overseas, but we’ll see. U but you guys you guys get that joke. You guys get that joke. But, um definitely I I I could definitely see Houston making it out of the West. I know OKC is going to be a very tough get, but I could see that going into a seven game series. Denver’s going to be a good team. Um, but I I don’t know. I don’t know how much Nicole Joic can like keep doing what he’s doing. I I I love their offseason, by the way. But I I really feel strongly about Houston. I think you guys have a a lot of good veterans, mix of young guys, and an impressive coach to really get you to the promised land. That’s a great take. Yeah, this is the best podcast I’ve been on. So, That’s what I have to say. They can they could it it depends on the point guard play. I mean, the Rockets are going to beat a ton of teams, but again, I say they can win 60, but in the playoffs is what makes a difference. And they’re not going to be able to beat OKC if the point guards look like that. You know, Reed can’t be scared to make an entry pass and it’s getting stolen. Like, we got to we got to fix it. But it’s game one 82 and if he’s not looking solid, you know, they’ll find a way to make a move after December 15th. But I would love if they can make it to the finals. So, yeah, that’s a good take. Hopefully it’s a good team. Yeah, as long as you don’t see Golden State in the first round, I think you guys will be good. I I don’t know what it is about Golden State in Houston, man. Like, I just don’t know what it is. It’s It’s the wildest thing. I was just like, the worst thing. It’s the worst thing ever. Oh, I I can’t even imagine, man. Like last year, I was like, “Yeah, they they got Golden State. Golden State’s old. There’s no way they’re losing the Golden State in the first round.” I was like, “Man, what happened? What happened, man? That’s crazy.” Yeah. Again, that’s why they had to go. They had to trade Jaylen. It was like, bro, we just need one more game. So, yeah, but it goes way before Jaylen Green. Yeah, I don’t know who it is. They just they have our number. So, yeah, it’s tough. It’s I don’t know. It’s some like witchcraft on Golden State side. I swear, man. Steph Curry, some of the shots he makes is like just undeniably great. But, um, trust me. Yeah. Like, as a Piston fan, I think our kryptonite was probably the Spurs like for the the longest time when Yeah. We went back to the finals and you know that 05 finals. Did you watch that? Were you able to watch that? Were you old enough for that? Oh. Oh yeah. I was old enough for both of them. So um nice. As a little kid I was screaming. Um you know I saw my neighbor like punch his TV. So that was cool. Before social media was a thing, man. It was Oh wow. Damn. He’s that man. That’s actually the first I was going to say that’s the first finals I have memory of watching was that Spurs Pistons one. Yeah. So yeah, just thinking about like all all the Texas teams, you guys are deep and all tall. Like got Cooper Flag playing point guard. Like it’s crazy down there. Yeah. Yeah. And you got the 77 guy in San Antonio. I don’t know if you saw his game yesterday, but we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know. I think the FBI needs to investigate why the Spurs keep getting top draft picks like they’re doing it. Ain’t no way you get the second overall pick last year. Yeah. I mean, I can’t put anything about the NBA after that news we saw today with Terry Roier. Allegedly, they knew about the betting thing and they didn’t do anything with him. So, yeah. Then the the whole Chanty thing with the marking cards with X-ray vision and insanity, bro. Like, and like the the the Malik Beasley thing that we’ve kind of been dealing with up here like fans like after the first game like can we sign him now? Like, well, we can’t because he’s still under investigation. But I mean, it’s crazy, man. Like, fans, the first game of the season, I don’t know if you saw it, like they’re already ready to crash out. They’re already looking at ping pong balls over here. They’re like, it’s one game. We started 0 and3 like two years ago. And then, you know, we ended up 500 somehow. I know y’all don’t want to be 500, but I mean, the first few games of the year doesn’t mean anything. Um, it’ll be fine. No, I mean, we got to got to play you guys and we got to play the Cavs and then the Magic. Oh. Oh, that’s a Oh, is that the schedule? The next four? Yeah, I think it’s you guys. Uh, then it’s the Cavs, Magic, then we have to go to Mexico City to go play the Mavericks for the Mexico City game. Like, our first 10 games are just crazy. I don’t know what Yeah, we play y’all, Brooklyn, and Toronto next three. So, I was happy with that. But that schedule was crazy. schedule make it for the Western Conference are much uh nicer in the team conference, man. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Some people are like, “Yeah, we might start 0 and6.” I was like, “Yeah, I mean, you hopefully you can beat Boston at home, but we’ll see.” Yeah. Yeah. Tough schedule for y’all. So, I was going to say, “Y’all are definitely going to come with intensity in this next one because that is a tough schedule.” So, I I expect both teams to just come out really aggressive and, you know, whoever’s uh making shots, I think, will win this one. I know that’s uh very stupid to say, but I think it’s going to be a defensive battle. I think it might be a low-scoring game with both teams personally. Yeah, I mean, any game with the with the Rockets can be low scoring. I’m getting this the way they play. They’re not really trying to play as fast as possible, but um they just play that big lineup. It’s against it’s ugly basketball on the offensive end. It’s better with KD, of course, but um they’re just trying to lock up at the end of the day. So, if it’s low scoring, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. No, not at all. Well, I I appreciate you coming on. I I did tell you I want to try to keep these like under 30 minutes, but I want to give you the floor to plug and promote for people that uh maybe they are Houston Rockets fans. Maybe they’re interested in Amen Thompson or just any content that you are, you know, plugging uh doing over there on Twitter and do up with the podcast as well. I appreciate that. For one, before I do that, thank you for having me on. It was really fun. I thought it was gonna go 30. I guess I talk too quickly about my points. That was a quick podcast. I had a great time. It was really fun. So, if you ever want to chop it up again, let me know. But my stuff is Brad MBA on Twitter. A little more active on Instagram now. We’re going to work on the Tik Toks. I need to get active there. Uh YouTube channel is the Brad and Will Show. Shout out my boy Bias Houston. That’s where you can find his stuff at. Um but yeah, we also do a live show, Rockets Collective. I doubt watch that. But I do that as well. So that’s that’s what I got for y’all. And I know uh one of my friends, uh Jeff, he hosts the Detroit Lions Collective over at Hog Medias. So uh shout out to shout out to Tori and Hog Media and all those guys over there. So um we’ll put all your stuff in the description below for people that are will be watching this later on tomorrow. That’s when I’ll probably uh broadcast it uh on our YouTube channel. But uh appreciate the time as always, man. It was a lot of fun. Of course. Yeah. Thank you. You had a great time. You’all have a great day. All right. Well, we’ll see you guys for our postgame show after the Rockets play. It’ll probably be like at midnight, knowing me. Um, but uh, see you guys later. Take care and as always, go Pistons. Peace.

In today’s episode of the Pistons Talk Podcast, we were joined by Houston Rockets content creator and podcaster Bradeaux to discuss the Rockets’ offseason, the rivalry among fans, and what to expect from tonight’s game.

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