Should The Detroit Pistons TRADE For Derrick White?

Should The Detroit Pistons TRADE For Derrick White?

In today’s episode of Locked on Pistons podcast, should the Detroit Pistons be interested in trading for Boston Celtic guard Derek White? We’ll discuss that and some of the fake trades that have been going around the community in today’s episode locked on Pistons Podcast. Let’s go. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What’s the deal? Welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Pistons podcast. Per usual, I’m your host, Cuckah Hill. You can find me over on Twitter, cuckill. I want to thank you guys for making locked on pistons your first list of every single day. We’re free to develop on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at locked on pistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins with FanDuel. In today’s episode, we’ll be discussing the whole topic of trading for Derek White, which if you are unaware of this, this all started because Bleacher Report put out an a fake trade a few days ago where it has the Detroit Pistons acquiring Derrick White for a trade offer of Jay Naiv and two first round picks. Then this morning, I’m recording this on the 28th. This morning, Omari Sen for the second of the Detroit Free Press puts out three trades that could potentially happen with the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons. And one of them included trading Jane Ivy for Derek White. So that has now caused a bunch of bunch of discussion, a bunch of arguing, just a it’s a large topic right now as of today going on about Derek White versus Jane Ivy. Would you want Derrick White on your team? Whatever, whatever. So in today’s episode, we’ll talk about what it would look like to trade for Derrick White, what kind of player Derrick White is, and my final verdict on whether the Pistons actually should be interested in Derrick White. But we have a cool twist to today’s episode. We actually have locked on Celtics host John Carral has sent in a three two and a half three minute video to us to get an idea of Derek White the player and what the Boston Celtics would actually be looking for if a team like the Pistons would be interested in going after his services. So we’ll play that video for you guys and we’ll come back and give our analysis. So you’re interested in Derek White, huh? Well, it’s going to cost you because the Celtics aren’t going to let him go easily. This isn’t a pick at the bones of a team trying to get under the second apron so everybody is available in a cost cutting move. Drew Holiday is the cost cutting guy. Uh Christopheringis is the cost cutting guy. Derek White, Jaylen Brown, I think those two guys are sticking around as the Celtics try to figure out at least one more season. Can they remain competitive? Can they remain in uh contender status? Can they hold down the fort enough for Jason Tatum to come back from his Achilles injury? There is a possibility that he could come back at the January February mark and maybe work his way into some sort of NBA shape and the Celtics could make a playoff run. It’s it’s not out of the question. So, the Celtics are going to try to tow that line. So, they’re not going to get rid of Derrick White because he does so much. You can use him as your point guard. He can be an offguard. He can play uh the three in a pinch, but he is just more an all-around guy. You want a shooter, you want a passer, you want a, you know, a guy that can penetrate, you want a guy that can space the floor. He’s one of the best defenders in the league. He’s one of the maybe the best shot blocking guard in the league. He does a lot of everything. And then there’s the locker room presence. He’s he’s probably one of the most universally liked guys. He fits right in everywhere. uh great veteran presence on a team like Detroit, he he’s a guy that I think a lot of teams would want, but again, the Celtics value him pretty highly. They’re not going to get a hall. They’re not going to get a bunch of first round picks and a bunch of young players for him. That’s more the Jaylen Brown type of hall that that you can expect there, but the Celtics would expect some kind of meaningful return for Derrick White. They they’re not just going to move him to cut salary. They want uh a guy or multiple players, multiple picks. They’re going to want something good in return because if they trade Derrick White, that’s the beginning of a tear down. You You don’t trade him. You don’t trade Jaylen unless there’s a fullon rebuild, unless Jason’s Achilles is is worse than you thought. It’s taking longer than you thought, and the Celics want to hit a massive reset. So, I wouldn’t expect him to be available over the summer. If Derrick White ever does become available, it’s either going to be at the trade deadline when things go south, if things go south, or next summer when the Celtics have to really look at their finances and say, “This run is over. We’ve got to tear it down to the studs and you you go in a different direction.” But trading for him now, it’s gonna it’s gonna take more than you think because the Celtics aren’t just going to give him away. Oh, so with that said, I want to discuss we’re going to get into I want to talk about first after hearing first of all, thank you John for for the input and the analysis, but I want to get into Derek White the player first. We’ll talk about how good of a player he is and what he is as a basketball player because I’ve seen in the Pistons community a lot of people are confused apparently on how good Dererick White is. and then we’ll get into what a trade actually would look like for a Derrick White and then I’ll give my final verdict on whether I actually would trade for Derrick White if I was the Detroit Pistons as of right now. So now let’s get into how good Derrick White actually is. So Derek White, if I can just remove this real quick. This past year for the Boston Celtics, this is some of his numbers this past year for the Boston Celtics. I wanted to bring it up on the screen but having issues trying to do that as of right now. So we may not be able to do that. It turns out, yeah, trying to not being able to do it. I’ll just read you guys the stats. All right. At the rim this past year for Derek White, he finished at the rim 71%. He’s in the 90th percentile. At the rim this past year in short mid-range, he was in the 97th percentile. Shot 56%. On all mid-range, he was in the 94th percentile. Shot 52% on all mid-ranges. On all threes, he obviously shot 38% on high volume. 9.1 attempts per game at 38% is pretty freaking good. 66 percentile and then if you consider the volume it gets even better. Then if you go and look at some of his play types which really put an even better picture of how good Derrick White is right now. There’s a lot of people who apparently don’t watch the Boston Celtics who don’t watch a lot of outside Detroit Piston basketball because there’s a lot of people who apparently believe that Derek White is just this 3 and D guy who catch and shoots threes and plays defense when that is just completely not the case. This past year for the Boston Celtics, Derek White had 266 possessions as a pick and roll ball handler. He was in the 80th percentile in these possessions scoring 0.98 points per possession. 80th percentile in isolation this past year. Derek White was in the 66th percentile scoring 0.94 points per possession in isolation. all coming off screens 100th percentile scoring 1.51 points per possession coming off screens 100th percentile and then obviously as a spot-up shooter which he is a very good spot-up shooter he was in the 95th percentile on spot-ups scoring 1.26 points per possession on 408 spot up possessions. This is also a guy who is one of the best defenders in the NBA. He is probably the best interior guard defender in the NBA, if not the best. He’s probably top five as well. Um, this is a guy who is incredibly good and two years ago got votes for all NBA team and for back-toback seasons has gotten real pushed to be an all-star. If it was for a bigger name, if he was a bigger name and if he had more eyepopping box score numbers, he would probably be in an all-star game twice now. But a lot of the voting is still prehistoric. So Derek White is a really, really, really damn good basketball player who is incredibly impactful, not just as a defender, not just as a spot-up shooter, but he’s an incredible playmaker. He’s an incredible ball handler in the pick and roll. He can run, he can run your offense. He can get to the basket. He finishes at the basket with some of the best of them. He shoots with some of the best of them. He shoots well off the dribble. He is a well-rounded basketball player who is good at just about everything on the basketball floor. There’s not I there’s not really a weakness to Derrick White’s game. He’s one of the best shooters in the entire NBA. He’s one of the best defenders in the entire NBA. He’s an incredible finisher. 71% at the rim as a 6’4 guard, 90th percentile. He’s one of the best finishers in He can do everything. He is not just a guy who catches and shoot threes and plays defense. There are times throughout the year with the Boston Celtics where he was their second best player. He is that good. So that is the type of player you’re talking about when you discuss Derek White that is who he is as a player. That’s where we wanted to start this off with so everyone understood the kind of player we’re talking about. There’s too much discussion I see of people who don’t either watch the Boston Celtics or watch basketball outside of Detroit that don’t really know how good this guy is. He’s not just a three andd guy. He is a guy who handles the ball a lot for Boston. He’s probably their second best. If not, you could make an argument he might be their best ball handler. If not that, he’s their second best right behind Tatum. And he’s an incredible pick and roll guy. He’s good offball. He’s good on ball. He’s good everywhere. He is an incredible basketball player who would play on every single basketball team in the league. And if he was made available, I almost every single team would want him on their team. That is how good Derrick White is. So, with that said, coming up, I want to get into what would a trade, if the Pistons were to want Derrick White, if they were to get into the business of trying to acquire Derrick White, what would a trade look like? We’ll talk about that coming up. Today’s episode is obviously brought to you guys by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing. Every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get in on the action. FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live. With player props, performance trends, and same game parlays, fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big. New to FanDuel? It’s the perfect time to sign up and head to FanDuel.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you’ll get $200 in bonus bets. I’ve told you guys this many of times. I’ve been using FanDuel for a few years now. I have not regretted it a few years ago when it became legal in Michigan. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know what to try out. Try out FanDuel. I haven’t turned back since. It’s super fun to use, super self-explanatory, but obviously most importantly, it’s super fun to use. And again, if you’re new to FanDuel, you can head over at fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet. And if it wins, you’ll get $200 in bonus bets. You can make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. So, I want to thank you guys again. Make locked on Pistons your first listen every single day. We are free and available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at lockedonpistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. Check out the description down below for the Substack where I have film breakdowns and reviews for players, season reviews, playoff player reviews, all that stuff over on the Substack. Also, we’ll be going live on the playback room tonight for the OKC verse Minnesota Timberwolves game five at 8:30. So, if you want to tune in and join us over there, make sure you guys check out the playback link down below as well. But now, let’s go ahead and get into what a trade would look like for Derek White. Derrick White, as John mentioned, and as all the numbers I brought up, is an incredibly valuable basketball player. And if he is traded, it will not it would not be for anything cheap. It is. It would be incredibly the the the the what you would have to give up for Derek White. It won’t be superstar package, but it would be an elite package you’re giving up for Derrick White. You’re not you’re not getting him for cheap. You’re not giving him for one pick. So, let’s go ahead and dive into the trades that Bleacher Report mentioned of Jane Ivy and two first round picks. And not to spoil my thoughts, my final verdict. I’m gonna try not to spoil it, but I tweeted this out a few days or yesterday, two days ago, somewhere around then when this trade came out and I saw everyone losing their minds like, “Oh, how could they offer this? Why would anyone give up this?” I tweeted at that at that uh that package and said, “You just the Pistons just shouldn’t be in the Derrick White business if this trade is is crazy to you guys because this is probably what they’re going to ask for and probably what he they’re going to get for Derrick White if they were to have moved him. They are going to ask for a young player and a pick or two. That’s probably what he’s going to get. Think back to when Jeremy Grant in his first year was playing well for the Detroit Pistons and there was rumors that he could go for two two first round picks. Well, Derek White is much better than Jeremy Grant was then. He is going to get two first round picks and maybe a player maybe a really good young player and one first round pick. That is going to be around the value for a Derk White if he were to be traded. Now, like John mentioned, I don’t think that the the Celtics are really going to be trying to trade Derek Quite. Even if they build down, even if they try to reset and try to uh you clear up some of the salary cap space, which it sounds like they’re 100% going to be doing, the guys they’ll be doing that with is Christoff Porzingis and Drew Holiday because those guys are reaching towards the well, more so Drew. Drew actually looks like he’s reaching towards the end of his time. and Chris Stops has an injury or an illness or whatever is going on with Chris Stops that makes it to where he can’t play at right now and therefore they’re going to be moving on from these guys. Those guys are going to be ones they’ll be fine with just salary cutting. Garrick White is not the guy they’ll be trying to salary cut. They will be trying to get heavy value for him. So unless you’re trying to give up picks and a young guy, you shouldn’t be in the business of Derek White. And we are recording this episode live over on the Lockdown Pistons YouTube channel. We have been doing that a little bit as of late. So if you want to join the live recording, make sure again you’re heading over to the YouTube channel, hitting that subscribe button, hitting that bell button, and you’ll be getting updated anytime we go live. You can join the live chat and talk during the podcast. So I do see all the comments, and we’re going to get some of the comments up on the screen as well and and interact with the chat as well. But before we do all that, I just want to bring up again, this is what the package would look like. You’re going to be giving up picks. You’re going to be giving up a young player. And then you obviously the Celtics in that regard, I don’t think they’re going to be looking to I I don’t think they’re going to be wanting to just get rid of salary to where they’re not focused on like, oh, we don’t need a heavy salary coming back. No, they just want the best package. Whereas if you trade for Drew Holiday, you probably could just send him back $10 million and because you’re creating $20 million of cap space, that’s enough value for them. Same thing with like a Chris Stops, they don’t really I with Derek White, they don’t care about that whole salary clearing stuff. They just want the best value possible for a really good basketball player. So that’s what I think a trade would look like. Now, I just want to bring up some comments from the chat and then we’ll get into my final verdict on whether I would actually trade for a Derrick White. If I was the Detroit Pistons, would I be going after Derrick White? So, this one is from Aaron says, “Grant averaged 22 points a game with good defense. He was better than Derek White. He was flatly not. We have to move on. This is what I’m going to say to everybody. We have to move on from just using points, rebounds, assists as ways to measure players. That’s not that’s not how we measure players. Derrick White’s impact through all advanced statistics. And if you dive into his actual shooting numbers, he is one of the best shooters in the NBA. He on a points per possession shooter. He is one of the top probably 10 shooters in the NBA. He’s shooting threes on is shooting 9.1 threes a game on that volume with on with on ball created looks mixed into that. He is probably the best defensive guard in the NBA. Jeremy Grant didn’t have this on ball juice that Derrick White has. He doesn’t have nearly the playmaking juice that Derrick White has. And he’s not nearly the shooter both in the mid-range and from beyond the arc as Dererick White has. Derrick White sacrifices some points, rebounds, assists, pure box score numbers because he plays on a really good team and he doesn’t need to take 20 shots to be effective. He can take This is the thing about Derrick White. There are some players in the NBA that if you scale them up in a role, they’ll get worse. There are players that you don’t want to scale up. like we talked about in the last episode actually with um Isaiah Stewart’s uh uh season review. There are some players coaches will talk about that they are great in this 19 to 25 minute range, but if you try to scale them up, you lose the value. There are also some players that are incredibly valuable that can scale up and scale down. They can remain impactful just as much whether they’re scaled up to a higher role or whether they’re scaled lower to a lower role. That’s Derek White. If you want him to take eight shots, he’ll be just as impactful in those eight minutes. If he’s just as if you want him to take 20 shots, he’ll be just as impactful in those 20 minutes. I saw numbers being floated out earlier from some Boston Celtics people when he is the second guy when Tatum or Brown are out and he is forced to be the second option. He is averaging 225 and six on 61 true shooting. That is the exact that is the exact same efficiency that he is on when he’s on less volume. Derek White is a player that can scale up, scale down, stay the same. what whatever the val whatever the the the usage the volume that you want him to go to, he can scale to. He can be a elite role player. He can be a high volume shooter. He can be a low usage guy. He can be a playmaker. He can be your ball handler. Like he can do all these different things. He is a one of the most There’s probably an argument in the NBA. And I’ve seen the guys over on the old man. Actually, do they call it the old man the three still since JJ left? But I’ve seen the NBA players and some an some analysts go on there and talk about that Derrick White might be the most scalable player in the entire NBA. And that’s something that Jeremy Grant just wasn’t able to do. And he was just never as good as Dererick White at his peak. He just took more shots on a worse team and was less efficient. That’s all that was. So, we’ll get a few more comments in here. Another Aaron one. Could do a breakdown of a JJ trade. Yeah, we’ll definitely have um coming up in like probably in the next week or so, we’ll do a breakdown of potentially trading for JJ, who I think would be an incredible probably the best fit in the entire NBA next to Jaylen Dur to be honest. Um let’s move on to another question before we move on whether I would actually trade for Derek White. This one’s from Bryce Cooper. You don’t think Derk White is who he is because he has two all NBA players on his team? Because that’s exactly the case. No, that’s just not true. That’s just not true. That’s that’s a that’s a take that someone who doesn’t watch the Boston Celtics as much would assume. When when Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been out the lineup, he maintains the exact same level of efficiency and raises his scoring value. The reason why the Celtics traded for him was because he was really good in San Antonio and was starting to reach was starting to reach levels and that’s why San Antonio traded him at that point. They were entering a rebuild and and capitalized on his value. If Derek White was on a was on a worse team, he could shoot he could shoot 20 times a game if he played on a 30- win team. Sure. Is that more valuable than a guy who shoots 12 times and averages 16 points? That that like that’s that’s not more valuable. Just because you can shoot the ball more and score more on a worse team doesn’t make you more valuable than a guy who can scale up and scale down on a great team. That’s that I that doesn’t make any that doesn’t that’s not the case. And this last one we’ll do. This one’s from Robert. He is fool’s gold. Man, I I just This is I tweeted this out earlier. I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of people are just unaware of how good Derrick White is. Derek White for the last three seasons, for the last three seasons, has been one of the more efficient players in the NBA, one of the best shooters in the NBA while being one of the best defenders in the NBA. Whether he played for the Washington Wizards or if he played for the Boston Celtics, he would remain one of the best defenders in the NBA. He would remain one of the best shooters in the entire NBA. And he would remain as one of the most scalable guys in the NBA. Can he be a number one and lead you to more wins as a number one? No, he’s not a number one guy. But can he scale up and scale down and maintain the exact same efficiency? Yeah, he can. Cuz he has on ball juice. He has offball juice. He’s a great cutter. He’s a great shooter. He’s great on ball. He’s a great shooter off the dribble. Literally, he doesn’t have a weakness to his game. He’s a really damn good player. And if Boston does trade them, they’re probably going to get two picks and a player or a really good player and one pick. That’s probably what it’s going to look like. So, yeah, that’s what a trade will look like. When we come back, I’m going to give my final verd. We’ve talked about Derrick White a ton, argued about Derrick White a ton. Now, I want to give my fi my actual opinion on whether the Pistons should actually be making a move for Derrick White and trading whatever the the the value is needed for Derrick White this offseason. We’ll talk about that coming up. So, I want to thank you guys again. Make locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. We are free and 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. That’s another great way to support the podcast. Check out the description down below for the playback room and for the Substack. Got content coming to you guys all over the place. I know you guys um are going to be looking forward to some of those film breakdowns. You guys really enjoyed those during the playoff series. We’ll have some film breakdowns on the substack going back looking at some some of the players best games, some of their worst games and how they need to get better. We’ll do all of that throughout the offseason. I I have it coming for you guys. Um all right, so let’s go ahead and give my final verdict on what I actually trade for Derrick White. I think Derrick White is closer to a top 30 player in the NBA than he is a top 50 player in the NBA because of how much he can scale in a role. He’s probably the best best role player and if you need him to scale up when a guy’s injured, he can do so. I think he’s clo he’s probably in the range of like a top I people probably would feel most comfortable having him top 40. I think he’s closer to 30 than he is 40 because of the scalability. With that said, would I trade for him if I was the Detroit Pistons at this point? No. I would not trade for Derek White. And why is that? Because I have to say this. I had I had to say this. So, Mr. Ray has brought up in the comments has said Alex Caruso which is another guy who’s an incredible elite role player. The difference between Derek White, Alex Caruso is Alex Caruso cannot scale up like Derek White can. He’s not as good of a shooter as Derrick White. He doesn’t have as much on ball juice as Derrick White. Caruso really is the guy that people think that White is where he’s just good in his role and can’t really scale up. He shouldn’t be asked to do more because he’s good in his role. Derek White is not that. Derrick White can scale up and does a lot more than Alice Cruso. a much better shooter. He’s a much better playmaker. He’s much better with the ball in his hands. He can run your offense. He can He’s just as good, maybe a little bit less than a defender. Cruz is probably a little bit more versatile as a defender. Um, but Derrick White offers so much more offensively. He can scale up as a as a guy offensively. But would I trade for Derrick White? No, I wouldn’t. I would not trade for him for a few reasons. One, the Pistons are for a guy like Derrick White, you probably would have to trade Jay and Ivy and two first or Jay and Ivy in a first or I I sneakily think that Stu in a first maybe would get it. I I think Boston really values Steu. I’m interested to see what package like that would look like. But I wouldn’t trade for Derek White for a few reasons. One, he is turning 31 years old. And while I think he I really do if they did have Derek White on this team this year, let’s just say they had Derrick White on this team, I think they could be in the Eastern Conference Finals. That’s how good I think he is. But what I is he at this point at 31 years old, do you think the Pistons are close enough to contention status to where you can make a move for a guy like Derrick White, for as much as I love him, isn’t a bonafide number two superstar scorer? Do you do you feel like the Pistons are close enough to make a move for a guy like Derrick White and that be enough to push him over the edge? If you think so, then I guess you could. I don’t think that they’re that close. I think they still need some other things to go on. They need to improve some other areas. So, if you’re cashing in multiple chips for Derek White, actually, a better way of putting this. If you’re cashing in multiple chips for a player, it better be like either one the final piece to your puzzle or it better be a guy that is you’d hope you would hope is like a top 20-ish guy. Like you that’s what you would hope that you’re pushing your chips in for eventually. Now, the thing is like if you as I say that there’s a few people that that want Lori Markin and I would love Lori Markin, but there’s like do I think that Lori Markin is better than Derek White? I don’t think so. I don’t know. Like I I I don’t know if if Lori Markin actually is better than Derek White. So, it’s like I don’t know. And Lori Markin, if you go after him, the GM over there is Danny A. He is going to try to tax the living hell out of you. He is going to try to rob you before you get Lori Markin. So I don’t even know if I’d want Lori Markinance. But yeah, so he’s entering 31. I don’t think that the team the Pistons are currently a Derek White away from being a championship team or being a finals level team. I don’t think that’s the case. So that’s one reason why I wouldn’t trade him. Two, second reason is I’m not I’m I’m trying to completely avoid this whole Ivy verse Derrick White conversation because that is going to make me lose brain cells. But while Derrick White is obviously much better than Jay and Ivy, you don’t The move the Pistons I believe should be trying to make is for eventual star power forward. That’s the position I think they need to go after next. If they do push their chips into, that’s the position that I think they really need to try to go after. And they can they can run with Ivy at the two. If Ivy pans out, great. If he doesn’t, you can kind of just rotate that spot if you if you must. I think with how the Pistons are currently built, the four position is very clearly their highest need of demand. And that’s what if I was pushing in chips, whether it be Ivy or Duran or Ron or wherever it is, my chips would be being pushed in for a star power for. That’s that’s where I think the team should be attacking. So that’s why I wouldn’t waste my assets. Not waste. Waste makes it sound like it would be, you know, Derek White’s bad or something. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t use my chips on a on a guard right now. Unless it’s like I know like Devin Booker is like the clear name. I’m not even that huge of a fan of going after Deon Booker. I think a four would be more impactful, but like unless it’s a guy like that, I’m not really in I’m not too interested in giving up multiple assets for a guard because I think their bigger position of need is the forward position. I think that’s if they get a four, they get a star four, I think that really launches them into like JJ. I know we had some people in the comments ask it already. We will have a JJ episode just like this when we hear from Locked on Grizzlies host and get a little perspective on it. I would give up almost everything for JJ. I’ll go ahead and just spoil that episode. We’ll still record it, but it like for JJ, I would give up probably every asset in the chamber to get him on this team and have him be the four right next to Jaylen Duran. That is probably the very best fit next to Jaylen Dur in the I don’t know if there’s another power forward in the NBA that’s a better fit next to Jaylen Duran and compliments each other like those two. Like Jiren Jackson Jr. struggles as a rebounder. Darren is one of the best rebounders. Jiren struggles as a defender. Jiren Jackson Jr. is one of the best defenders in the NBA. Great as a rim protector, great as a ror, great in the perimeter, great inside. He makes up for all that. He’s able to space the floor. He’s he people didn’t watch Jiren Jackson a lot this year, but he improved as an onball scorer. His on ball stuff improved. He got more juice as an onball player. I I think Jiren Jackson Jr. If if Memphis was dumb enough to put him up for auction to to trade him, I would give up every asset in the chamber. But to get back to the whole Derrick White thing, that’s why I wouldn’t trade these pieces for Derek White. Not because I don’t think Derrick White is worth a young player and two first round picks. I do. If I’m Boston, that’s exactly what I’m asking for because that’s what I think he’s valued for. And I do think the Celtics, if they do train, will probably get two picks and a young player because those picks probably won’t be uh top lottery picks. They’re probably going to be later first round picks because whoever’s training for Derek White is assuming to be a good team. So, you’re not going to be getting super high first round picks. So, you want those two later first round picks in a young guy. That’s what I think he’s going to get. If I’m the Pistons, I’m not giving that up for Derrick White. And then the last thing, last reason why I wouldn’t make a trade for Derrick White. Actually, you know what? I I won’t bring that one up. I actually want to give one reason why I would be intrigued in trading for Derrick White, besides the fact that he’s a really good player and all that kind of stuff. I think the if they if they were to have traded Derrick White for Derrick White, I think the Pistons probably have the best defense in the NBA. They would have the best rim protection in the NBA at the guard positions easily between Cade and Derrick White. That would be like the best defensive rim protection you’ve seen from guards in like 10 plus years. You then have a SAR with them. You have Ron potentially as well coming into the lineup like that. I think their defense would be the best in the entire NBA. That would be absurd. That would be the that would be if someone if I was in the front office and they sat me down like look man I get all the argument you made for why you don’t want to go get Derrick White. Let me let me just try to tell you that you would have the best defense in the NBA and that might be enough to launch you into contending status. That might be enough to put me into Okay, I’ll consider I might actually do it. But my final verdict is I don’t think the Pistons should actually go after Derek White. I’m not opposed to them going star hunting. I’m not opposed to them trading a young guy. I’m not opposed to them trading first round picks for a guy. I don’t think that it should be a shooting guard that they’re trading assets for. They can trade for a guard. I don’t have a problem with that. but multiple assets. The only position I’m feeling comfortable trading multiple chips for is the eventual forward of the future at the power forward spot, the four spot next to Duran. That’s that’s the only position I really feel comfortable doing that for. And I think that’s the position where it makes the biggest difference. I think Derrick White would make a difference, but I think a star power forward would really make the most difference on this basketball team. So, that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Do I think Derrick White is fantastic? Yes. Do I think he’s clearly better than Jay Ivy? He obviously is much better than Jay and Ivy. Do I think he would be fantastic on this team? Yeah. Would I feel comfortable giving up multiple assets, including Ivy, for him? Probably not. Doesn’t mean he’s not worth that. It just means I at this stage and where the Pistons are in their I I don’t even want to call it a rebuild anymore. What their team building process, I don’t think they’re at the point where that move launches them into the next next field of where they want to get to. So, let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cookahill, how you guys feel about this. How do you guys feel about Dererick White the player? How do you feel about potentially trading for him? And if it’s not Dererick White who you’d want to trade for, what position or what player would you feel comfortable wanting to go after and trading assets for? Let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cookill. But that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys for making lockdown since your first list of every single day available on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button to the YouTube channel. Leave us a fivestar review, whatever podcast listening to this on. Until next time, I’ll see you guys later. Stay safe out there. Until next time, peace out everybody.

Can Derrick White transform the Detroit Pistons into a defensive powerhouse? As the Pistons eye potential trades, the spotlight is on Boston Celtics guard Derrick White. With his impressive stats, including 71% finishing at the rim and 38% three-point shooting, White’s versatility as a defender and playmaker is undeniable. Host Ku Khahil, with a guest promo from John Karalis of Locked On Celtics, explores the implications of acquiring White, weighing his fit against the Pistons’ pressing need for a power forward like Jaren Jackson Jr. The discussion explores potential trade packages, their impact on the Pistons’ roster, and whether White’s addition could elevate the team to a contending status.

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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