LIVE Detroit Pistons READY to compete? | Summer League Review

LIVE Detroit Pistons READY to compete? | Summer League Review

question. These are just casual man and uh honestly just the best discussions we can bring to the table. There’s not there’s not a comment or question or a take or an opinion that’s out of pocket. So I know like hey and we are live so what people we are live because sometimes they wonder because you know we do stuff for COA when we post it later it is uh many hours after we actually went live but when we do these you guys already know get those questions into the chat. Uh, and for the people out there who continue to talk about the Kobe, the Boston and New York over there, we are in the owner’s office right now. Not my If this was my office, y’all know how the W Piston setup is. Is everything Detroit and then you can’t forget DC, man. But Detroit Kool-Aid, you guys already know. Credential Pistons reporter, writer for W Sports here. And um we got intern Noah, we got intern Haley. Two people who I believe are going to uh shed that intern label pretty quickly. Uh and but their ball knowledge across all sports epic. Uh they are going to be taking the journey into uh further into media here. Detroit sports media already got them on a short list to be covering Motor City Cruise as well this year. So shout out man. And Noah he’s already cooked up some articles for sports. We’ve done a couple of these streams too. Yes sir. Respect the ball knowledge and intern Haley. You guys might have seen her on Wake Up Wbertward and she’s been adding greatly to the commentary. We’ve had people show up, they open their mouth and it’s like, “All right, all right.” I think maybe even I’ve done that a couple times where I’m just like saying stuff and my crew is like, “All right.” But Handy been on point. What up, though? Well, hey, what’s up? Thank you for having me again. You know, I’m I’m glad we can have these weekly shows. I think they’re a lot of fun getting my foot in the door with the Pistons and then the Cruise today with with a little bit of summer league talk. And I got uh I got an interesting list for you today because uh Hoops Hype has posted a list of the top 50ish performers in the summer league so far. It’s hard uh not to overreact to like three games worth of uh of play, but Ron Holland has looked like that guy. And then Dennis Jenkins is also surprised, but in the top 10 there is a third summer league Piston. I’m interested to see if you can just guess them just based on uh based on the fact that there’s a top now that I know what the list is. I actually do know who it is, but I’m gonna wait. I’m gonna wait. All right. So, you brought up the list. Again, preface to people what the list is. If you guys can guess who that third player is, definitely put it in the chat when we see it. We’ll put it up there on the screen. But, uh tell them what the list is again. So, the list is the uh the top 50 performers in the summer league through three games. No, tell them. We keep on Dante 51. I knew he was going to be on it. It’s It’s the top 50 performers uh through for through the first three summer uh summer league games. There’s three Pistons in the top 10. It kind of shocked me because I feel like the third guy is someone who’s kind of flown under the radar even though he’s been playing really well. He’s had his name called quite a bit, but he’s flown under the radar quite a bit. And it wasn’t It was supposed to be Clintman. I think we all thought it would be Clintman. But who is it continued to be? you said. That’s why I’m so glad you said he’s flown on under the radar because Tony Smith has been balling. He’s been balling. Like it’s not just summer league. You go back to to the G-League, he’s been balling. That’s a name that for whatever reason has made it to literally to wake up Ward several times because of that. Yeah. And I mean, even in the G-League, he’s averaging what 184 and three. That’s that’s unreal. Now, I mean, he he plays that four position. He’s that that’s where the the hole is for the for the Pistons. I I I want to know, do you think he has an ability to to somehow make it as like that backend talent guy, like that rotational piece just because that four spot is so weak with Total Smith? I he’s going to be a guy that gets minutes this year just like we saw last year. But he’s a guy that you look at all of the players they have in the G-League, he might from a measurable standpoint, from a being able to play his role standpoint, he might be a guy that can crack that and probably should just depending on what the makeup of the roster is. I’m sensing that the Pistons are going to clamp down on the roster a little bit more, not be as exploratory, trying to figure out the best fits. I think they kind of know what works now. After last year, you saw them work with a couple different things. This year, I think that you’re going to find guys like Dannis Jenkins, Tony Smith, who I’m actually pretty high on. I think you’re going to find them odd men out just because of that. You got Jay Ivy back and I think that they’re going to give a lot more usage to guys like Jay Ivy, Caris Levert. Um, but it was interesting though to hear Treasure Light mention Bobby Clement as another one of those guys who thinks can stretch the floor for the Pistons. That to me, hey, look, it would have been nice to see it happen in summerly, but to keep things fair, who is he playing with? Gravity’s different, spacing is different. It’s it’s it’s a different game. That’s kind of the the next question I wanted to ask. I want to ask both of you. Weezy D. Yes, this is a real live. Look, I’m be trying to do this more and more. Like I told you guys, Wake Up Ward, the actual platform might be, you know, going away or taking a pause, but in terms of the characters continuing on, it’s going to create a whole lot more opportunity for us to actually bring you guys more content. So, yes, this is a live. Get your get your uh get your questions in. I’m sorry. Who is he? Paul Reed is a real player. Kool-Aid. I know he is, but it’s Paul Reed. I like Paul Reed, too, but it is Paul Reed. But let’s get to that next question. So, yeah, that we we talked to um I I don’t even know. Yeah, about uh with Total Smith, uh Bobby Clintman, uh Dennis Jenkins even like that if they have this opportunity realistically or if they should even be able to crack the rotation this year. Exactly. I feel like it seems like the starters will be pretty set in stone based on their skill level already, but summer league is a great way for players who still have something to prove to prove something. Yeah. Um it’s a chance for players to prove that they deserve more minutes, more responsibility. So, you never know how it could go with Smith. It’s interesting because he is the guy like you said when you call him out, he is underrated in my opinion. He has been under the radar, but we’ve seen the Motor City Crews. We’ve seen their their organization actually get picked clean in the past. It’s going be interesting to see if the Pistons actually do some of that picking, too. To Smith is probably the player that is probably has the highest chances of that happen. And I think, you know, the Pistons are a team that does kind of play deep rotation a little bit. They do like to to utilize a lot of the players that that make up that bench. It’s going to be interesting if Tou Smith can uh can crack a spot on that roster because once again, he is another forward that’s not really a stretch. He can’t shoot the ball very well. It’s going to be another one of those guys that’s kind of like playing within five feet. So, uh but but I want to I want to talk about Clintman because we we touched on Clintman a little bit. Does I I I know he was better. He was better last night, but does his lack of production worry you at all for for how he’s coming along? You want to see him be able to go out there and show off, especially after last year? I thought Bobby Clement had a better summer league with showing last year. He looked more comfortable. He looked more pop, had more pop to his game. Uh but the injury, the setbacks, you know, having to work on rehabbing and now all of a sudden you’re here at the summer league. I am wondering how much that’s affecting him. I I do and and you know I think uh that first year you know he also played with Marcus Sass right that makes a huge difference uh when you’re playing with a guy who had already exhibited uh some pretty good NBA talent and now he’s he’s there with you and Ron Holland’s a little bit different player when Ron Holland played in those games last year Bobby Clintman’s numbers weren’t as good when Bobby when Ron Holland didn’t play we saw Ron Holland’s numbers go off right so or not go off but they were better I’ll put it that way so when Bobby Bobby Clement, I’m not as concerned because I do believe with the skill set he possesses, when you put him inside a situation where Kade or Jade Ivy or Caris Subber are creating opportunities for him, he’s going to have a lot more open space to cut, a lot more open space to hit the gaps to be able to facilitate and the opportunities to knock down open things, right? Like you said, his injury and then also he has some foul trouble previously. So maybe if he can prove himself to kind of exceed those personal adversities that he’s putting upon himself, um then he can stay up there. But like I said in the morning show, there’s just so many players that are really trying to prove themselves. Yeah. So, I mean, especially within the industry in general, you can really fall under within a few games if you’re not playing well. Man, we’ve seen we are in a place where we saw a lot of big Hayes get passed up pretty quickly. And they gave him time, but they moved that man to the bench after a top seven pick, man. And to the bench was like, “Hey, thank you.” Right. And so, you’re right. You can get past him quick. for a guy like Bobby Clintman, like the guys we’re talking about with our summer league special uh edition of this live stream. These are guys who are already on the fringe, especially now you’re in a year where, like we said earlier, things are more figured out for JB Rick staff and his Pistons organization and team. They know like we’re not bringing anyone who’s going to clash with Kade. We’re not bringing anybody who’s going to block what we can see from Jay and Ivy and Assar Thompson. Like they’re just not doing that. So, you know, when you look at even the bench and the fact that they’re probably just going to run specialists that revolve, you know, that check in and out, I don’t see them going too deep just to have players and bodies out there. I see them now trying to find a way to get to, all right, we just broke franchise record with threes. How do we get to the next level there? You know, hey, we had Kade and Jaylen Duran. They were the number one lob connection in the league. How do we take that to the next level? You know, those are more or less the things I do believe they’re going to focus on. And I’ll be remiss if I didn’t say what up though to Ashton the trainer is in the chat. Man, if you guys don’t know Ashton the trainer, NBA trainer, uh, and he’s one of the, uh, one of the coaches for the C2 Allstars, K Cunningham’s AAU team, and they’ve been doing their thing. Guys, please go ahead, follow Ashton, the trainer, support the C2 Allstars as well. K Cunningham is doing his thing to make sure that we got ethical hoops. You guys want to support ethical hoops? He’s making sure to teach the next generation, man. So shout out to Ashton the trainer who had a lot to do as well with training up 1K Cunningham too. So he supported this platform from the beginning. Literally from the beginning. He gave us interviews, gave us his time. So Ashton the trainer, shout out to you. I remember when you first made your Pistons on the 16 seed declaration. It was right here. It was actually next door in Studio B. Uh and now I see him talking even more greasy. He’s saying third seed this year. Third seed is uh it’s that’s that’s a little aggressive. Um, I don’t hate it. I think you’ve got um I we talked about it on the on the morning show, but I do think that you you uh did kind of um you you I think those the acquisitions this off seasonason were an upgrade. Um I I wanted to actually push back on the fact that uh you know KG was kind of going off calling uh Duncan Robinson Malik White Malik Beasley. I would like to say Duncan Robinson is not white Malik Beasley. Uh Duncan Robinson actually showed up in the playoffs when he made it. So, I think Duncan Robinson is the better acquisition. I think he can facilitate. Um, yeah, I mean, Duncan Robinson showed up. He was he was a good second option in that on that Heat team that uh that made it as far as they did. And yeah, I I do need glasses. That’s that’s for damn sure. I don’t know if I’m going to lie. No, I I’m squinting I’m squinting real hard trying to read the little ass text. I’m not gonna lie. I see Ashton there. He says Ash trying to offball Kade and K from the elbow. The final piece. Come on now. Hey, listen. Off ball K back to the basket. K, I actually want to see more back to the basket. K. Yeah, that to me I think is gonna be good because you talking about end of the game. That was something we saw Chanty Billis be able to rely on. Yeah, we saw him be able to do it and Kade has that in his game. The thing is I think when you’re adding parts and pieces and this and that, it’s a lot to add for a player that’s already talented. I’m almost like, yo, just go and and and work on one trait. make that trade not just an improvement but a leap and then come back because he’s already top 15 top 10 player in the NBA. Absolutely. Already, man. And you could you could make the argument that he’s one that he’s one of the best scorers in the East already. And I think just elevating that that part of his game uh would absolutely be huge. I think if he takes that big of a step, I think it’s not crazy to say that they’re a top three seed, especially with like Boston. No one really knows what to expect from Boston. I don’t think they’ll fall off and be terrible, but you can’t pencil them in for a top five spot at all. I am not necessarily going to uh say that Boston has done at all. And I actually like what they’ve done to try and bolster um effectively the loss of Jason Tatum, but how you feeling about it? I was gonna say when you were talking about Kade, like he’s a great scorer and he could be even better if we continue to um give players the minute that are going to space out the floor for him and then just give him time to rain and like really get that’s why I feel like with the trades emphasizing on possible complimentary players that can help Kade s succeed. Yeah. Is a smart play for the team due to his previous success and ongoing success that’s going to happen. No, I mean you’re you’re preaching it because it is it’s it’s delicate because how much do you add and and make sure that you’re not messing with the identity. You’re not messing with the chemistry. And that’s why I think it’s good that we saw this team take the jump that they did last year before they added any other star players. There’s no other AllNBAs. There’s no other Allstars. This was Kane. He’s the allNBA player. He’s the all-star. He is literally the straw that starts to drink. And and that to me is why you can why it is as easy as saying let’s just get some players that can help space the floor. There are some people who are underwhelmed by Caris and Dun Robinson, but when you understand the type of player that Kate Cunningham is, that’s when you should, in my opinion, be excited about those types of addition. Exactly. How long were we waiting for that? By like you guys want the corpse of Ban and Alec Burks dragging their like dead legs around the court. That that was not it for Kade or for Ivy. I the one thing I said was Kane is a guy who he was still gonna be good whether he get on the shooters or not. But when you talk about Jaden Ivy and some of these other young players and Sar Thompson and facilitation and Ron Holland, how are they going to do this? How was Jay Ivy going to do that with no shooters? I thought that the shooters actually was going to help Jay Ivy more than Kane. Yeah. Like and and we saw Jaden Ivy’s assist high this past year. And there were points where you could see Jaden Ivy shot chucking like like getting him getting a shooter out there to absolutely helps the spacing. It takes a lot of the pressure off of him because Kade Cade can shoot the three ball. Is he super willing to probably I mean but but getting getting a like a kind of a shooter for spacing I think is is one of the best things that they could have done. And I think Duncan Robinson is exactly what you needed uh with with Beasley departing. But I think also the people who are worried about us uh you know our our big move being uh Levert and and Robinson aren’t remembering the fact that we moved on from Beasley and Shruder. It wasn’t exactly like you know you’re not moving from from fivear to fivear. You’re kind of you got to take where what you can get down here. Um and that’s kind of the price that you got to pay when you don’t really go for like a splash signing. um you know, you you got to stick with these guys that are like, you know, just kind of all right and and I think that that’s all they need. I don’t think they needed a super splash signing to be competitive in the East. They just needed Not this year. No, not this year. It’s gonna it’s it’s going to be weak again. And it’s only weaker with Tatum being injured. So, like, you know, you’re never rooting for a player’s injury, but that definitely helps the Pistons a lot more than it hurts them. Hey, shout out somebody fresh with the $5 super chat. He says, “Top four seed for sure for the Detroit Pistons.” I believe that that’s the goal. That has to be your goal this year. You want to be able to host a playoff game and actually you want to win your first playoff game in your last they haven’t won a a home playoff game in their last three uh series. Yeah. You know, they got swept in two of them. Found a way to win two games in Madison Square Garden in the playoffs. Won four there this year against the New York Knicks. Two in the regular season, two during the playoffs. But I do I believe at the very least it should definitely be uh the goal for them. Uh, Weezy D says, “Oh, the Pistons, the top four seed guaranteed, but when we get to the dance, we’ll turn it up to another level.” And they’re gonna have to. They’re gonna have to find a way, like these veteran teams do, to pace yourself in the season to preserve yourself for the playoffs without robbing yourself of what you’re supposed to have in the regular season. I know that’s one big loop, but the good teams, they find ways to do it. They find ways to pace. They find ways to eb and flow. And I’m I’m really hoping that the Pistons find the best way to do that because towards the end of that Knicks series, no matter what anybody will tell you, he said, “Key, you got to shoot better.” I don’t think it was there’s not one mechanical shot thing he can work on this summer that’s going to overcome what he actually probably needs to improve on a little bit. That’s just stamina. His legs look dead. They look like they had not played this many. They were like, “Why are we still playing?” And I think um that’s a lot of games. I think the best part about um so first of all, I like the Pistons for the four seed. I think they’ll be four. I think that’ll top four, you know, they’ll be four. I think three is a little aggressive, but um the biggest the biggest part this season for this upcoming season for me is that now you’ve got guys that are like playoff seasoned. You know, Kade’s finally been there. Uh you won’t have Ivy exactly um with with some playoff experience, but you do have Duncan Robinson who’s got not only playoff experience, but deep run playoff experience as well. Um Caris Levert’s kind of that vet presence now. He’s what, 33, 32ish? He’s he’s up there. He’s he’s got some leadership to give to the younger guys, but and and now Assaur has been in the playoffs. He’s guarded uh what you could say. Yeah. What you could say is the second or third best guard in the East. Some people say first. I don’t not me personally, but um I mean all these guys have have experience that should shape this run. So I think if they do get the four seed, I think you’re looking at they could win two series realistically. And I know that for a long time we’ve been waiting to see this. We haven’t really seen like a lot of internal growth lead the way for the Detroit Pistons. We haven’t. Not even when you look at 2004 Pistons and such. You have to go back to the Bad Boy Pistons until you can really look at internal growth being what spurred things because you’re looking at a homegrown backport of Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumar, your finals MVPs. Uh with the 04 business, we understand it was a rag tag band put together. But now with this squad, the reason why they called it the restored and it wasn’t necessarily the same band as Work Pistons with the Bad Boys is because they wanted this to be about the young players. They’re going to have to make the step forward. And I’m tired of sitting around because, you know, our players never turn to the stars into acting like, well, it’s just okay. No, we need two or three of these other guys to step the freak up. I Let me be a little bit more with Kade butting into a superstar. We need at least one or two of these other guys to take that next step. You see Orlando, they’re not threatening with France or Apollo. They have no doubts. It’s just injury or not injury with them. That’s it. The Pistons, they don’t have a second player right now that has emerged or shown themselves to be as complimentary or as good as Fron because we everybody says Paulo is their one. Right. Right. Who’s who’s stepping into that Fron role? Not necessarily uh position for position, but the role to be that two has to be. He seems the one that has shown at least the flashes to that to this point. And none of the others have showed the the offensive firepower yet. I mean, Ron Holland looks good for summerly, but you know, is is that going to translate? And, you know, I Ivy’s the only one that’s shown that offensive prowess. However, I do think there’s a very good chance that Assur ends up being a better all-around player than Ivy. I think Assaur’s I think he’s the most underrated player on the team. I I love Assaur. I think he’s going to end up being really wellrounded. Look, we talked I have my little power rankings for players. I think we’re going to take that step toward towards stardom this year. Assar is number one. Yeah. You go on uh really everything. We just kind of talking about this business. Four seed posting the playoff spot. Good conversation. I feel like Assar Thompson has been in lots of conversations. I’ve always said his defense is amazing and his shooting skills can be better and hopefully we will see them get better. Um, we were talking about younger players and with the summer league, I feel like that’s a great way for younger players to really prove themselves um because you have more vets like showing up and showing out. So, it really shows the younger players that they need to step it up and that like every single type of playing counts and is being watched. Um, which leads me to my question for you guys and you guys. Um, obviously the list that you brought up the top 50, right? Um, that’s from the three games. So, you know, take with that as you will. Um, but how much does the summer league really matter when converting over over to the regular season? I think there’s some things you look for, and I saw some people in the chat who were asking talking about Chaz Laneir, a top four. Hopefully, Holland and Chaz have uh roles by playoff time. What you’re looking for realistically in summer league is can Chaz Laneir shoot a high volume of threes and can he hit at least 30% of them? He’s doing that. that that’s what I’m looking for. If he went out there and scored 30 points and shot like two or five for beyond arc, I’d be like I I would be a little bit more like what’s the game plan here? But when you see players playing in their role in summer league, that’s the stuff that you can say, you know what, that has a higher chance of being able to translate than not. And so Chazir and Ron Holland, they’re the two players who I believe the games we’ve seen them play in summer league that have a the highest chance out of any other players to translate. Shout out a spendall about to jump on Big D energy and then the heads later, man. So it’s like yeah, there’s a lot I think to the people who act like summer league is just a wash all the competition this that and the other. I I always say that there’s something to take away from anytime someone’s playing ball. I don’t care if we go in the Nerf and start shooting on the Nerf run back there. there’s something you could take away from from a person in any aspect of the ball. So, I’m looking at how they fit as it relates to the plays that they’re running and the positions that they’re running. Chazir is gonna have the opportunity to shoot. He’s shooting like 10 threes a game in summer league. Do you understand how many of those are going to be wide open in any lineup he plays with uh K? They’re not going to defend the the the play is going to call for we have a second round pick defender. Your job is wherever K goes, you keep an eye on K. That means Chaz is going to get opportunities to knock it down. So that him and Ron Holland, Ron Holland’s play, it’s looked very similar to the flashers we saw in the NBA. And now you see the confidence, you see the shooting. Nine out of 10 for the free throw line, right? Those are things I take away. You hitting your free throws and you’re getting to the free throw line. Those things translate. See, I thought about this the other day. uh especially because uh Chaz Laneir is a specialist, but is it is it crazy to say that there’s more pressure this upcoming season for Chaz Laneir than there is for Ron Holland because he kind of has to be he has to be um not flawless, but he has to be pretty damn good from behind the ark. And that’s a lot to ask for a rookie um especially a second round rookie. It it’s it almost feels like there’s more being demanded from Laneir than there is from Holland this upcoming season because Holland’s just expected to take that next step. It doesn’t have to be anything monumental because they don’t need it to be monument. Right on point, man. Shout out to our chat family. Malachi Hampton says Chaz at 30% from beyond. Nah, Chaz needs to hit at least 38%. There you go. You already see it. The pressure because he is a specialist. We know what we need around Kade and having him here right now. That’s what everybody wants to see. Last year, why did people respond the way they did with Ron Holland being the pick? Because we thought it was should have been Dton Connect or a three-point shooter. That was what they said the need was. Now, Ron Holland has come in and proven that he could be one of those difference makers whether he’s hitting shots or not. When people get a load of what I believe his ceiling could be these hitting shots, that’s when I think things are going to change. When people see like and they they see him in the summer and they they see preseason, oh, the shot looks improved. It looks like the confidence is there, but then the wheels fall off in the regular season. That’s where I think you’ll see it reverse. But as of today, I do believe that there’s going to be a weird type of pressure on Chazir who’s only probably going to get 10 minutes a game at best because then you got to think about it. Every single one of the three-point shots that he puts up is gonna be pressure. There would be there would be a lot more if Duncan wasn’t on the team, too. Because I mean that I because he’s You’re right. he is only going to get 10 minutes or less probably. Uh but that it’s kind of like the entirety of the spacing is is going to be in his hands at at certain points because they’re going to need him to be the guy that that you can kick it out to and and hit a hit open three. And if you know someone I forget who but someone said they need him to be shooting at 38% from from beyond the arc. I mean that that’s a lot to ask for a rookie let alone a second round. He can hit like 30 33%. That’s I’m comfortable with that. Like listen because Sorry. No, you’re good. It’s just we know like his chops when he gets comfortable he’s gonna be a guy that’s over 35% from behind the arc. But his rookie season, you talking about 10 minutes, probably getting three threes a game, three to four threes a game, and this guy’s shooting over 30% from behind arc. That’s good. That’s good. if he winds up honestly by the end of the season averaging over you know one to one and a half threes a game that to me is actually really really good for a Chaz Lane Lenir’s first year so I agree I think that he could really make that percentage higher as we see the season go on but that comment about saying Chaz Laneir has got to be at least 38% or whatever that’s such a prime example of all the opinions that so many people have on Chaz Laneir Um, he his name has been in everyone’s mouth as of late because I would say it’s pretty opposing opinions on if he was a good pick for the Pistons. So definitely over you were asking over Holland. Chaz Laneir is definitely gonna have to prove himself and all eyes are going to be on him this season. So, because I think that he could be a good addition to the team and really prove himself, but lots of people have lots of different opinions on his choice and how much they spent on him. So, we’ll really just have to see. But unfortunately, I do have to go. But we we all do, actually. Oh, really? Okay. Big the energy is starting. Guys, get over to Worth Sports. tap in with Big D energy. Mr. Elite himself, Neil is in the building. You guys know Spinny and the TD booth and the whole gang. So, thank you guys for rapping with us. We’re gonna be trying to do more and more of these lives. Uh definitely great addition for the crews. We 313 said, “Yes, I can’t wait to get them out there on the trail.” Shout out to Ent Haley, intern Noah, and and you know what, as it relates to W Pistons, they’re just part of the crew now. I just I just snatched them and they just part of the crew. I signed them up as a GM. So, shout out to them and shout out to everybody else that’s going to continue on with what we’re doing here at Wolver Sports and W Pistons. Hey, get over to W Sports. You guys have a blessed day.