PISTONS SIGN CARIS LEVERT, RE-SIGN PAUL REED! STRIKEOUT ON ALEXANDER-WALKER, ALDAMA, LARAVIA!

PISTONS SIGN CARIS LEVERT, RE-SIGN PAUL REED! STRIKEOUT ON ALEXANDER-WALKER, ALDAMA, LARAVIA!

[Music] welcome to the Pistons Fanatic i’m your host Dave Dalton and I’m excited to share my passion and perspective of our Detroit Pistons as we go on this fantastic voyage together i’ve been a diehard Piston fan since the days of Dave Bing and Bob Laneir i’ve also been the varsity basketball coach of a very successful program in Northern Michigan thank you so much for listening you guys mean a lot to me please subscribe if you haven’t already and click on the thumbs up well Piston fans I not going to lie i keep it real with you i honest and again I tell you on the at the very beginning it’s this is my perspective does that mean that I know everything no it doesn’t does it I mean I’m right sometimes I’m wrong sometimes but I’m right more than I’m wrong i can tell you that but Detroit um in my opinion we just really struck out on the free agent market and that’s not all you know it’s not necessarily Traan’s fault we might not have been able to make those deals i mean there’s one deal so our big signing was Carris Levert so we got Carris Levert former you University of Michigan Wolverine he’s been around the NBA he’s going to be 31 in August he’s 6’5 we signed him for two years and 29 million so about 15 million a year and that’s a lot of money my guess is we could not get Nil Alexander Walker that he’s going to go to the Hawks and the Hawks are going to be tough the Hawks have made a lot of great positive moves we have stood still the Magic have made a whole bunch of great moves we have stood still and I guess it’s a slight upgrade in my opinion um Carris Lever is a slight upgrade from uh Tim Hardway Jr he is better than Tim Hardaway Jr does that mean he’s going to play better than Hardway Jr played last year no he he this year he averaged 12 points a game 3.2 rebounds 3.4 assists shot 46% from the floor a respectable 37% on threes but he’s a career 34% shooter and I’m I’m not I can’t I’m going to keep it honest again i don’t watch him play every day when I watched him play what I have and I don’t look at him closely you got to go to Motor City Hoops and listen to watch Bryce Simons he’ll probably have a breakdown that he’s not a plus defender he’s probably a little bit below average defender and he likes to take bad shots i’ve seen him do that he’s a gunner that’s what I’ve seen and maybe he’ll be more unselfish when he’s with the Pistons maybe JB will get him to do that another thing that concerns me is he’s not this great player he might and what JB has shown us and shout out to JB he had he was phenomenal for us last year but JB plays the vets so my thing is when we get a guy who’s not great like Caris Levert and he’s going to play them and prioritize Caris Levert over um Assar and Holland and Ivy and who knows how it’ll all shift out we needed another shooter probably since we lost um Beasley probably and I’ll talk more about Beastley a little bit later but I it was just a very disappointing thing obviously we we really wanted Nikquil Alexander Walker he’s a really great defender and he’s a tough shooter and he’s only 26 so he’s five years younger and you know I just young players young players were winning games tough defense was winning games and so three-point shooting is winning games in the playoffs and so yeah but if he wanted to sign somewhere else that’s not TJ Landing’s fault here’s my thing that really killed me though and we got to see and I I we all speculated that Salodama was going to resign with the Grizzlies that they we knew that he they really liked him and so I was just surprised so they paid him u three years 52.5 million so 17 million a year we could have had him my thing is if there’s a guy that we wanted to get to add to our team we had to overpay a little bit so I don’t know what would have happened if we would have offered him 19 million and I know that uh the Tian wants to keep flexibility that’s his priority he’s talked about it every time he he gets behind the microphone he talks about being patient and keeping us everything flexible so that that’s the levert thing two years but here is only three years and he’s he’s way younger he’s really young and he has way more potential and a position of need even more than so we could have had for a shooting guard or small forward we have Assar and Holland and Ivy could play those spots and we don’t have anybody to back up Tobias we He has no backup and if he gets injured what’s going to happen but my biggest killer was I just will I wish somebody would explain it to me jake Loravia he can play defense he’s 6’8 i wanted somebody you know taller than that 69 to 6’11 but he could he’s a tough defender he shoots the three really well he’s 23 years old and he could have been Tobias’s backup and he could have uh possibly if Tobias got hurt he’d step in and he in the future if he keeps improving at the rate he’s been he could end up being a starter possibly someday but he signed with the Lakers the stinking Lakers for two years 12 million 6 million a year so here’s my thing is you know there’s restraints with the cap and stuff and we only had so much money to give but 2 million is very little a very little percentage of what we had and to if we paid you know 14 million for two years would he be taking it and I like I said we need a backup we needed a big we still we got the one guy we got from Minnesota that was a undrafted free agent and so I I don’t know I just am very underwhelmed our other option people talked about was Duncan Robinson and I wasn’t thrilled about him he’s a great movement shooter you know not quite as good as Beasley but he’s a little bit taller than Beasley and but I I didn’t want him either and I I don’t know what it would have taken to sign him so but yeah very underwhelming the the good news is we got Bball Ball Paul paul Reid signed with the Pistons which was shocking to me because I I’ve said this before I love Paul Reed and in the NBA you need to have three three centers because what always happens is one of the three get hurt inevitably and it happened we saw it play out last year and so when one gets hurt you have to have a backup and so if you don’t have three then you have just one so I was glad that you could tell by the way that u you know I say always listen to the words of Trejan and JB and watch their actions of what they do those are the best indicators of what’s going to happen people debate all the time what we should do what we might do what we could do and they’re going off what they think but it’s it doesn’t matter what I think it doesn’t matter what you think it matters what Trejan and JB thinks of all listening to Trajan he thinks very highly of Paul Reid watching what JB did he doesn’t think highly of Paul Reid and so I was surprised that we resigned him but the center market is very thin and at least we know what we get from him uh Treasan talked at his most recent press conference about how Paul Reed stepped in and played so well in the playoffs when Stu was hurt and he brings lots of energy he blocks shots he gets steals he gets assists he can shoot a three occasionally he’s shoots a good percentage and he just makes things happen so happy that with that was two years 11 million and I’m curious to see if he might have could have been offered something else but lots of moves around the league the Rockets stinking Rockets they just really they got Dorian Finny Smith one of the best 3 and D forwards for not that much money four years 53 million and they’re just loaded they just are stockpiling players they they got Clint Capella and they got they signed Stephen Adams to an extension and they you know they they’ve got three centers now at least and of course like they just said you need three centers but they they’re just loaded you know and they got guys to sign they got Jabari Smith Jr signed this ridiculously low contract for five years for 122 million so you know he’s getting paid peanuts i mean compared to what most guys that get extension so they they’ve got it going they’re financially they’re set they got uh Fred Van Fleet to take a really reduced contract just for two years so yeah there’s a lot of things have been happening and a lot of deals have been made and I’m not going to cover the whole league i I could but I just like I said I’m disappointed santiel Dama we lost i went Santi Dhamama Jake Larabia and after we lost Beasley uh Mikil Alexander Walker and so we struck out three three strikes were out and and we got stuck with probably the best that we could do is to get Lebert and so again I can’t completely blame uh Traion if that was all that was left that we could get you know but I just I just am heartbroken in the the most puzzling one of all is Jake Laredia and obviously I mean I don’t know he he either said he doesn’t want to come to Detroit no matter what but he said he said in an interview before the season ended about dest possible destinations he listed like four or five teams he wanted to go to a young team that was up and ri rising team and so I I don’t know how we you know we must have not offered him we must have not or negotiated to try to go up the other complicated thing is we are limited we were limited to how much money we can spend and so when you do when you’re limited then you can’t negotiate if you negotiate with this guy and you’re negotiating with that guy multiple players at the same time if you offer this guy you know amount of money then now all of a sudden you can’t give that guy so like if you wanted to give um Terrace Levert that that money then you can’t give Jake offer Jake Larabia then there’s probably not enough money left over i don’t know i I again I don’t know all the ins and outs i don’t know where exactly we’re at financially i I will say this we talk about the salary cap and everybody gets worried about paying i I I I laugh at you know I get to listen i listen to all the podcasts and they’re really good a lot of these Piston podcasters but Oh yeah i I I give I give Duran 25 million but I wouldn’t give him 27 million well you know it’s $2 million and the grand when the salary cap’s 195 million this year that’s that’s a small amount and I know if they keep on adding up if you don’t watch yourself but if we really want him and that’s a low number when so you could take Kade is going to make 40 so that that did hurt us you got to admit it cade getting all MBA he got nine more million a year so that make gave us 9 million less which is very significant in trying to make these deals in free agency that we just had and so uh but he deserved it so and then if Ivy made 30 and Durham made 29 and Tobias made 20 of course it’s going to be interesting what happens tobias has just next year left on his contract and then uh but the thing even with Ivy and Duran so say if they both if Ivy made 30 and Duran made 28 which who knows what they would take but again um Oh Jabar Smith Jr took and he plays a high premium position you know those wings 3 and D wings he’s he’s only making like 25 million a year and so but if they made even that higher amount their contract if they if they signed the extension this summer which they can and JJ said he’s going to wait probably into August before he really starts even negotiating those things but they still play next year on their rookie deal so it doesn’t kick in till the following year their extension well so that um salary cap is going up at least roughly 20 million a year so it’s 195 million this year so you know next year it’s going to it it’s going to go up 10% it’s almost everybody’s almost positive it’ll go up 10% every year so if it goes up 10% every year that’s at least like $20 million every year so when if they sign for 30 million and you add up their salaries it’s really going to be a smaller amount of the uh pot and if you can get those guys that good locked up when teams really get in trouble is when they got the guys and they start getting 60 and 70 million a year Kade will be making by the end of his contract you know the next three years he’s going to make a little over 40 million average in the next three years but then you know it gets up in the 50s and stuff the last two years so that does go up but you know and then we do have to worry about Assar the following year and Asar you know if he has a year that I hope he has he might want a max because I I know his brother’s going to get a max so it’ll be see we’ll have to see how his season goes with him having a full summer to condition and get and practice and work out which he was denied last year because of blood clots but yeah I I’ll jump back on if anything more significant happens um but I know that u got a little quiz for you what do Jason Tatum and Thrice Hallebertton and Damen Lillard have in common okay well they all tore their Achilles this last year what else do they have in common they all wear the number zero so cross your fingers that Jaylen Duran does not pop his Achilles because the number zero obviously is a jinx and those three guys all pulled their Achilles i shoved leg with that because some people don’t listen to the end of the podcast but thank you very much for listening again I’m going to be on if anything at all significant happens in the next couple days but the main things I think we we didn’t have that much i I said all along for the last month or so I felt like we were going to make one significant move and our big move we shot our wad on Caris Levert and I’m I’m not in his fan club i hope I am you know there are some people that have surprised me i mean even like Tobias had a a mediocre season he wasn’t good until January and then he was very good and so let’s hope that Levert fits in let’s hope that JB doesn’t um that he makes sure that he gives Holland and uh Assar minutes if they deserve it and I’m I’m sure Asar will be we’ll see what happens with Holland i thought he could have got more minutes last year especially when uh when Tim Hardaway had a bad game which was quite often and if Holland had a good game he still didn’t get to play more minutes but anyway I’ll quit rambling but thank you very much for listening please be the reason that somebody feels cared for do something make somebody smile today and go Pistons

Piston have disappointing free agency settling for Caris LeVert for 2 years- $29 Million! Bring back B-Ball Paul 2 years-$11 Million! Lose NAW to Hawks 4 yrs $62 M, LaRavia to Lakers 2 yrs $12 million, and Aldama re-signed with Grizzlies 3 yrs $52 M !