Can Detroit Pistons’ Young Guns DETHRONE Eastern Conference | Is Trajan Landon’s PATIENCE Smart?

Can Detroit Pistons’ Young Guns DETHRONE Eastern Conference | Is Trajan Landon’s PATIENCE Smart?

In today’s episode of Locked on Pistons podcast, we are joined by Spencer and Easy from Woodward Sports to discuss the Detroit Pistons upcoming season, the success of last year. Let’s get going. 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. the deal. Welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host Kucko. You can find me over on Twitter, Cooko. I want to thank you guys for making Lockdown Pistons your first listen every single day. We are free to on your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel, locked on pistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. And today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lock NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. You guys know who I am, Cook. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years for the Lockdown Network. Been credential media member over the last three years. And today I am joined by my guys Spencer and Easy both from Woodward Sports. I’ve been on Woodward with you guys multiple times over the last few years. This is the first time I’ve ever had both you guys on the podcast. How are you guys doing? It’s an honor, man. Honestly, Coup, you truly have one of, if not the best Detroit Pistons podcast. So, this is truly an honor. I appreciate you having us. Absolutely, dude. Glad to be here. Excited. Pistons, man. It’s It’s good to have good ball back in Detroit. Feels good. Yeah, it this seems like it’s a I know the Tigers are in a bit of a down spill, but it feels like a lot of the Detroit teams are starting to come together. Um I’m not too much tuned in with the with the Red Wings, but I see a lot of Red Wings fans still mad about Eisman. So, let’s maybe maybe we should leave them out of this. But yeah, we don’t got to talk about that. But um today we’ll talk about the thoughts of last season, how last season went, the playoffs and all that. Get their thoughts on that. Um, then we’ll talk about the offseason expectations moving forward for the Detroit Pistons and then we’ll wrap it up with some hot takes. We’ll see if Easy uh goes off the off the defense with with the with the hot takes. But let’s go ahead and start. Spencer, I’ll go to you first. The Pistons obviously they made the playoffs last year. They got two playoff wins. They’ve won their first playoff game in 15 years. Overall, really successful season. Uh, I’ve talked with you guys about the season over on Woodward, but I just want to get your thoughts, Spencer. What do you think or how do you feel about how last season went for the Detroit Pistons? Yeah, you know, it it was awesome. I uh I cashed that over on wins pretty early. People called me a mad man, but you know, we were riding with JB and the boys. But you love to see the progression from the young guys. You love to see K Cunningham taking that step into stardom, leading this team. And you really think how it ended, if either Jaden Ivy or Isaiah Stewart would have been healthy, I feel like they would have won that series against the Knicks. All of those games were coming down to the last second, just missing the extra piece there. But you really like to see this team buying into what JB Bicker Staff was preaching in his first year as the head coach and the success was there. It it was obvious. They were one of the best defensive teams in the league coming down the stretch when they really locked in obviously with Assar coming back and that showed in the playoffs. It was it was really fun to watch and I’m excited to see them progress even more next year. Easy. Go ahead. How do you feel about last season? I feel phenomenal, man. We’ve been waiting for that for so long when we initially drafted Kate Cunningham. I I for whatever reason thought it was going to happen right away. That necessarily wasn’t the case. Then we had the injury with him and then last year to finally just I guess be rewarded for that belief in Kate Cunningham was just it was so fulfilling, man. It was a great season. So, let’s let’s go ahead and talk about Kate. So, Kate obviously last year he had the best season of his career. He made all NBA team. Again, like I said earlier, he got the Pistons their first win in over 15 years uh in the playoffs. They weren’t able to win at home, which I think that was pretty tough. You’d like to get at least a home playoff game win. Those games though were crazy. The playoff I’ve said this over and over on the podcast, the crowd at the at LCA during the playoffs was absolutely insane and just crazy environment. Um but yeah, Cade AllNBA team, all-star, had a great season. Moving into next year, what is some of your guys’ expectations for Cade coming off this year? Are you guys expecting another jump? Like what is it uh you guys are expecting to see? Easy. We’ll go with you here. Yeah, I mean I loved everything I saw out of K Cunningham last year. I I guess this year the only thing I can ask for him to improve and I don’t know if it’ll be like a drastic improvement cuz I feel like as a primary ball handler that’s going to happen anyway is the turnovers. That’s the only thing. And it’s not like I said not all of them but some of the ones where you’re scratching your head like come on dog. What was that? That that is the only thing uh I I really focusing on. But everywhere else I think he’ll we’ll see slight improvement. He was really really good last year, so it’s hard to expect a huge jump from that. Yeah, I I’m expecting a top five MVP finish for Kate Cunningham next year. Like I I think you you see the way he plays, the way he affects all assets of the game. I saw a a graphic earlier just scrolling through X about him being like a top 10 rim defender in the NBA, too. Like, okay, that’s sweet, too. And this guy is so talented. that he does everything so well. He like every facet of the game he has his hands in. So I think now the natural progression is to go, you know, he made the AllNBA, now let’s go se first team AllNNBA, top five MVP contention. Like I think that’s the that’s the waters that he’s going to be swimming in next year. Yeah. Speaking about his rim protection in the playoffs especially, it popped. I think he averaged like 1.8 blocks a game. He had one game where he had four blocks. His size and length, he’s really good as like a weak side rim protector. That kind of speaks to like the Pistons overall defense. They have a a lot of guys that can be that like Assar Thompson’s fantastic at that. Kade has the size to do that and it really speaks to how the Pistons were able to be this great defensive team towards the end of the last year. Like you guys mentioned, were you guys disappointed at all that the Piston like going into the playoff series, I think everybody was like, you know, this has already been a great year. Whatever happens from here on out, cherry on top. I think you guys actually asked me this when I came over on Woodward. But I want to get your guys’ thoughts over from my community. When the Pistons end up losing that series because of how close it was and because of how it could have went either way in multiple games, was there a part of you guys that were a little disappointed after like, man, it was like cherry on top kind of thing, but now it felt like we really had a chance here. Like where were your guys’ thoughts immediately after the series? I Everyone’s obviously happy now, but like immediately after the series, where were you guys’ heads at? Yeah, we’ve we got into this a couple times on, you know, we were heavyweights five to seven Monday through Friday. Check it out. But, uh, because I I felt like that they did leave a lot on the bone in that Knicks game. Like, I know the Knicks were the better team. They have the four the four stars out there. You only you got Cade, Assar, and Tobias. Like, you you had a lot of mountains you had to climb to get there. But when you were in those games and like I said, almost every single one of them came down to the last couple possessions, you felt like, okay, things change. When you get there and you see we can hang with these guys, we can beat these guys. We should beat these guys in a couple of these games. Then I feel like, you know, choking away fourth quarter leads, not executing great down the stretch in some of those games. That was where the youth and the inexperience I thought I think took a factor of the Pistons performance. But you still got to be happy with the season. Although the ending left me a little disappointed just because I saw that they could do it and I knew that they could do it. They just made some dumb mistakes down the stretch in a couple of those games. Yeah, we got a screaming match about this one. For me, it was kind of like where was your expectation going into the series? And I kind of felt that we were that unexperienced team and we were probably going to get got at some point in the series and it had happened. It it felt gross though that it happened through the Tim Hardaway no call and the way obviously the game ended for the game six too but I was not happy to be there but just I don’t know man we finally have something to believe in for so long we believed in like what felt like I guess technically wasn’t there and now we finally got that base of foundation so like I’m I’m kind of happy with that. I will have expectations this year, but after the playoff series, I wasn’t that that irritated about it because I I felt like they were the better team. Ultimately day, the Knicks were probably going to come out on top. Yeah. I mean, it definitely being at the games and seeing some of the way it closed, especially that last game when they had like there were a lot of games when they just they had it there. Um, so in the moment it’s definitely like, man, you really let one slip here. Like this really could have been a great moment. You guys really had the chance here. But then obviously after the playoff series ends, you get into the offseason. It’s all but just a great season, great moments. This is a step in the right directions. All like positive things. But definitely I can’t blame anyone that in the moment you’re like my god, you like the Knicks were the better team. They had a better They had more talent, but in the in that time watching the games play, I was like, man, despite that, you had your chance to really upset them and really put the world on display. But and that again like you said said earlier Spencer that was without Ivy that was without Steu Cage shot 18% from three in that series and despite that they were right there with things gave them everything possible to try to upset them in that first round series. I think that’s why everyone is really excited obviously for the next season. It has some crazy I’ve seen some crazy high expectations for this team next season. That’s what we’re going to talk about coming up. We’ll talk about the off season and then also what the expectations are for this team moving into next year. We’ll talk about that coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you guys by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt any easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than budget, more than a budgeting app. Excuse me. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Have you ever looked at your spending and been surprised about how fast it adds up? 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Before we move forward, I want to let everyone know who’s still watching right now. About 40% of you guys are not subscribed to the channel that watch every episode. Please hit that subscribe button. We’re around 11th or 12th in the NBA channel of most subscribers, most listeners each podcast. We’re trying to get into the top 10, break into the top five, and I need all of you guys out there to please hit that subscribe button. I really would appreciate it. Um, and make sure you guys obviously go check out Woodward Sports with Spencer and Easy their show. I believe you said 5 to 7 Monday through Friday, Spencer. So, make sure you guys go check that out. Um, but let’s go ahead and get into this off seasonason and the expectations moving into next year. This offseason was relatively quiet. We did have that big thing going on with Malik Beasley. We did get some comments from Patrick Beverly recently, like a few days ago. He said he spoke with Malik Beasley and he’s not really worried. He thinks he’s going to be on a team next year. We’ll see if that, you know, we’ll see if he’s just, you know, being, you know, blindly optimistic. But there is that. But outside that, we did have a relatively quiet off season for the Detroit Pistons. We’ll start with you, Easy. How do you feel about the offseason the Pistons just had? It was It was weird cuz I know Tigers fans are the same way right now. Like like the the division’s right there. The conference is right there and both GMs, Scott Harris and Tan Lane kind of just played it cool and and didn’t do much. But I think with the Pistons, Jay I would be a big acquisition for us and I’m expecting big big jumps both from uh Thompson and Duran. time. So, I’m talking like defensive player of the year type stuff like I mean we you forget I think fans forget we only got him like halfway through and then we kind of went on that run. So, I think like just the ball moving he because obviously I think we should accept the fact he’s probably not going to be the greatest shooter. I’m and I’m okay with that as long as he’s way way he’s found a way to play around that and that’s through facilitating the ball getting to the rim and sharing the ball as well. So, I I mean I I have the biggest expectations there and I’m not mad about it. Like it’s an open Eastern conference. Uh Kate Cunningham is like you said top 10 player could become top 10 guy in the league this year. I think that’s enough to at least get you in the game and and I think they want to find out what they have in Jaden Ivy as well. You know I think that’s a a situation they’re going to bring all the way up until the trade deadline and decide what we got going on because we truly tan you know got here last year kind of like right before the draft didn’t have a full season to assess what we have in these young pieces. So, I think that’s the thought process for them there is like they’ll make that big move or at least the dedication to it at the deadline next year. Yeah, I I liked what the Pistons did at the deadline a lot. Obviously, like Malik Beasley, what’s going on with him? You don’t know what’s going to happen there. That was a huge part of your offense that he was never really supposed to be. He wasn’t supposed to be that involved obviously because Jaden Ivy went down. I thought replacing him with Duncan Robinson is about as good of a fit as you can get under those situations. This is another guy who’s great running off of screens. You’re going to see a lot of high screen action with him and Jaylen Duran on hands off handoffs and give and goes and stuff like that. I think that’s going to fit very well in the offense. I think Caris LeVert is an extreme upgrade over Tim Hardaway Jr. Just what he can do more in the offense. He can get you a bucket if stuff breaks down. We saw in those Knicks playoff games where sometimes the offense would break down and it would be Cade trying to go one-on- five because nobody else could go get a bucket. You got Caris Levert out there. He can get his own bucket from time to time. He’s done it in the playoffs. He’s done it with JB Bicker Staff. So, there’s a familiarity there as well. And uh with EZ’s point as well, the development of these young guys, you know, Assar Thompson obviously last off season he didn’t have it because of the blood clot situation, but now he’s going to have that and go into the season ready to go. And with uh we’ll get into this later with my hot take, but a guy like Ron Holland, if he can do almost what he did in the summer league in the actual NBA minutes, and I will finally be able to see lineups of Assar, Cade, and Ron all out there together just being demons on the perimeter. I can’t wait to see that in JB system because those guys playing perimeter defense together will be fun to watch. Yeah, I I’ve spoken about that duo. wanted to see that duo a lot this year. I that’s why I wanted them to go out and get someone that could play a stretch five. They were rumored to be interested in a bunch of stretch fives. Um they were rumored to be interested in a guy like Santi Alamo who could play the four and sparingly at the five. Seemed like that the motivation from what I understood was that you know that would enable them to be able to play the both of them even if one of them didn’t take this big step uh shooting wise. They weren’t able to get that done. So I’m interested to see how much we actually do get to see Ronar. But I I agree with you guys. But I think obviously what the this offseason really said to us is that like you said easy, they didn’t really get to see Jay and Ivy and through four years we’re going to be entering year four. You really don’t understand what you have with Ivy and it’s unfortunate because you haven’t gotten to see him with Kade because Kade got hurt, then Ivy gets hurt and it’s just like you’re entering year four and you still don’t really have that answer. You may you may lean one way or the other but you don’t really have that sample to have a definitive answer. Um, it seems like obviously that uh that Traan wants to see if Assara takes a step forward, if Jaylen Duran takes a step forward. Duran and Ivy are in contract extension summers right now as well. Um, seems like it’s really going to be about the the jump forward with the young guys will determine how far, you know, they take a jump. And the next place I want to go with is the expectations. Easy, you brought this up that the East is up for the grabs right now. Like kind I’m not as familiar with baseball. I’ve been trying to get into baseball a lot more because the Tigers have been good. I’ve been watching more games. Sadly, as soon as I started watching, they started losing. So, maybe I’m a curse. But but but but like the East is I I might be. I I I might be. I literally the other game I forget what game it was like two three games ago. It’s a tie game. I tweet out, “Can the Tigers get a hit?” I stand up, go get some water. I come back. GL to hit a three run home run. Mile’s gone. So maybe it’s just because I like I’m It’s like It’s because I’m watching. I’ve been I’ve been crashing out so much about the Tigers the past week and a half. Like my I I can’t even do it anymore. He’s been going No. Yeah. I’ve been seeing a lot of people pass out about the Tigers. It’s been the main talking point. But the the East is wide open for the Detroit Pistons. Boston’s down. They’re re not rebuilding, but retooling for next year now. Um Indiana’s down without Tyrese. They lose Miles as well. Orlando, you see, make a move. They go out and get Desmond Bane. Looks like they’re trying to make this next jump. I’ve talked about it a lot on the podcast how I feel about what they did. I want to know from you guys. Did you guys want them to try to be aggressive uh and try to take advantage of this East right now or do you guys fall into the same camp as Traion did like, okay, let’s just whether whatever the other teams are h doing and whatever the East is right now, we have a plan. We’re going to stick to our plan or do you feel like that the plan maybe should have changed a little bit with how wide open the East feels? I think uh I like what they’re doing right now. Honestly, I I didn’t want to see them make that huge move until they see the pieces. And I think with this team’s floor right now, for me, at least being a top five seed in the East, like how they are right now, I think they’re a top five seed in the East. So, obviously, if things go well, we could be talking top three seed if things is are actually working like that. If not, then you decide to make the trade or whatever. But I understand why Trejan wants to see all these young guys on the court together because Jaden Ivy is such a dynamic athlete and scorer that we saw his shooting at an insane clip last year. If he can do that, providing that type of offense to this team that plays defense the way it does, it could be scary. So, I’m fine with them running it back how they have it now because your your big addition, your your all-star level player that you added is going to be Jaden Ivy and he’s going to come in there hopefully be, you know, around 20 points a game scoring and uh and see what he can look like. This guy, dude, is crazy. What’s going to happen is is people are going to clip this and only put me laughing after that like I was laughing and I’m I’m going to get attacked now. Yeah, I I I want to see what they all look like on the floor, too, before we decide to blow it up. If if they do or if they don’t, that’s that’s another conversation, but I want to see those four at least on the floor together. When you look at Duran, Ivy, Assar, and Cade, go ahead, Easy. Yeah, I mean, I I I like to troll. I like to troll. I apologize, but uh yeah, truly, I mean, there really wasn’t a lot of big moves to be made. A lot of stuff felt set in stone. Like I know the KD stuff was divisive, but like that probably would have been the one. Deon Booker resigned, that would have been another one. Like stuff like that is kind of come and gone. Uh Miles Turner would have been one for me too. Obviously that that didn’t come to fruition, but I truly feel like Trey is playing the patient game to see what he’s got. And even to get some of those pieces like a guy like Ivy, a guy like Durn, like they’d probably be a part of that. And you got to see what they look like first. I mean, a guy like Ivy, he was injured. Like what his value is probably at its lowest right now in that situation. if you were to get rid of him, you probably want to wait till you win a few games with him or at least that he’s shooting back at 30% showing he could do that again. Like it’s a lot of that stuff you got to wait and see. So it’s I I wasn’t necessarily mad at Trajan for doing that. Although the East does feel wide open, I I still think he can manufacture that run at the deadline and I think that’s when they’ll do so. Okay. So I want to ask you guys this. It feels like after the playoff run, obviously they they they not run, they lost in the first round, but the playoff series they played in. Felt like after that playoff series, immediately after the the the sense I got and a lot of my comments, a lot of my DMs, a lot of the everything I saw from the Pistons community was I won’t say everyone, but majority of what I was seeing was, okay, next year the goal is win a playoff series. That is the next goal. That’s should be the expectation going into next year. Do you guys share that same expectation going into next season? Do they have to win a playoff series? Is that what you guys want to see? I think they have to win multiple playoff series. I I want to see an Eastern Conference Finals appearance out of this team because like we said last year, you showed the world that you can hang with a roster, you know, with Tatum down and with Lillard down. It was probably the best roster in the East. So, you were hanging with them and you should have won that series. I still think you should have won that series. So, I want to see them win a couple playoff series, get to an Eastern Conference Finals. I think that should be the level that they’re trying to go for. Yeah, playoff run is what I want to see this time around and I think it’s kind of set up for that. Like you mentioned all the injuries in the East right now. I don’t think there’s many excuses say you can’t do that. So I do want to see them at least I mean Eastern Conference is is it feels lofty because of where we’ve been, but it’s also not it’s not really unrealistic. I feel like especially Kade going to make that little bit of a jump we expect. Like that was his first playoff series and I thought he did really well compared to go look at Kobe’s first play. I mean a lot all the superstars go look at the first playoff series. K Cunningham is up there with the best uh in terms of like the first go at it. So like I expect a jump in that sense from him and yeah I don’t think it’s kind of crazy to to expect maybe an Eastern Conference appearance. Obviously you would love more but just try to set you know keep it a little bit realistic. Yeah. So I I I think they have to I think the goal should be at least a playoff series. I think that has to be like the expectation. I question whether that’s like cuz Traion came out during the offseason. was like, you know, our plans haven’t changed. Like I just because this p I think his comment was just because of how this last season went, I don’t want people to lose patience. And it seems like that Trajan’s train may be trying to temper expectations because he’s more of a it seems like he’s in still like I want answers mode. And whether it’s good answers or bad answers, I’ll get my answers either way. That’s my read on it. Like okay, if Ivy and Duran take this jump, then great, we can make this, you know, run. But if they don’t make this jump or one of them doesn’t, you know, get better and maybe I have to move one of them, whatever, I feel like the fan base will probably be disappointed. I feel like Trajan based off what he said, feels like he’s going to be happy either way because he just wants answers. Whether it’s a good answer or a bad answer, he wants answers to the test so he knows how to he wants to move forward. So I qu I I just wonder if it’s like a conflicting like is the fan base expecting something that Tjan isn’t. Like I wonder I just am interested to see that. But if they take a jump forward like the young guy is, I think both sides will obviously win. I just think that I part of me believes that even if they don’t take a jump, Traan will like what happens this year just because he’ll know what he has to do moving forward, especially with like these extensions that are potentially on the table. Yeah. Cuz like these extensions, you know, Duran and Ivy and these aren’t Traan’s guys and and so he he has that kind of tempered optimism. Like obviously Kate is anybody’s guy when you come onto a team with Kate Cunningham, he’s your guy no matter what. Ron is his guy. He’s talked about how much he likes Assar as the type of player that he would go after, but Ivy and Duran really aren’t the the type of mold of players that he likes to go after. So, he wants to see how that fit works and what goes on there. And you’re going to have to commit a serious amount of money to one, if not both of these guys if you like what you see. So, I I can definitely see him just fishing for answers for sure this season. That goes for JB, too. Getting the kind of guys that he needs for the stuff that he believes in. Yeah, I think I think we’re going to get our answers this season and I hope I think everyone hopes that translates to really good success for the Pistons this upcoming year, but we’re going to have to wait and see if the development actually happens. Coming up, I want to ask Spencer and Easy about where they stand on extensions and then we’ll move immediately into hot takes. I wasn’t going to ask this question, but it got brought up just now. So, now I want to I have to I have to ask about where they where they stand if the Piston should extend or should not extend either Ivy or Dur. We’ll talk about that coming up. 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That has been probably the main talking point in the community over the last month. Free agency wrapped up. Seems like the Pistons are kind of done there. They did just sign, by the way, everyone, they did just sign Dennis Jenkins to a two-way contract. They have two roster spots open with that TPE that they got in the Dennis Shooter signing trade. So, we’ll see how Treasure wants to operate with those two open roster spots. Um, but for the most part, it seems like the offseason’s done and all everyone’s really focused on and trying to figure out about is what’s left is Ivy and Duran extension. So, whichever one of you guys want to go first, do you guys want to extend or do you guys believe they should extend Ivy or and or Duran this off season? I think they should. And I look at it like this is you’re not going to have it’s not like you’re looking at at rookie maxes that you’re going to may maybe during maybe, but you’re still have them on these contracts that will be very movable. I if you don’t like the direction it’s going or you don’t like the way that Duran or Ivy is fitting with the team or whatever you’re looking at, these aren’t going to be contracts that you’re locked into and you’ll have to trade a bunch of picks to get rid of that contract. These will be very good movable contracts for players that teams will want. If Ivy doesn’t become what everybody thinks he’s going to be in superstardom and he’s more what Easy thinks he is, he’ll still be a a a good player that teams will want. Same with Duran. If if Duran doesn’t reach his potential of what he truly can be, but he’ll still be a rebounding, shot blocking, rim running center that teams will want. And so it’s not like you’re going to have to sign them to any super lucrative contracts. I think you could get them both at a decent number that would still be a good movable contract for you. Yeah, I don’t dislike Ivy as a player. I wanted to get that out the way. Like I think he’s a talented player. Give me my disagreement has always been the fit. Advanced metrics suggest the same as well. I think both guys can be phenomenal with the ball in their hand particularly and that that’s just been my my biggest debate with that. And and with that, I would say yes to Jaylen Dirt. He’s also the youngest of the two. I think there’s a lot more potential to get out of there, especially with a coach like JB who we’ve seen bring out defensive prowess out of guys we necessarily didn’t expect it out of. So I I think for sure by the way him and K just like the their ability to ali hoop this season been I think they led the league if I’m not mistaken like their chemistry has gone off the charts. Yeah. Like for sure. It’s like me and Marvin Baggley in 2K. Insane chemistry. Kade made Marvin Bagley look. Hey, he got him $39 million. That’s Exactly. Exactly. Ivy, I think it’s a little bit more like I kind of I’m with Traion. Like I’m looking for the answers there. Like what do we have here? How’s it gonna fit here? Like that’s one I probably would wait on unless the extension gives him more value in a trade. That’s probably one I’m going be a little bit more patient about. So I wanted to bring this up and we’ll get right into the uh get right into our hot takes, but I want to bring up the Pistons salary cap sheet because I think this is going to play a huge part into it. Um, so for people that wanted the Pistons to make a bunch of deals, um, or a trades or make this big swing, what, whatever, whatever. Um, it’s something I’ve mentioned on the podcast, but I want to mention it again. You need larger salaries to match contracts, especially in this new CBA when a lot of these teams are over First Apron or, you know, it makes it harder to trade. So, you need to be able to match salaries. And right now, at least this past year, the Pistons only large salaries were Cade, um, Tobias, and Isaiah Stewart. So, if you wanted to make a deal, you were going to have to part with obviously not parting with Cade. Like, you’d have to part with Tobias or Isaiah Stewart plus like the asset then cuz that would only be viewed as like the contract. You need a contract and then you needed the asset with it. And for any moves they were going to make this off season, it’s kind of like the same thing like if they wanted to go out and get whoever, you probably were going to have to throw Tobias in that deal and then an Ivy or or a first round pick, whatever, whatever the asset would be. So, I think and I I think Keith Smith came on the pockets. he made this point is that you’re not necessarily signing guys to trade them, but you are signing guys. So, if you do have to make a trade, you then have salaries that you can match. So, I do think that’s a positive to if you do extend them, now you’re not forced to part with a guy like Steu that maybe you don’t want to part with just because you had to salary match. Now, if you do get an answer in Duran or Ivy, now you just have more contracts to be able to flip in a deal. You also have I think I think it was you Spencer earlier that mentioned Duncan Robinson. Duncan Robinson’s contract is fantastic. First year fully guaranteed. The next two years is non-G guaranteed. So if they want to flip them, they could trade him as an expiring contract for $16 million. I think teams would love that. Same thing with Caris Levert. A two-year deal for around like what is it? $14 million. That’s another flippable deal. I think Traan’s being smart with this and how he wants to be able to have these contracts. So, if he does want to make this swing with all the capital they have picks-wise, they have these salaries that they have to meth instead of just throwing guys that they do like into deals just to make it happen. I did want to just bring that point up. Um, phenomenal point. If there’s anything, is there anything else you guys want to hit on before we get to hot takes? I just wanted to cuz you were mentioning like moving pieces around and having pieces to move. And that’s why when we brought up like did you want him to go swinging for the fences in the Eastern Conference when you look at what Orlando did like Orlando got Desmond Bane and people were saying oh the price was too high but how could you get like Orlando has their core set. They know who their guys are and they thought we are a Desmond Bane away from being in the finals next year. So they went out and they got Desmond Bane. The Pistons aren’t at that point yet. Like we talked, Trejan still has answers that he needs. You obviously have a rough idea of who you think is going to be the core outside of Cade, but those are still answers that need to be answered before you make an actual deal or a move to bring in somebody to put you over the top. Yeah, I think that’s a great point. I think we’re going to get the answer to that hopefully early this year. Hopefully no, not going to no injuries happen again for the third straight year screwing them out of this. Like that would just be incredibly tough. But all right, let’s get into hot takes. Who wants to go first? Actually, easy. I want Easy to go first. I want Easy. I feel like Easy. Easy is the most likely one to go off. Jy’s going to be out of the NBA in two years. Easy. What do you have any hot takes? I know that’s the one people want, but I I’m I’m honestly very patient. I want to see what he is this season. So, I’m I’m chilling on the Ivy take. I I really am. My hot take for real, Malik Beasley joins his team next year. I mean, you’re you’re being investigated for 18 plus plus months from the federal government and they don’t got nothing yet. You’re chilling. You’re going to music festivals. Like you you’re you’re doing like you’re still wearing the Pistons gear everywhere you’re going. And the other thing too is the specific bet, if I’m not mistaken, was a uh there was a unusual amount of money put on the under for me rebounds four and a half and then he went over in the game. That doesn’t even match up with the bet that was made. Nobody profited or G like nobody nobody won on that to even like initiate the investigation in my opinion. I I think I think he might be good to go and then you get him on a little bit of a discount. I I I think he might rejoin the team. That is my hot take. Malik Beasley plays for the Pistons or in the NBA this year. I mean I’m I’m here for it. Like you said, you got a couple roster spots still open and if you could get him on another cheap, you know, one five year or one year, $5 million type of deal. You would absolutely do that. There’s a guy that just hit the most three-pointers in franchise history. Like you you want him here to do that alongside of a Duncan Robinson. Like imagine both of those guys running off of picks while Kate Cunningham has the ball at the top of the key. Like that’d be hard to stop for sure. So I would love that. My my hot take, I’ve said it before, um, and it’s not so much for next year, but just as this Pistons team develops and these players develop, I think when this Pistons team is winning championships with this core, Ron Holland is going to be the second best player on the floor behind Kate Cunningham. I I look at what I want Ron Holland to be for this team when he’s at his peak. And obviously like we’re talking superstar level would be peak, but I want him to be Golden State Andrew Wiggins when he was out there playing defense, being a big body, rebounding, defending the rim, knocking down open shots, getting tough buckets when Curry needed someone to bail him out. Like that level of play from Ron Holland, I think is very reasonable to expect. Obviously, his potential is an insane type of player, but I think Golden State Andrew Wiggins is something that we can honestly see out of him. And I think he would be my guy. I if this when this Pistons team is competing for championships and winning championships, I think Ron Holland is going to be the second best player on the floor. Yeah, I a lot of people are very high on Ron for good reason. He seems like he can be a really d I mean, he’s really young, too. Very, very young. Um, and he’s looks like he’s going to be a dynamic. I feel like at his peak, he’s going to be a dynamic offensive scorer. Now, it all depends depends if he does improve that three-point shot, which did look improved in the summer league. It looked a lot better than it did last year. He looked a lot more confident. He was taking different type of threes. It wasn’t just catch and shoot. He was taking step back threes, pull-up threes. Like, he was seemed very confident. I know his uh his trainer recently said he compares him, he has a he likes Jaylen Brown as a comp. I could definitely see that. Jaylen Brown started off very raw, but you saw that um scoring repertoire in his future. Obviously, we see with Jaylen Brown’s now. I think Ron definitely could be a very dynamic scorer with just that dog in him that Pistons fans love and be able to be even more impactful defensively, I think, at his peak than a Jaylen Brown would be. But again, it all comes down to I think with Ron just obviously his jump shot and just and I love I talked about this in the podcast a lot. I loved how he addressed this offseason. He went at it very mature and and like from a smart uh just a smart way of handling your offseason where he’s not just spending his time working on ISO moves, whatever. He talked about watching Cage film so he can process the game better so you can know like he in the summer we saw him trying to make these like advanced reads even if it ended up in a turnover. Maybe he didn’t throw the most accurate pass. The fact he’s trying to like see the game better and make better decisions. I I think that see says great things about his future. I love seeing that from him. Um, my hot take for this upcoming year, I think Assar Thompson becomes a top 50 player in the league. I think I think he really takes this leap and I I know we’ve heard from Zack Low, Nakias Duncan, Bill Simmons, we’ve seen from a bunch of people recently over like last two weeks speak highly about this junk coming from Assari this year. I do think it’s coming. I think Ezy, I think you mentioned this earlier, he had no offseason. He had no start to the season. He had no training camp and he was just dropped. He was dropped midseason onto this team with a minute restriction and despite that took this team from the 28th ranked defense in in December to a top five defense the rest of the year. That’s with no offseason, no training camp, minutes restriction just being dropped on the NBA team mid-season, turned them into I think yeah new system. I think I think he is the reason why they turned their season around. other guys get props for it too, but the defensive turnaround I put solely on Assar and him being able to do that without a training camp, without all that stuff, I think it’s just it’s crazy to like really understand. I mean, now this year you’re going to you’re getting that off. You’re seeing how hard he’s working. He’s we’ve heard Traan talk about how much how hard he’s worked, how often he’s been in Detroit working out. We’ve seen how much stronger he looks. Um I he’s talked about I know he’s mentioned this with me in a few interviews I had with him but he’s even talked about this often how he’s working on that ball handling which I think is the biggest thing for him this year just to become a secondary creator a playmaker better on drives if he’s able to play a full season and have no minutes restriction go back to that 99 stamina rating that he had in OTE in his rookie year I think defensively I agree with you easy I think he’ll be a first team all defensive member for years to come and if he can just improve improve offensively enough as a ball handler to where you can trust him as a driver and a secondary creator. I think that’s a top 50 player. I think he’s going to be a top five defender. Arguably even higher. I think he’s going to be just an insane defender. He has such a large impact already. If he can just improve a little bit offensively, I like I think the impact is going to be absolutely insane this year. So, that’s my hot take for this upcoming year. Guys, is there anything else that you guys want to say before we wrap this one up? I just want to go double down on Assar because I love this kid, dude. He’s he’s so good. Like we I forget what game was it Boston or New York when Cade was out and we saw point Assar go out there and he was running the offense. He was running the show. He was getting the bucket at at will. Like this guy when you look at the upper echelon of athlete in the world, it is NBA players. And then you look at the upper echelon of athlete for NBA players and it’s Aean and Assar Thompson. Like these guys are freaks of nature. And so for him to be able to channel that in an off season with the coaching staff, with the training staff and stuff like that. Yeah, I I can’t wait to see that guy go out there and just be a mad man defensively next year. I think you point to the game who put Jason Tatum in jail. I mean, I think it’s literally a header on my Twitter right now. Like that was crazy. That was one of those moments, you know, and I think we’ll remember when he becomes his player. Like that was like the one of the first steps. I’m with you. I’ll double down on that one, too. Yeah. And talk about his defense on Tason Tatum. I know that. Look, it ended bad in the first round. He got got. You know, it is what it is. Everyone gets got. But the numbers throughout that series when Assar was on the floor versus off Jaylen Brun, I had it on I wrote a whole article. I think he was around like 36% very inefficient. Couldn’t score. Was not scoring at all with the SAR on the floor. And then with him off the floor, he was just dominating. So, I know Assar got got at the end. That was a great move from Brunson. It is what it is. But for the majority of that series from start to finish with Assar on the floor, the Knicks could not get things going and Jaylen Brunson very much struggled to get his his game going. So, yeah, I think Assar potentially I mean with Wim in the league, it’s going to be hard to win a defensive player of the year, but uh but he’s going to be right there. I mean, Wim is kind of crazy. He should have won his rookie season. That was insane. He didn’t get his rookie season. Could you imagine if we had Paulo or Wemby on Yeah. We would have went to the like if we had one of those guys last year we would have went to the finals. Just one just like one year the Pistons don’t fall to five. Even just like Apollo 1B you get uh Cadet maybe at two or three just one of these drafts you move up and you get someone because they need a four. Like that’s the thing. So if even if they were able to get chat that would be like that would be huge. But you know we’ll see what they can make with this guys. We got Jaden Ivy. What are you talking about? See, look. Ivy’s going to be a dog this year, man. He’s going to be a dog. But all right, guys. I appreciate you guys coming on the podcast. Let everybody know where you guys can find your show and you guys on Twitter. Yeah. Tap in live on Woodward Sports 5 to 7 Monday through Friday. Just Woodward Sports on YouTube. All different social medias as well. My personal social medias are Spenmo Rex on Instagram and Twitter and everything like that. So, uh, shout out to Coup for having us on. This is awesome, man. And we got to do it again for sure. It’s a lot of fun. Absolutely. 57 W sports. Check the heavyweights out. And then at Speaky Sports, if you guys want to throw your Ivy Slander my way, I’m here for it. Yeah, we go to war with those 10-year-olds on Pistons Twitter all the time. I appreciate you guys, man. We got to have it have it happen again. If you guys ever want me back on Woodward, just let me know, man. You guys know what’s up. I appreciate all of you guys making lockdown pistons your first listen. Again, 40% of you guys who watch and listen are not subscribed. Go to the YouTube channel, hit that subscribe button. We’re trying to crack that top 10 most subscribed at the locked on NBA channel. I appreciate all of you guys making lockdown on pistons your first listen every single day. Free development on all your podcast platforms. And until next time, I will see you guys later. Stay safe out there and until next time, peace out everybody. Peace.

Detroit Pistons stun the NBA with playoff success. Can they build on this momentum for a deep postseason run?

Cade Cunningham’s rise to stardom takes center stage as the Pistons aim for the Eastern Conference Finals. Spencer and Eazy from Woodward Sports join to break down off-season moves, including the acquisitions of Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert. The trio debates Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren’s contract extensions, while forecasting Ausar Thompson’s potential as a top-50 player.

Will Cunningham secure a top-five MVP finish? Can the Pistons’ young core propel them to new heights? Tune in for bold predictions and insider analysis on Detroit’s path to NBA prominence.

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