Cade Cunningham SHATTERS Expectations as Detroit Pistons Surge | Eastern Conference on Notice

Cade Cunningham SHATTERS Expectations as Detroit Pistons Surge | Eastern Conference on Notice

In today’s episode of Locked On Pistons podcast, I am joined by friend of the podcast, Civil, to talk about the Detroit Pistons off seasonason, how much fun this past season was. We’ll break it all down. 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 Network, your team every day. What’s the deal? Welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host, Cookie. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years for the Lockdown Network, brand credential media member over the last three years. I appreciate all of you guys who make Lockdown Pistons your first listen every single day. We’re free and available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel, hit that subscribe button, and leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. And today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lock NBA for $20 off your first purchase. And I have a fun guest with me today. If you guys remember going all the way back to last year in the summer, I had one of the Madden players. You guys know I love playing video games. I love playing Madden. I had my friend Duby on the podcast. He’s a man belt winner. We had him on. We talked about the Philadelphia 76ers versus the Pistons. How, you know, they came up and realized that Joe Embiid was a superstar. How can the Pistons identify K as a superstar? Whatever. Now, I have my friend Civil on. And for those of you guys who are into the Madden scene, you guys know Civil. Uh he is very popular obviously over on YouTube. does a great job of breaking down men and and and putting out a bunch of good content over man. Also, I are you going to participate as a pro this year? Are you going to participate in the class? I’m decided on that, bro. It’s such a time suck and we do so much stuff on like the the like so much so much other content stuff. It’s it’s a hard I love it, but he’d be doing it for the love of the game if I did it. That’s why. Fair enough. Fair enough. But he he’s participated as a pro in many years. What What year did you win? What city was the one you won the uh was it Tampa? Tampa. So Tampa in 20 I won the the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Club Championship and that year and 22 were like my best like big time years, right? I was really good at the game. Right. So this is this is this is the kind of thing I do outside of Pistons basketball. And the reason why we had Civ on the podcast because he’s a Pistons fan. He’s a Lions fan. He’s a Pistons fan. You were you born in Michigan? I was born in southern Michigan next to about 30 minutes south of Battle Creek. Um and right next to a little town called Cold Water. Um Okay. Some people listening wouldn’t know where that is. I’m born small town right next to I went to Western Michigan University actually for school for I dropped but I went to Kazoo for a minute. I live there. There you go. So Civ is a Pistons fan and a Lions fan. So I thought, you know what? Let’s have him on the podcast to talk about the Pistons from a fan perspective and get his thoughts in a good way to intertwine two communities I like interacting with. So let’s go ahead and start it up. Civ, this past year the Pistons obviously were a ton of fun. They had a an excellent season compared to expectations. I told you I was going to bring this up two years ago. You had a tweet go viral when you tweeted me and you were like, “Are the Pistons actually good?” And it was after the two in one start. They then went on to win lose 28 straight. They did. They did go on to lose 28 straight. I was going to go to game number 29. It was in it was somewhere in Texas, but they won the game before and I told myself like, “Dude, if they like I’m only traveling three hours to go to this game if they’re on a losing streak.” Like like cuz that’s historic. Like that was special. Them just be a bad I’m not going like I’m not doing that for a bad team, but historic team I would. Dude, what’s crazy is we were two and one, but we had a it was a onepoint loss to the Bulls, right? Like opening night, it was like a one It was like a comeback, mind you. It was like a It was a one-point loss that the Bulls kind of outplayed us in it. Well, you know what I mean? But it was like to me I’m like we could be three and0 right now. The Pistons my entire life have sucked. Like we’re back. Like this is it. And like it was like Cade’s kind of like we’re like we’re kind of hooping like we got to have some ball players. Yeah. We didn’t have obviously. Yeah. We did not have ball players. We actually did. No. What’s crazy is that we actually had ball player like We had some dudes who actually because dude for my entire life like I’m a casual basketball fan. I just want if anyone listening I’m a casual you’re gonna hear casual takes here. I apologize in advance but I do think some of the Pistons problems can be identified from a very casual standpoint where like I would look at the team years and be like who’s putting the ball in the basket on this team? Like who do we have who like can score the basketball? Because like I’m being serious dude because you look at uh it might have been that year it’s like Cade. It’s like okay cool. We go Killian Hayes. I’m like, “Okay, well, Killian’s not going to put the ball in the basket.” I’m like, “Isaiah Stewart?” I’m like, “He probably won’t put the ball in the basket.” Jaylen Durn, like he he might put like a rebound in the basket, but I’m like, “He’s probably not.” I’m like, “Two of those dudes I just listed probably should never even dribble a basketball.” So, I’m like, “Son of a gun, dude.” I’m like, “Who like, who do we got to put the ball in the basket on this team?” And that’s like a fundamental part of And you go back to like I was a die hard, too. And like I’m kind of back in it now. I remember, bro, Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe, and we signed Josh Smith and I remember being like I’m like 12 or something, but me and my like me and my buddy like dang near cried when we did because like Josh on the Hawks was like a he was I think he had just been or something. He was like hooping. Now 12-year-old me couldn’t process like floor spacing or nothing. I didn’t understand that part of it. But looking back, I’m like, man, you look at that roster, it’s like, okay, who’s putting the ball in the basket again? It’s like brand that small forward like probably not Monroe like with his back to the basket next to Josh Smith and Andre Drummond probably not Andre Drummond pro it’s like dang it’s a reoccurring issue until this year and I’m like the basket. Yeah. So then obviously like you mentioned it translated to a good season this past year. They ended up making the playoffs first playoff win since 2008. Just from your perspective from a fan perspective after going through last or two seasons ago now is what it’s called. two seasons ago after going through that and then having it one of the biggest turnarounds we’ve seen in just one off seasonason just how much fun was it watching this team this past year and what was the most fun about it? I think one of the biggest like most fun things about it was like seeing again going back to the ball in the basket thing of like having players on the team who when they shot the ball I was like yeah like yeah like he’s shooting and I think it’s going to go in. It’s like I would watch like KCP shoot. I’m like that dude just pulled like that dude tried like a little ISO step back for the win and I’m like I I’m trying to What game am I thinking of where Andre Drummond got the tip back win? He he t back. Yeah. Is that what I’m thinking of? But like Casey took a shot where I’m like what are you doing dude? So it’s just like nice like having confidence of like one we have players who are playing basketball. Our coach isn’t trying to lose games for some reason. Um, and it’s just like, hey, like we’re being a professional sports team. Like this is really cool. And we often had the best player on the floor and like he was developing into the best player on the floor, which is like cool to see. And for me, because they really picked up after Jaden Ivy got hurt and like I I think I fall into the camp that you fall into. Like I think some people are like, “Oh, Jay Ivy’s a problem.” And I think it’s just like coincidental of like, you know, the team is having to pick up and unfortunately Jay Knight went down. like me in the back of my head I’m like we have like naturally like we naturally are like almost bringing on a new player when Jaden Ivy comes back we’re like adding to this very good team. Um so it was just awesome like a lot of things are just great. So you mentioned Cade the Pistons seem like they have I mean that seemed like they do have a franchise player for the first time since like Chanty Vip Ben like that they were all one franchise player. I guess you combine them all and they’re like you know their own guy. Um, but the Pistons have a franchise guy. Blake in 201819 was great. I loved watching, but that was just one year. They finally have a franchise dude that when, like you mentioned, when he plays, you feel like the Pistons had the best player on the floor. How much fun was it to see the Pistons, someone a team that just hasn’t had that type of talent in such a long time, have someone repping the city, repping the team like that, and you being able to watch and be like, I’m watching a great player for once. Oh, it’s dope. And like it seems like they actually want to be here, too, which is like like they’re genuinely like happy to be a Detroit Piston. I mean, Cade was from day one when he got drafted with the Buffs, like he like genuinely wanted to live in Detroit, Michigan, it seemed like, and like represent the franchise. Like, that’s it’s just cool. Like, it’s cool. And it’s like, hey, we’re actually not even the underdog right now. Like, we’re actually just like I’m like looking at the players, I’m like, we actually don’t have to win this game off of just pure grit. Like, we actually might be more talented than them for once, which is like nice. Like, it’s nice to not have to will our way to just battle in a game. It’s just like Kate Cunningham is just better than everybody else on the floor. And then we have Malik Beasley at the time who like, oh, this is also the best shooter in the league right now. It’s like, okay, now we have like dudes who are hooping. Isaiah Stewart’s arguably he’s not, but he’s, you can make the argument he’s at least one of the best in uh interior defenders in the league. Jon Durren when he’s playing hard is one of the best upandcoming centers in the league. It’s like this is like cool. Like we actually are like winning matchups now. Not based off of our players just like want it more. We’re like outgridding the other team, but it’s like oh we’re just like more talented. It’s cool. So, with that, the Pistons, obviously, like we mentioned earlier, they made the playoffs, they won two games. How much fun was it to see the Pistons in a playoff series where at first it kind of felt like, you know, we’re just there cherry on top, whatever happens happens. And then you find yourself midway through the series, it’s like, oh my god, they might like they they might be able to pull this off. They should pull this one off. How was it? How was it to to experience all their emotions of that series? It was it was the first playoff series that I’ve seen that we didn’t get fored. Um because I I I was born in 2000, right? So like the original Pit I didn’t see, you know what I mean? Like I didn’t see Same here. I didn’t get I was 97. I didn’t really get You didn’t really see them either, right? And I mean like I will say what was it 16 where we played the Cavs hard for three out of the four games. It’s like that was like cool but I mean like whatever. Um it was actually cool like oh we’re winning games and like and it and like to me I’m like dude if cat isn’t insane in game two where he hit you he hit the fadeaway over Durn and then the I think another fadeaway over somebody for three. Um and it’s like dude like we lost like off of like kind of fluke that game. I don’t want to call it fluke because he is one of the best player but you know what I mean? It’s like oh like we’re actually hooping and we’re coming back with relatively the same roster give or take. Now, obviously, we’re losing Malik Beasley most most likely potentially. I don’t know. Um, and it’s like it’s just cool and it’s cool to be like in even in game six, it’s like, hey, we can actually win this game and we can go to game seven. Yeah. And it’s like I think if we go to game seven, like there’s a realistic chance that we can win that game, too. Um, and this is one of the best teams in the league and it’s one of the it’s one of the best sports cities in the world as well. So, it’s also like putting all of Detroit on the map and people aren’t just like laughing and like being like, “Oh, you guys are uh biting kneecaps to even be in this game.” It’s like, “No, Detroit’s actually like arguably has the best player on the floor.” Now, I don’t think Cade was the best player on the floor, unfortunately, in that series. I think he could have been. I don’t think he was probably due to experience and whatever, whatever, whatever. Um, but also like it’s just it’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And the funny, not the funny thing, but like the cool thing about it was like everyone wanted obviously and I would have loved to see it too, a home playoff win. It’s like you haven’t had a home playoff win in for such a long time. Let’s win one in LCA. They weren’t able to do that. But like you mentioned, the other end of the coin is they won two games on M in Mass and Square Garden. Like which one like which one honestly is more impressive? That a young team led by a bunch of young players went to Mass and Square Garden, won two playoff games in their like which one was honestly more impressive? So, it’s like, yeah, you would have liked to see a home playoff win, but my god, they went right into one of the most hostile, crazy environments, best homec court advantages in the NBA and got two wins off of them and they could have easily went seven. This is the team that went to the Eastern Conference finals, too. So, it was a fun series for sure. Yeah. And like you look at Cade, right? One hit the game winner earlier that year in Madison Square Garden. Um, so it’s like one like that even that in itself if nothing else happened it’s like oh that’s like a lot of like I don’t know when you’re tr to me when you have like a guy who you need to be a star you need to see them like perform in different situations and Kade you can definitely like cherrypick some stuff and not even cherry pick like he did perform in certain situations that like you’d like to see him do maybe late in games but at the same time like what game was it in the playoffs I believe if I’m not mistaken where he he had a good game in New York I can’t remember if we won or lost or not game two. Um game two. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s like that’s like promising cuz I think honestly I’ll be like the winning a game at home I think is a given eventually like we just happen to lose them. I think it’s it’s kind of a given. Winning a game on the road something like that like there in Boston or something like is not a given for a young team and to kind of do the hard one first is like oh we like if we have a if we go to a playoffs next year like I have no doubt in my mind that we should win a game at home. With that being said have we not won in New York I’d be like h like yeah the lights might be too bright. Right. Exactly. Like you don’t know that. In this case, it’s like, oh, I think Kate Cunningham can hoop. Like he can hoop in a big in a big spot. You need to see it maybe more consistently, but it’s like I don’t know. I have confidence in it at least. No. Yeah. I definitely that that was something I heard someone say the other day. They were talking about how they wanted to see a home playoff. When I started thinking to myself, I’m like, dude, they got two wins in Madison Square Garden. That’s that’s hard. That’s the harder part to do. The fact they were able to do that says more to me than anything else. But yeah, about about the team as a whole. Yeah. Like it says a lot. Like would it be cool? like obviously it’d be sick to win one LCA. Um but like in terms of like developmental like I don’t think that’s the hard part. I think any team can win the one home playoff game, right? Like it’s it’s the gentleman’s sweep for a reason. They they they they get one um usually at home and it’s like they can do that. The Pistons can do that. There’s no issues there. I don’t think but on the road you don’t know. And for us it’s like oh like I think I can say with confidence like we can do that, right? And it was a hell of a series and hopefully this upcoming season they get a chance to actually move forward into the into the second round, maybe even the third round. But coming up, I want to talk with Civ about what his expectations were as a fan coming into this off seasonason after having such a successful season, having such a good playoff, you know, performance in the first round for such a young team. What were you expecting and did what they actually end up doing meet your expectations? We’ll talk about that coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you guys by Open Phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every missed call is money left on the table. Think about the last time you had an urgent need. Maybe for a plumber or a service provider. If the first person didn’t answer, did you wait? Probably not. You moved on. That’s why you need Open Phone. Open Phone is the number one business phone system built to streamline and scale your customer communications all from an app on your phone or computer. The shared inbox feature is a game changer. 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I just wrote an article about Marcus Sasser’s season this past year and why he could be a hidden gem for another team to come and get from the Pistons roster and give a bigger opportunity he might pop doing so. So, check that out if you haven’t already. But S, let’s go ahead and get into what the Pistons did this off season. Now, there seems to be I’ve mentioned it before, there’s like a little bit of a Civil War probably is a bit too strong. I’ve been saying a Civil War, but it’s probably a little bit too strong because it’s not like I I don’t think they’re, you know, the community is this angry, whatever, fighting, whatever. But there is two different beliefs from different sections of the fan base where some people wanted the Pistons to be aggressive this offseason and go get another guy, go get a long-term for, go make a big deal or whatever. kind of like how Houston did. And then there was another section of the fan base that was like, “Let’s play it smart. Let’s play it patient. Let’s just wait. And this is not the time yet to make a swing. We have to wait still.” Where were you at heading into this offseason after this playoff series? Yeah. It’s crazy because like before this year, I would have been the very like I would have done anything for an eight seed. I would have been like, “Dude, trade everybody. Let’s just get we’ll just give me one. Give me give me something.” And like now I I I actually lean a lot more towards the patient side of it. um part and it’s weird because like part of it it’s a unique situation, right? Because a lot of it rides on what is Jaden Ivy when he comes back because like he is he’s not a free agent addition obviously, but he is an addition to the team and the team is in the team it would be it you would not be being honest to yourself if you said the Pistons with Jaden Ivy the the surrounding players were the exact same players as they were at the end of the year. Like they all obviously took steps forward, right? So it’s like, okay, where does Jaden Ivy fit in that? And Jaden Ivy himself actually like where does he go? Because he was shooting the ball well before which like there’s this like weird thing with like Jane Ivy has these like crazy like highlight like crazy explosive athleticism and so he gets seen as like a super slasher but like he shoots the ball like he can actually like he can shoot the ball like halfway decent. Now can he do it for 82 games? Like I don’t know. But he shot 40 something% from three I think um in the 30-ish games he played. It’s like okay is that consistent? because that’s consistent. It’s like, okay, that is a insane addition to the starting lineup. Like, that is it’s not a free agent, but it is bringing somebody back. The one that’s scary, um, there’s a couple spots I think are scary. One, it’s like Tobias Harris, like how good is he again? Like, he way overperformed last year. Like, he could have easily sucked last year, like bad, and nobody would have been shocked. Everyone, everyone would have been like, “Yep, this is what we thought.” And so, it’s like, do we get another good year out of him? If we do, it’s like, okay, awesome. Like, good decision. If we don’t, it’s like like that’s tough. They’re obviously banking on Tobias to be the same Tobias or, you know, stay relatively the same. I don’t I don’t know that they’re banking on it and they got us into a spot that I hadn’t seen in my lifetime. So, like I have I’m like inclined to give a little bit of like leeway to they’re seeing something where like they can squeeze. I don’t know what Tobias’s contract is. Um, but they think they can get another year of starting four potential out of him. Can they? I I don’t know. Um, the other one that was like interesting to me is like the Malik Beasley before before the whole thing of like, okay, obviously everyone wants Malik Beasley back. With that being said, Malik Beasley shot like he had a historic season. Yes. It’s like, is that realistic to do to do again? If so, yes. Like, we need him back. If not, it’s like that production can be produced otherwise or that production can be at least tried to get replicated otherwise. historically like the historic season. No, you can’t do that, right? Like that was insane. That could only be replicated by like him again maybe. But if he’s going to regress and I don’t know, it’s like do you think he’s going to regress? Do you not? That’s why I don’t hate the Duncan Robinson um signing as much as like I know some people really hate it and they’re like he won’t be anything near Malik Beasley. But also people didn’t think Malik Beasley would be Malik Beasley. So, it’s like if Duncan Robinson comes in and let’s say he takes a step forward like Malik Beasley does and it’s like oh well actually like that’s not a huge drop off at all actually. Um and so I don’t know I don’t hate it. Um obviously a big splash is like cool but I I genuinely think the big splash is like Kade developing more Ivy coming back the entire like Assar developing more having an actual off season. Um Ron Holland having an actual off season. Um, I do fear about like the backup point guard spot. I don’t know anything about um who they signed. It’s there’s a backup guard they signed. They got Caris Levert. They they got Levert, but then they get somebody else um they gave Jenkins a two-way. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m like the backup point guard because like it’d be pretty ignorant of you to be like, oh, like losing Dennis Schroeder and like like who cares? Like he obviously even not even talking like closing games like because obviously was a big deal there which you could argue okay Ivy replaces him there. It’s like who’s actually running the second unit. It’s like Sasser hasn’t shown that at all to be like an actual facilitator. I don’t I would highly doubt he ever is. Even though I I like Sasser. Um he’s like he’s a dope player, but I’m like he’s probably not the back. He can put the ball in the bucket. He know he’s like, “Oh, he shoots.” I’m like, “Yeah, like that’s what I’m talking about.” Everything else I’m like, “This dude’s six foot.” And I’m like, “Dang it. He he ain’t real good at dribbling or passing.” And I’m like, “Those are important skills for the point guard. Dang it.” like I’m telling you it’s casual, but I’m like it fits. So, I don’t know. I’m worried about that spot. Overall, though, I’m confident. Like, I think I don’t think a top four seat is insane. Especially, it’s just like do the young guys not take a step back, which could happen. Um, and then do the sign like do the people we bring in, are they able like to to I think like Duncan Robinson is like the big one. It’s like it is he able to progress a little bit and like re and fill the void of Beasley because Beasley obviously is a major deal. Yeah. I I I think what you mentioned about Duncan Robson is a great point. The point about Malik Beasley as well is a point I’ve made over and over that Malik Beasley wasn’t even going to replicate what Malik Beasley did last year. It just was unrealistic. Yeah. If he if he was going to do that then that would have been fantastic. But what he did last year just was not something you should expect anyone including Malik Beasley to be able to do again. So like you mentioned, can you kind of fill it in in other areas? Maybe you take a step back a little bit in the volume of threes, but can you get a little bigger? Can you get a little better defensively? Can you like can you make up for it in other areas? And Duncan Robinson for what it’s worth. He’s a great three-point shooter. And I think that with Cade and with Duran, he should get a lot more threes up as long as the Pistons I think he’ll play a lot of minutes. So, I think he’ll get a lot of threes up. He replicates a lot of the movement shooting that Malik Beasley did. I think he moves better without the ball as well. Um, and like you mentioned, people didn’t even think Malik Beasley was going to do this until he actually did it. like before last year, I’m sure people would have I think a lot of people would have said Duncan Robinson was just better than Malik Beas before the Piston signed him this past year. So, who knows what Duncan can do. Um the backup point guard position, I think that’s a fair concern. I just wrote this in uh the Sasser article I just broke down. I’ll go ahead and spoil this for anyone who hasn’t read it. Before Shruder’s first game in Detroit, the Pistons lost the non-cade minutes by 4.4 points per 100 possessions. As soon as they acquired Dennis Shruder for the rest of the year, they then won the non-K minutes by 5.1 points per under possession. So that’s a 9.9 point differential from when Shruder joined the team and before he joined the team. So losing Shruder, that could be a bit concerning. Um they’re hoping that Caris Levert obviously comes in, he’s able to replicate some of it. They’re biggest, what they’re really believing is that Jane Ivy is going to be this backup point guard. And I have concerns about whether he is a point guard. Um but that’s clearly their plan. They believe that is going to happen. So, we’ll have to see with that. Um, I think the most concerning one is the one you said at first is Tobias Harris. Tobias is going to be 33 this year. He did play really well this past year, especially as the season went on and especially in the playoffs. His defense in the playoffs was I couldn’t believe it, especially on cat. I he was playing great. Um, but he’s another year older. He’s 33 years old. At the beginning of last year, it wasn’t looking great. It was, you know, shaky. So, we already got a glimpse of potentially maybe he’s losing a step. He started to play better as the year went on. So, who knows? He had a little bit of an uneven season, but if he can play another good year, he has one more year left on his contract. If he can play another good year and give the Pistons just one more solid year of a forward position before they have to go get their forward in the future, they should be fine. But like you mentioned, if Tobias does take a step back, if he does start to so show a little slippage on the court, the Pistons just don’t have another four on the roster. They don’t have anyone else that can do what Tobias does on the roster. So, if he takes a step back, that could be pretty concerning. Uh, he had one of the best onoffs on the entire team simply because whoever was coming in for him just couldn’t do what he like they just didn’t have another power for on the team. So, and they still kind of have that issue. This is that was the main thing I wanted them to do this offseason was just get another power four, another four on the team. So, if Tobias does start to slow down, you can bring in somebody else without just sacrificing size, spacing, etc., etc. But yeah, I I think the offseason they they attacked it how Trejan Langdon told us he was going to attack the offseason for for the entire time during the season. When the season was going and they were playing well, he said, “I’m kind of shocked that we’re playing this well, but it doesn’t change anything.” When the season ended, he said, “I hope this past season doesn’t change how fans think. We’re still going to be patient.” He said, “At the press conference before the draft, we’re going to be patient. I don’t think we’re going to make any moves.” And then he did exactly that. So he he made it very clear where he was going to do and that’s exactly what he did. I think with this team just having improvement from the young guys, they should be able to compete for a top four seed, especially with the Eastern Conference getting weaker. Tatum out for the year, Halley out for the year, those teams kind of stripping down um all the salaries and whatever. This team should compete for a top four seed in the East. And that really just comes down to the improvements of Cade, Ivy, Assar, Duran, Holland. If they take the improvements, then this team should get better. So, we’ll see what happens. And I I would have liked them to try to go get a four this off seasonason, but then you ask the question of, okay, what four was really out there. I think Santi Alama could have been a good pickup, but he it didn’t look like Memphis wanted to move on from him. So, kind of had your hands tied. We’ll see how they perform this year. But coming up, I want to get Civ’s thoughts on what he expects from this team now next year. Is he expecting a playoff round se a playoff round win? What should fans expect after such a successful season this past year for the Detroit Pistons? We’ll talk about that coming up. 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The Orlando Magic have made some moves to try to jump in the East. The Atlanta Hawks have made some moves to try to jump up in the East. But at the same time, like we mentioned earlier, Indiana seems to be falling off this year. Boston is definitely falling off this year. And the Pistons are expecting growth from their young guys. So from as a fan going into this year, what are you expecting from this team? So the absolute like minimum bar I think is like postseason no play in. So like top six I think like anything less than that be like something clearly went very wrong. Maybe it’s uh Tobias, maybe it’s something like that, right? I think genuine realistic is like a a top four seed. A four like fourth seed Pistons I’m like yeah like dope. something higher than that. I’m like, “Oh, yo, like we we’re kind of like hooping hooping.” Four, five, six is like I could see relatively that. That’s what I’m kind of hoping. Um I want to see in terms of actual players, like I want to see one Kate continue just continue what he did last year. Like that’s obviously a huge deal. Seeing how Ivy actually fits into the team. Uh seeing also how like this is a random one, but I see how Sasser fits into the team because he was a a first round pick, late first round pick in year he’s going into year three. I think it’s it’s three, right? Yeah. And he hasn’t really played like he hasn’t gotten really meaningful minutes yet. And it’s like I don’t know. It’s just like what are we doing with Sasser? Um because I don’t like again I don’t think he’s a backup point guard and he’s not really doesn’t like lineup wise he’s going to play backup wing. So it’s like where does he actually play? Um I think those are like the the big things for me just seeing like the continued development. Ron Howen and Assar I one of them needs to learn how to shoot the basketball. That’s going to be important. It’s one of those skills, dude. Like, you just got to we need you to be able to shoot the basketball because like it’d be cool to see them play together. Like, if you could and right now they I don’t think I don’t know what the actual stats are in them. You might know um what the stats are on them playing together. It’s a very limited sample. They played around 100 minutes. They did outscore opponents by 11 points in those minutes, but because it’s such a small sample, we don’t really know was it like I’m sure they played a lot of game or or uh um end of game time where it’s like a blowout and they just throw you know, garbage time. How much of it was actual like within the flow of the game they’re winning minutes or was it just hey game’s over, we’re going to just throw out some, you know, we’ll throw you guys out there and we don’t know. So it’s a too small of a sample size to really read into at least for me to read over the logic that you’re making that you can’t play three non-shooters together and expect it to work like Yeah. And it’s like yeah you have to give Kate Cunningham like he is your absolute star player like again the team does go like he regresses it’s like yeah like it’s it’s not a good thing like we are in a bad spot and I would not expect to do anything worthwhile if he regresses unless someone unless literally unless Osar or Ivy like became you know allstars essentially. Um, so yeah, I’d be curious to see what happens to Ron Holland and SR because they’re both like especially SR because like he is just such a like I mean I think about like the spin move against the Knicks, right? Where it looks like the tape is like sped up. I think you know what I’m talking about, right? It’s like this is like fast forwarded, right? It’s like no, that’s just he’s that human. It’s like can that human develop a corner three please just to like maybe open up the opportunity for Ron Howland or vice versa. Um I would like to see that. That would be a massive step forward. Ron How? I saw him post post a picture of a scale earlier today, didn’t he? He’s like 15 pounds. Yep. Like, okay. Like, maybe no shot, but maybe we’re playing you at the four, brother. You gain a couple inches, too. Like, hey, like we might have in house, but no, that’s that’s what I’m hoping. That’s what I’m hoping. Yeah, Assar and Ron are both getting stronger. It seems like it was an emphasis from the Pistons front office. They want those guys to get bigger with them not having really a backup for four. It seems like to me, I’ve tried to pencil out the rotation. It seems like to me that Ron and SR will probably be splitting back up four minutes so they can fit 30 minutes for SR and also 25 plus for Ron. That’s what I’m assuming is going to happen. Um, and that’s just me trying to make the sense of why they didn’t get a backup four. That seems to make the most sense to me. Um, so I I think that plays a part in why both of them are trying to get bigger. Um, the question I want to ask you on top of that is we’ve seen a lot of people, I think it was just um, Brian Winhorse brought this up on the Hoop Collective and Zack Low talked about this on his podcast. The Pistons didn’t make a move this offseason, but they do have all their picks. They have a bunch of tradable contracts now. They have young guys that can be traded. Doesn’t mean they will make a trade, but I want to ask you, do you think a trade could happen this season? Do you think if they’re playing well at the at mid-season, could you see a trade happening or do you think it’s more likely that you know are you expecting them to kind of just ride this season with the young guys and just see what they do? Not Blockbuster. I like like Dennis Schroeder like that style trade like yeah definitely Blockbuster where like you’re bringing as someone who’s like even a new starter like unless inj obviously you never know. Um, but like I would be surprised because this is even and again uh uh Trejan it’s he’s new but like for me as a fan this is one of the first times in a long time we’ve had like genuine very good cap flexibility and cap and uh and draft picks because we’ve I can’t remember because I stopped watching for like three years or something and we like lo we like lost rights to something and like the Isaiah they traded Yeah. They traded a protected first to the Isaiah Stewart trade and they had weren’t able to give it up for like four years so it locked up like future picks they could trade, right? And I also think about the roster like because Isaiah Stewart I feel like is always talked about by fans of like oh he’s a really genuine good trade piece and he is the reason he is a genuine good trade piece is because he is a genuine good player that championship caliber teams like need. And I’m like well what are the Pistons trying to become? It’s like okay to trade him it’s like dude you are losing a you are losing one like one of the best strengths of the Pistons is that when when Jaylen Durn comes out we actually have someone who comes in who’s arguably better than him in a not not arguably like he he is actually better than the other team starting center in a lot of areas like there’s very few centers who are one of the best perimeter defend or I’m sorry well perimeter defender too but interior defenders and can shoot the ball a little bit. I’d like to see Isaiah like also continue like taking a step forward there. Um but it’s like this is a genuine skill set. was like, I don’t want to I don’t want to see that get traded. And that’s not even counting in the fact that he’s like Detroit grit, Detroit this, Detroit that, which is like cool. Um, like I’d love that, but like him as a basketball player, I’m like, dude, we need him. Ivy is like a right. He gets dangled around all the time. And I’m like, if Ivy’s good enough to bring back like an actual return, that means the Pistons are probably pretty good. Like literally, if he’s good enough, you know, unless we’re like throwing draft picks and stuff in there, which I mean, you know, there’s always that, but like if he’s good enough to be part of like a blockbuster deal, that means he’s good. Cade’s already good. We like that means we’re probably just a good team at that point. It’s like, okay, if you’re already like a good team pushing towards championship because we went six games, easily could have gone, easily could have won the series with a w with the conference champion runner-ups and then we get better from that. What does that make us conference championship worthy? If you’re conference championship worthy, you’re probably NBA Finals worthy, give or take, and we just don’t know that. We just have a bunch of young players. And to me, it’s like, yeah, that’s fair. If we lost in the conference championship, I wouldn’t be sitting there saying, “Dang, I wish we made a move in the deadline.” It’s like, “Holy crap, we just made the conference.” Like, and maybe that’s a some people call it like a loser mentality, but also No, I I get what you’re saying for sure. Yeah. It’s like, dude, like, okay, we also then get another year of us getting better and at that point it’s like, okay, Tobias is probably leave. We’re probably fill in that spot. Um, whatever, whatever. So, like, there’s natural changes that are happening there. Um, that that’s how I feel. I back up backup point like I could easily see trade block new starter anywhere. I’d be I’d be surprised. I think yeah, I I think it’s going to be I’m really interested to see what ends up happening because I was talking with uh Kyle Mets. He’s a salary cap guru in the Pistons community. I am on the podcast. Um I think like two weeks ago I was talking with him about, you know, the rules around if they extend Jay and Ivy and Jaylen During this awesome because they’re extension eligible. And if they don’t sign, I think it was like this week. If they don’t sign extension this week, they can’t be traded this year because it’ll be six months. You have to wait after your extension. It’ll be past the trade deadline. So, and then if you do if you do trade them and let’s say you don’t uh extend them and then you want to potentially trade them mid-season, that team then can’t extend them, they have to go into restricted free agency and just play that game with them. So, how does that, you know, I I I tend to think that based off what we’re seeing that Traers are going to play it a little bit more patient and want to keep the flexibility. I don’t think he my guess is he’s not going to want to lock himself out of not being able to potentially move off one of them if he wants to. So, I think he might just go into the season and just wait and and play restricted free agency. But, I mean, if we do see an extension from Ivy or Dur, I mean, that basically rules out any trade possibly happening anyways because you can’t trade him mid-season. So, that will give you kind of an idea into what they’re thinking. Um, if the season starts up and we don’t see an extension for either of these guys or maybe one of the guys, etc. So, I think that will give you kind of an understanding of where they’re at in the trade market. Last question I want to ask you before we move on. Do you think the Pistons actually know what how do I want to phrase this? I wanted it to be like kind of like a a hot take kind of segment. How many Okay, let’s say this. How many top 100 players do you think the Pistons will have at the end of this season? How many top 100? So, Kade Cunningham, Assar Thompson needs to be there. Um, so that that’s at least that’s immediately two. Jaden Ivy, I don’t know. I’d love if Jaden I think like I will say if Jaden Ivy’s in there, it’s like the Pistons are a really good basketball team. Yeah. Like we’re a really good team. Top 100, dude. Oh man, I wish I I wish I had more ball knowledge. I only asked you this because I just got done with my top 100 list and now I want to figure out like who would have Dang. I I wish I wish I had more ball knowledge. Kind of casual here. Like I’mma throw I I want I want to say Jaylen Durn’s there too. Um dang. I just don’t know how deep like you would consider like I’m in my head. I’m like is Isaiah Stewart in there? Like he’s one of the best interior defenders in the league. So like he has to like he you have to put him in there. So, like that’s four, but also I’m like, is that too many? This I This is where I’m like four. If they end up having four, things are looking really good. Not saying that. I don’t think that’s unrealistic. I’m like, I’m also I’m a dirt believer. I’m I’m genuinely a dirt believer, too. Um he reminds me he does remind me a lot of and everyone says it is Drummond. Um uh being like a center who can actually playmake a little bit, which and a rebounding fiend. Um who also at the beginning of the year had some like motor issues for lack of a better word. Um, which like reminds me very much of Grummond. Yeah. Um, and but but but Jaylen’s like, “You know what, dude? I’ve actually been kind of” He made that tweet or something. He’s like, “You know what? I’ve been in my fields lately or whatever. Let me lock in.” And he locked in. I was like, “Okay.” He did. Um, he did. I I I think if I think I think Ford is genuinely realistic, I think. And I also think if that’s the case, then the Pistons are really good. Yeah. And I also I think the Pistons can be really good. Like I don’t think that’s unrealistic. We have good players for the first time ever. Yes. No, I think that’s the main I think that’s the main point of why it’s just so much excitement around this team right now. No matter wherever you were in the offseason, everyone will get over the offseason. Whether you wanted a big trade or whatever, soon as the season starts up, everyone’s going to be excited. And it’s because they have Kade, who I had as like a top 12ish player in the league already. I think Assar Thompson is going to be a top 100 player this year. I think Jaylen Dur could be a top 100 player this year. If Jane Ivy takes a step forward, maybe he could be a top 100 player. Isaiah Stewart, like you mentioned, he’s one of the best backup bigs in the entire NBA. He’d start on some teams. He’s one of the best defensive centers in the league. That’s not even mentioning Ron Holland, and maybe they take a st. If the young guys improve, this should be a very very fun season for the Detroit Pistons, and you should see some really cool stuff happen this year. So, I I I’m really excited for it, and I’m interested to see it, man. This this is an exciting time to be a Pistons fan. So, I we can wrap it up there. Civ, thank you so much for coming on, man. let anyone know, everyone who’s listening to the podcast, if you guys happen to be interested in Madden content, Civ does a great job breaking down the game of Madden, uh the the ebooks, which thank you, Civ, for hooking me up. Uh and then also, uh the content on YouTube, on Twitter, let everyone know where they can find you. Uh so, Mr. Civ, Miser Civ, uh that’s how you find me on Twitter. Type in civil on YouTube, you’ll find a lot of my college football and mad stuff. K and I actually played each other in your first ever MCS thing and you actually gave me a good game. I I think I won by like 15 or something but it was a good game for like the major like it was I threw a dumb I threw a dumb intercept stupid which is like what everyone who they’re playing their first game ever like they do. It’s same thing as real sports by the way. It’s like your first time in the like you’re just going to do some st dumb stuff and it’s just like I was just a bunch demon. That’s all I remember time. Yeah. You were a hard first round matchup. you you were kind of like the Pistons and I was like dude like you were No, you were like the you’re like the 2016 Pistons though. Like the Cavs like Dang. He like really like come on bro. I’m I’m hoping I’m hoping to make it a little farther this year and I’m I’m going to make a bet before we wrap up. I’m going to make a bet that you end up participating. I don’t think you’ll actually be able to stay out. I think you’ll end up playing. The issue is like how much do I actually lock there’s like differences in like locked locked inness and there is I believe last year you said that you were like I don’t know if I’m going to do it and then you locked in. You ended up I I skipped three of them last year though. I like that’s I I only played in two last year. I skipped three. I skipped three because there’s a point where it’s like if I’m not locked in enough, I’m going to go out there. It’s like an old retired basketball player. Like you can’t go out. You made it pretty far in one of them. Yeah. And I was I was like I was like accidentally making it. I was winning games I shouldn’t have been winning. I think you and W were both made like the top 32 or top somewhere around there. You guys were like one game, two game away from making it all the way. I was watching both of y’all. I’ve had a couple accidental runs like that. Whereas I think one of them you ran into KV. Yeah, I beat KV. I accidentally beat him. Oh yeah, I accidentally beat him in that one. I was I don’t know how I won this game. We just I went out there and outwilled him. Like it was We have We have 90% of the listeners wondering what are they talking about? Who is a kid? What is that? Is this football basketball? It’s Tigers. Man dropping. Oh no. The Tigers, man. I started watching them and they immediately started going on a losing streak like immediately. That’s a down. But we’ll be back. We’ll be back. Hopefully. Hopefully. Um, appreciate you guys checking out the podcast, making it your first listen every single day. Again, thank you s for coming on. I appreciate it. Hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Leave us a fivestar review, whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. And until next time, I will see you guys later. Stay safe out there. And until next time, peace out, everybody.

Detroit Pistons shock the NBA with playoff wins and a successful season. Is this the dawn of a new era in Motor City basketball?

Host Ku Khahil and guest Civil break down the Pistons’ surprising 2024-25 season, including their first playoff victory since 2008. The duo analyzes Cade Cunningham’s impact, the team’s competitive series against the New York Knicks, and key offseason moves. They explore the development of young stars like Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, while discussing potential trades and roster strategies.

Discover why Pistons fans are buzzing with excitement and how this young core could reshape the Eastern Conference landscape. Tune in for insider perspectives on Detroit’s path from rebuilding to contention.

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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