The Pistons Pulse: Keith Smith on the Offseason

The Pistons Pulse: Keith Smith on the Offseason

[Music] [Applause] hello and welcome to your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast the Pistons pulse co-hosted by me Bryce Simon of Motor City Hoops a former D1 Hooper and current teacher husband and father of three amazing kids I’m Mari Sano for the second piss beat writer the Detroit Free Press and of course we’re blessed to always be joined by our producer West Davenport and for episode 125 we bring back our guy friend of the it’s so cool to be able to call this man a friend of the Pistons pulse podcast he is from the front office Show podcast which guys if you’re not watching you should be watching especially on Fridays when him and Trevor Lane go live he contributes over at spot track and the basketball bulletin substack it’s our guy Keith Smith Keith what’s up hey man I appreciate all that but it just tells me you need better friends I don’t know man I’m not sure but yeah I appreciate that thank you so much it’s it’s always fun to join you guys how’s the uh post Celtics high right now it’s okay right I I woke up happy this morning I I’m in a good mood I uh I’m extremely excited but now it’s like nine days yeah you know can’t get too excited now I’ll end up peeking like a week out from the finals if I if I go to over the top so my I I I am both subsequently sad that we’re we lost so many games because so many of these short series uh but I am also very happy because I have an incredible amount of writing to do about the off season so now I at least like I can’t make the excuse at night of well I got to watch a game instead so I just have to pull myself away from Marvel movies and bad TV and other stuff to to actually get the writing done that I need below deck right Keith that’s yeah below deck man that’s my show that’s the that is the trash show of uh Choice here in the Smith household but the we’re going to try to delay that until we get into the middle of July and in the offseason slows down but for now it’ll be uh be writing and then focusing on catching up on the draft guys that I haven’t had a chance to really get into yet do you think think that like the NBA let’s say the Mavs win tonight we’re recording this on Tuesday in sweep do you think they lose any momentum through the playoffs with that or you think they’ll find enough storylines between the Mavs and Celtics that you know it’ll cover these seven eight nine days yeah I i’ it’ll be okay in general I think I think people are are very um in tune to looking for uh the NBA finals in June right and that’s it’s talked about that all the time time right you want to be playing in June you want to be playing in June so I think people are very ready for that part of it what it’s going to get tough is I think we’re going to start to see some maybe offseason stuff that was planning to come out a little later we’ll probably get pulled up we’ll probably start getting into some rumor stuff and some things like that and then I think we’ll also get into a lot of uh deep Dives on this uh potential Finals series that people are going to eventually be like all right come on we’re down to the nasada versus Dwight P breakdown like we’re we’re probably okay here on finals coverage but it’ll be a lot of fun I think the the the people who do it right and do it seriously they’re gonna have a chance to really sink their teeth into this one in a way you don’t usually get to because a lot of times it’s all right series ended there’s a day or two and we’re right into the next one so at least this time around we’ll have a little bit of time to digest and figure it all out and do the analysis Mari had some Pistons news so since the last time we recorded so I’ll let you talk about that a little bit and then obviously we’ll get Keith’s thoughts yeah no doubt obviously the the big news of the past week was Tran langon being hired as the Pistons to do head of basketball operations or president of basketball operations hasn’t been officially announced so I’m not sure which wordage they’re going to to finalize with it uh but that’s the deal right now and not sure exactly when it’s be going to become official official I assume within the next you know day day and a half or so I saw he already put uh P’s basketball apps in his Twitter profile so there’s got to be some amount of ink dried on it at this point uh I know a lot of people don’t know how to feel about it just because he’s not somebody who’s been in like a leading role and he doesn’t but over the weekend today and the feedback is all been he’s really smart uh he’s a great communicator uh very much a people oriented person and you know obviously those are some of the traits he want you know in a uh president and he’s been deeply involved in scouting at all of his stops as well you kind of see how Brooklyn built while he was there and then the Pelicans these past few years getting guys like herb Jones and uh Trey Murphy Keith I’m just curious you do you do you have any insight on TR and langden and like obviously the Pistons they just need somebody who can really organized and get this thing going I guess overall thoughts on uh this higher and what he brings yeah I know he’s a guy who’s extremely well regarded around the league people really like him uh one of the things you heard commonly about him was he puts in the work that that that helps also helps he as a player for a long time I didn’t spent a lot of time in the NBA but played overseas some uh was obviously a very high level college player he’s known to be a very good communicator with players which is very helpful in these roles I think sometimes where the breakdown is is if everything from the front office to the players has to be filtered through a coach you lose some of that connection there really I view it as it’s like a it’s like a stool with four legs you have ownership front office coaches and players and if anyone’s out of balance you get a little wobbly so you want to have them all kind of balanced together so they’re all able to get on the same page and those kind of things and that seems to be something he’s very skilled at as far as what did he drive transactionally that’s always hard when it’s not the guy in the top spot but I’m sure he was a big part of a lot of the decision making there in New Orleans and they’ve done quite a bit of stuff in his time there uh especially under David Griffin they they really made trades they draft picks they made some really gutsy trades they did a lot of different things I’m sure he was heavily involved because the number two often that’s where it starts a lot of times it’s it’s the two number twos are getting together and they kind of hammer everything out and then it goes to the main guys who really kind of find to in the details get it to a place where they’re they’re good before ownership signs off on it so I I I think he’s pretty good at it but we’re going to find out here in presumably the next month I guess as long as everything goes out we’re expecting it to I uh they then we’ll start to get a real read on what he likes to do guys I see you asking the draft questions we’ll talk draft with Keith at the end of the episode I know Keith has dove into the the NBA draft and he’s going to be able to talk about that and and the prospects he likes and some of those things so we’ll dive into that but while we have Keith here we wanted to talk about Langan and the front office and the office off season and the salary cap and and all of those things I think you brought up something that’s interesting Keith because you know how how much can we actually know about what langden likes doesn’t like like is there anything from that history with the Nets with the Pelicans where he wasn’t the number one guy or should we all kind of just be hey we’re probably all GNA learn it as we go this offseason in terms of what free ageny goes after what who he drafts and those type of things I mean is there anything we can really know in this situation right now yeah I don’t know that there is necessarily I mean we’ll start to get that picture and I’m sure when it is finalized and he’s really doing the job we’ll start to get more will come out whether that be from like the big reporters like w j Shams or those guys or the local guys like Omari Who start to form that relationship with them and where the immediate with the draft and stuff we may get that from the various draft experts who have presumably had a lot of conversations with him and the like as they’ve been at different scouting events because uh as you guys know sometimes at these scouting events there’s a lot of downtime and one thing we know with these guys they love to talk right so it’ll be you know there there’s probably all kinds of thoughts and I’m sure some of the leading draft experts can give us a better feel on what he prefers in a player like what he’s looking for and those kind of things because you’re probably not going to get a whole lot of that in an introductory press conference it’ll be we want good players who are good people who are going to be good in the community and want to be you know members of the Detroit Pistons right and that’s okay cool but that tells us absolutely nothing right because it’s I’d almost respect it more if it was like look I don’t care if the dude’s a dirt ball If he if he could play and put the ball in the hoop I’m drafting him right like then be all right well at least we kind of know that part of it but everybody says the same kind of things there and it’ll be overtime we’ll start to develop that picture and then transactionally with the NBA side we’ll start to probably understand that some with what is some of the roster decisions he makes right out of the gate because presumably he’ll be very involved on a couple of the team options non- guarantees those kind of things and then what does he do with what I’m projecting to be a whole bunch of cap space how does he handle that going going into the off season and then you always find out what does he think about the guys who are on the roster right because if some of those guys are they’re out of here draft week well we know how he felt about them probably um with that so that that that’ll it’s we don’t it you go from almost unknown to all right we think we have a pretty good idea very very quickly just because that’s the necessity of how quick it has to come together uh in the NBA one of the top decisions you mentioned the roster pretty much out of the gate uh the two top decisions I think everybody’s curious about is try weer and Monty Williams just to reiterate it’s sort of been the same situation since they started the search but Tran will have power to reshape the front office staff as he sees fit you know if that involves fire and Troy or Monty and uh M has still around 67 million guaranteed on his contract you know I checked in on it last week and uh you know they’re prepared to eat that if need be uh I guess keep like I know like you cover so much like I never know how much you’re able to watch individual games or uh you know have opinions on individual coaches but when the GM comes in you typically see them when they come in and sort of uh get things going immediately right like there’s some examples of you know coaches stay GM staying but more after than not it seems like they come in and they sort of do a clean sweep get their own people in there yeah they absolutely do now here’s the tricky part we’re less than a month from the draft so there is I don’t know that we’re going to see TR and langon come in and clean sweep the front office out because you you one even if there are people he wants to hire that generally a lot of those contracts they work like July 1st to July 1 just like players do so sometimes what happens in those cases is let’s just and I’m completely making this up but let’s say there’s somebody in scouting staff of the Pelicans he really wants to bring over unless he’s bringing him over in like a major promotion which teams don’t generally block somebody at that level uh he’s probably not going to hire him until after things are said and done so that becomes a little bit of a challenge that’ll be more of a let’s let’s do this going into next year’s uh transaction cycle and all that so I think what H what you’ll probably see happen is come in all right here’s the work I had done over here in New Orleans here’s the work you all did here in Detroit and now we’re going to try to marry these things together a little bit to have a little bit of an understanding but I would expect there to be some level of changes and I’m with you I i’ I I fully believe everything that you all have dug up and reported on hey if he wants to move on from the coach he can but man that’s a difficult conversation to say hey want to light $64 million on fire because I don’t that mty Williams turns right around and gets a job right away which would presumably the exit negotiation would or the contract’s already written so that if he takes another job that goes away another head coaching job that is so he may say because he clearly wasn’t super enthused right out of the gate to take this job in the first place I think he was looking forward to hey I want to take a little time off I want to do some other stuff maybe I’ll pop up and do some TV or whatever it is here and if he does that you’re now paying him a lot of money to sit home for a number of years so I I’m sure it’s probably more of a hey I believe coach X over here that I can hire is the guy for us and that means Monty has to go that’s probably when the situation happens we’re getting a little late in the game for all that so my guesses will probably be hey let’s at least give this a year see what it looks like can we work together can we start getting things moving in the right direction Troy Weaver is a different situ it’s just such an odd place to be in for Troy Weaver too I get it people have a feel certain feelings about him but I think Troy Weavers you got to have at least a little sympathy to the fact of that’s weird now someone else is coming in to do your job over you and it’s like all right you know what is my role here how much do I have to say so I’m thinking that’s probably a Let’s help with the transition maybe he sticks through like the draft and beginning part of free agency but kind of just G only and then we may see that kind of quietly hey the that may be one where like Omari you dig it up hey heard last week Troy Weaver is now done with the Pistons and has moved on and because it may be something that happens kind of quietly I don’t know that it’ll be a big public thing because I think everybody wants to be reasonable and decent to people in this situation yeah I mean I’ve seen the value of Troy Weaver for trasan langon because no matter what people think about what Weaver has built here Weaver is the one that made the final decision ision on bringing those guys in and if I’m tran Lan I would want to know well why did you think J Ivy why did you think Jaylen Duren why did you think Simone fonio etc etc whether you agree with it or not I would if I was in langon shoes I would love to be able to pick Troy Weaver’s brain over why this stuff all happened how it happened and all of that I want to ask real quick and then we’ll move to the players and the offseason and the cap and I want to ask some general cap questions have they missed the boat on the coaching you kind of touched on this real quick but you know if they let’s say they fired Monty Williams two weeks from now whatever are there still good candidates out there that just you for you you would be excited about right the Lakers coaching search is going to take up one of these guys are there still some names or have the Pistons missed the boat where it’s like you know no matter what he thinks about Monty this is probably better for him to stay on and we’ll re-evaluate this a year from now when maybe we can get ahead of everybody else you I don’t know that they’ve missed the boat I I think it’s more of a what kind of coach do you want CU right now we have the Lakers and the Cavs and they’re kind of swimming in the sameish pool of candidates where they’re two teams that are trying to win right they they’re not rebuilding they are trying to win right now so they’re looking for certain kinds of coaches then you have Washington that is very much more in the same position as Detroit but I think Washington is taking even a longer Range View they are in year one of just starting this process we completed a full year of their tear down that’ll come when we land right around draft time so I think the Wizards are in a spa where hey we can go with a very young upand cominging coach or even if it’s not young just a coach firsttime coach and go I think for Detroit you’re in a spot where what are the goals right and that’s going to be for me if I’m tryan langon and presumably this conversation’s already been had but would be with ownership with Tom gors and crew what is the goal this year next year three years years five years where are we trying to get to and it can’t just be win a title right because that’s sure that sounds awesome let’s do that but it needs to be realistic is it this year we want to be this year’s version of the magic or we want to be uh even if it’s not the magic a team that takes a more normal we want to be in contention for the playing tournament and then next year a playoff team the year after that went around and now we’re into a different status if that’s where we want to go okay now if that’s the case I might be looking at more of a Kenny Atkinson James bgo maybe even the best decision when you’ve done all your analysis keep Monty Williams he’s done well with veteran teams in the past so that might be where this is all headed I think before you can do that though you have to get organizational alignment from the top straight through because I feel like that’s almost been a little bit of the missing piece somewhat here feel like ownership kind of hired the guys they hired and then you know did one of these and walked away and then it was wait where are we going not that you don’t need Tom gors is in ownership driving down on TR and langon every day being involved in every conversation but but you do want to have organizational alignment in what your goals are and that’ll help drive your other decision so that’s a long way to say I don’t think they’ve missed the boat if they decide you could still get a Sam Cassel if you wanted you could probably still get James morgo sounds like trying to come back in I think Kenny ainson would be an interesting hire considering it’s going to be almost no matter what a pretty young team that’s building up but a lot of that depends on where we going and sort of building off of that uh Trent’s coming into a situation where on paper you’re mid rebuild because kad’s extension eligible this summer uh you have durran and Ivy who will be there next year and you’re sort of in the point in the rebuild where you have to make decisions quickly as far as which guys are really part of this thing and which guys do we need to move on from now and figure out what their value is you look at most rebuilds typically after a few years you probably have two guys who are worth building around regardless of how many picks you’ve had and they’ve had eight first rounders in the past four years um as far as that coach search is it like do you maybe go the magic route where it’s okay we have guys that we’re committed to and we can begin to really compete or do you almost look at this like this team won 14 games like regardless of what has already been built we have to come in this with a completely fresh perspective and maybe at that point it’s almost more of a re rebuild I guess you look at where the Pistons are do you fall as far as where this timeline is or where it should be and think the good thing for Trent Lan is he’s not walking into any bad money on the books where it’s like oh we’re already locked into these three contracts and there’s not a lot you can do with it he’s now on the flip side there’s no bad money on the books because there’s been no long-term decisions made yeah in the past few years so he has to make those decisions like you said on Kate Cunningham that’s a decision that really needs to be made I’m going to say within the next month is you it’s it’s hard because if you’re not going to offer a guy a Max contract it gets a little wonky and a little weird if you’re going to do it that’ll be a midnight on July 1st I know free agency opens at 6 pm on the 30th but because that’s a rookie scale thing that’s a July 1 at midnight thing it’s it’s just a silly six-h hour difference thing doesn’t really matter if you’re still up you’re gonna see it and I would presume if they’re if they’re locked in which spoiler alert I would be with Kate Cunningham I would give him the fiveyear max without question if you’re going to do that I would get locked into that and what I would say to them is that would be a midnight on July 1 Thing leak it to whichever reporter you’re favorable with and out of come so ideally give it to Omari right that’s where it should go first um so let’s go with this now the challenge I think then becomes where are we going with the rest of the guys that’s where that we’re going to find out very quickly how does TR and langon feel we may feel get get a sense of some of that as early as draft week because if you start seeing moves where it’s Jaden Ivy moves or somebody else moves now all of a sudden we’re in a position where it becomes okay he’s he’s not locked into having to keep every young player on the roster and do all these things and that that can be a very very different place all right Amari let’s go to a short break when we come back I want to get Keith’s thoughts and transition a little bit into the off season salary cap of the Pistons salary caps of other teams what may becomes available to the Pistons because of other teams salary cap restrictions and where this salary cap is going Keith because that media deal sounds insane so Amari let’s start with the Pistons cap sheet when we come back from this all right we are back with segment two and Keith if there’s any I don’t know if there’s a silver lining to fall in the fifth but it’s that did clear up a little bit more cap space so the Pistons went from the cap space leader to now even have a little bit more on top of that I think the projections are around 64 billion um you know I guess one just from an overall cap situation that we know that they’re wide open but just how viable is it to be a team with cap space this year especially when you look at that se that second apron and teams who are going to maneuver around that yeah let me start with I feel like we could have just ran what we ran last year when we talked about the Silver Linings of falling and opening up more cap space and maybe even the year before right the difference Keith is Victor wiama was in last year’s class Victor wiama is not in this year’s class yeah exactly yeah you you’re you’re still you’re you’re still in range to probably get a guy you may like like that number one anyway so this year yeah they yeah that’s a that’s a slight seven foot4 difference I guess um yeah so here’s the thing I I I released cap space projections and the number one reply I get back almost immediately is who cares there’s no good free agents you can’t sign anybody anyway and when I no I can’t be the coach I don’t have nearly enough knowledge to do that I could probably assist the front office with cap stuff but head coach no not even close i d d Brown drops in the chat can Keith Smith be the coach so I’m I’m I’m here with Dereck Brown on this one no no I would fail miserably at that at that uh position I can tell you that much I they extended my coaching was a couple years of High School JV that’s not going to cut it in the NBA so back to to the cap space number one thing I get is who cares there’s no good free agents anyway that’s true but you don’t have to use cap space to sign free agents as piston fans are well aware you can use it to take on contracts but you can also use it to Aid in trading for players you I’m GNA for lack of a better term say actually want I’m on their contract so if if there’s a guy that the Pistons are like man we really want player X and one of the best things we have to offer is we don’t have to send you back any salary you don’t want we can do that and we know they’ve got young players they’ve got draft assets they’ve got all kinds of stuff they could throw into a trade as well so I think that’s the value of cap space is it gives you optionality that you would have to be in a very different place meaning the Pistons can can be in any conversation they want to be in with trades or free agents which is we’ll see where it goes but that’s better than being so capped out and in a miserable spot for example the Portland Trailblazers aren’t that far off where the Pistons are at but they’re they’re at the luxury tax line going into the summertime is a terrible team yeah I’d rather be in the Piston spot as a bad team with all this flexibility than than Portland kind of saying like hey who wants Malcolm Brogden and Robert Williams and maybe DeAndre Aton and in those kind of conversations and they’re probably going to do okay I think in trades for those guys but they don’t have a ton of flexibility they are backed a little bit into a corner so I’d rather be in Detroit’s spot with the ability to jump in any conversation you want to have and to add on to that real quick what are some of the other teams who sort of fit that profile of like we have more guys than we need to pay like I know the Hawks are probably a team that will look to off some salaries sort of who else fits within that that category so real quick Michael asked this maybe Keith can touch on teams might be moving off established players to save money and and I want to tie this all together Keith because when you say take on bad contracts Pistons fans automatically go to Joe Harris Who provided zero value to the Pistons there’s guys that can provide value that are just getting paid more than what they’re actually worth but can still be good players so maybe you could name a few of those as you go through some of these teams also yeah I mean I mentioned Portland right it would be weird for to bad teams like this to do a deal but let’s say the Pistons were like you know Malcolm Brogden can really help us and honestly probably could right he come in and just be a stable Steady Hand at the guard position and they’re like yeah we can do his $22 million uh contract this summer you know we we’ll we’ll take that on and give a little bit of salary relief it’s probably not going to be the Dwayne deadmond Joe Harris just dump all your bad money here kind of stuff I mean it certainly could it could be that because you you you could had done that down that path if they wanted to go that way so teams you’re looking at that that are in that kind of situation would be Atlanta Omari you’re spot on with that one way too expensive to be dancing around the tax line they is funny as we said with the Pistons moving up say how much did the Hawks jump Keith how much they added seven million and that’s important for them right that was huge I mean did that jump them close to an apron apron or over an apron not an apron necessarily A lot of that depends on what they do with guys like sadik Bay um do they resign him or what happens with someone like V Cree you are they gonna bring him back and then clearly we know deari Trey young Clint capella there’s gonna be something’s gonna happen there I think um within their veteran group but but they’re they’re dancing around it now so they’re in a tricky spot from a standpoint of $7 million for them changing things now if it was $7 million to draft Victor wanyama you don’t care you’re throwing the biggest party with that that you can dra Alex SAR I know we both like him as the top guy Bryce um it’s it’s a that’s different right that’s a much more of a shot in the dark kind of situation so I think what happens for Atlanta is you got to get off some money one way or another whether that happens in a Trey Young trade dejonte Mari trade a Clint capella trade something and I know that I’m not pitching by any means all those guys as options for Detroit but yeah if you wanted to get involved on dejonte Mari sure like why not and and that could could be a way you go now we know the Pelicans were trying to trade for Deon Mari so maybe we do have a little insight maybe Trent Lon does really like him and I think on his contract he’d be a good player and that’s the kind of guy who can help you step forward and then be a part of it when you actually made the step forward only 27 years old f with Kate yeah that’s it yeah yeah people get this is a total aside people get way too tied up in this timeline stuff of doesn’t fit the timeline doesn’t fit the timeline because what what happens the first time a team gets kind of good well we got to get them a veteran to help get them the too young like right yeah like what are we doing like get the veteran first like and enjoy him all the way up there like I get it you don’t need to go at a uh they wouldn’t do but PJ Tucker or Russell Westbrook like that yeah that would be silly but Deon Murray who’s in his mid to late 20s like come on wait that’s fine like don’t you think there’s the idea of like the move that M leads to the next move also like even if Deonte and Kade aren’t perfect fits Deon is a really good player on a good contract right now and then maybe in two or three years when Cade’s really ready to contend and the rest of the roster really maybe then you take him combine him to something else and you get the perfect fit next decade not trying win so good that like M’s contract is going to be a joke in a couple years like he’s like it’s already a good deal but he’s I mean what he’s making like 24 like something like that yeah it’s like 20 27 I think is average annual value but yeah you the points still hold that’s a great contract especially with where the Cap’s going to be going here pretty soon um so back to to other teams because that’s Atlanta is definitely one of them for sure I think there’s a world where Denver could potentially look to do something where falling short this year I personal opinion is I would not overreact I think they just ran into a Minnesota team that was a buz buzs saww at the moment not a good matchup for them and they just couldn’t get through them um but there are some who suggested maybe they look to move Michael Porter Jr and then turn Michael Porter Jr’s Flex by getting off that money in full or turn him into two or three guys that can flush out their depth because clearly that was an issue by the end of that series against the Nuggets only Christian Brown was coming off the bench for them they didn’t trust anybody else to play minutes I would rather see them hey let’s really invest in the young guys in the regular season make sure we give them minutes you can’t yoyo them in and out of the rotation like Julian St was all year long let’s really stick with them and let’s run so that that’s another team I think think you could keep an eye on potentially looking to make a move golden state is obviously sent all these kind of so funny man Wes is on it dude um I assume that’s Wes um but the duties so we we have them ready to go all right perfect um yeah Andrew Wiggins could definitely be a guy that could be in play uh the Warriors have made a lot of comments on we’re gonna get under the luxury tax I don’t know if they’ll get all the way under the luxury tax but I think they’re going to be under the aprons I think they are going to commit to getting off some money if not Wiggins let’s say Wiggins Can’t Be Moved could you jump in and and you know steal somebody else right like that those are the conversations you are now a little bit there um with golden state quick Keith real big dog Pistons ask Isaiah Stewarts for Wiggins in a first- round pick I just I want to use this is Wiggins a neutral value is he a complete negative value what do you think Andrew Wiggins Market is this summer with that contract and where he was as a player at least this last year and kind of the uncertainty around all of that yeah so here’s the thing if you’re going to trade for Andrew Wiggins you’re trading for for $85 million roughly over the next three seasons it’s about 26 28 and then 30 is about where we’re headed with that you have to have a serious conversation and understand organizationally it’s not anything we need to know anybody watching this listening or anything like that but the Pistons would need to know what’s going on in your personal life that caused you to miss so much time because the last thing you can do right now is say hey we’ll take on that money to to have you then play 25 games and be out for you know two-thirds of a season or whatever because I think think if this was a one-year deal who cares you’re eating a contract for for draft Assets in return so that’s the difference now I think in the Warriors case I don’t know that Isaiah Stewart fits exactly what they would want I don’t know I I don’t hate the the idea and I don’t hate the deal with construction I don’t know that you’re getting a first back though in that situation because I don’t know that they’ll be that desperate to dump Andrew Wiggins I I personally think how the Warriors are going to handle things this I think they’re going to wave Chris Paul which will knock 30 million off the books and then I think if Klay Thompson is back it’s going to be roughly for half what he made this year and that puts them in the position to get under or really close to under the tax line and definitely under the apron so that’s how I think they’ll be but that’s a that’s a spot if it’s a if if um if it was Detroit sending a pick Maybe maybe then I don’t know that I would do that though that feels like kind of weird value on that side so I I think it’s a little little I think there’s just a little mismatch there on that one so um with that one but the idea is solid of of the Warriors and how they they’re going to be looking I’ll run through the next couple quick sure yeah I think the Clippers could be in a position where if they are it’s certainly not about money with them they’ll Steve Balmer can spend whatever it is but if they want to have uh increased roster flexibility you could see maybe a Norman Powell is available somebody like that who they’re like hey we’re we’re gonna have our guys but but we’re going to start to move off at some of the money that we’ve invested in backups Memphis is a team that’s in an Uncharted Territory without expensive they’re going to be pending whatever happens with Luke Canard and and a couple other decisions but that could be one where let’s say you really liked John conchar let’s say you really have a thing for zier Williams you could probably pick one of those guys off very cheaply Miami very expensive team Milwaukee is in a little bit of a weird spot the challenge for the bucks is they can’t be trading out of depth they need to keep their depth because they’re an older team then we get into the two that I think will be prominent for everybody Minnesota and Phoenix so Minnesota is looking at potentially being one of the most expensive teams in the NBA next year anthon the Edwards qualified for all NBA that b to the 30% salary tier from the 25 car towns has a max extension kicking in there Jade McDaniels extension kicks in you still have Rudy goar theyve resigned Mike Conley and then you’ve got a whole bunch of other guys that are making like four or five million and that fills it out where they they’re gonna be pushing 200 million by the time they fill that roster out that is them way over the second apron if they bow out in four to Dallas or even five or even six and they just start looking around saying all right we had a run but it wasn’t quite good enough they could turn and say all we need to make moves it’s not going to be Anthony Edwards it’s not going to be Jaden McDaniels but could it be carony towns sure with the way he’s played maybe um I don’t think it’ll be nikil Alexander Walker okay I’d ask silent Green’s question here answer it rather I think he’s too valuable on too small of a contract uh for for the Timberwolves to let him go they they that’s more of the kind of guys they need to get uh to rebalance a little bit there so so that’s team that’s going to be in trouble and then obviously Phoenix um Now Phoenix has said we’re not trading Booker beel or Durant those guys are all here they’re all sticking we’re not doing anything with that I kind of get it it’s it’s uh you can’t really trade Beal very easily uh you you shouldn’t be even considering trading Devin Booker that leaves Kevin Durant you’re not can return enough value that’s going to make anybody happy keep them but Yousef nurkic maybe Grayson Allen probably not because he just signed an extension that’ll keep him out of trade talks at least till we’re in season so then that becomes guys like see little maybe okay you know but there’s just not a lot there so so those are the kind of teams you’re looking at and then there’ll be a bunch of like the Lakers who could be too expensive maybe won’t be they could get involved on teams like that so it should be ample opportunity for Detroit to take on some money this summer and not just in the form of terrible contract for a future first round pick it should be all right this guy just doesn’t fit there because the team’s trying to shed money but this guy can actually play Y no doubt uh I thought of a joke earlier like only because somebody in the comments mentioned we could just tank for Cooper flag next season and I’m like he’s not gonna be there with the fifth pick [Laughter] Keith um Amari why you got to do that to people that is so almost made me spit out to drink of water I took that was going to be a legit spit take from me so and Amari said that like is this really going to be a good joke Amari I don’t know and then you landed it and I was like that was really nice here’s what I’ll say I started diving into the 2025 draft can we already stop calling this the Cooper flag draft and not talking about Ace Bailey or anybody like there are other dudes in this 2025 class that that are pretty good also it’s already gone it’s too far gone you’re know you’re know what will happen though if Ace Bailey starts playing awesome it’ll I’ve started calling it The Cooper flag Ace Bailey draft cuz I like Ace Bailey a lot I love he’s going to be really good so but I’ve also seen I’ve seen Cooper flag play more basketball in high school than anybody since my high school career then I uh I Cooper flag’s gonna be really really good absolutely that was not a shot at Cooper flag it was more of a there’s like Ace Bailey there’s there’s a few other guys in that class that I’m like I think there this could be a three four player draft and not just Cooper flag and no other but nobody else in that tier so I think it’s also going to look better after this year’s draft is not quite as star heavy with like players playing in the US that are American born and all that stuff I think that’s gonna help as well PE people are going to be watching Cooper flag they’re gonna be watching Ace bayy they’re gonna see those guys play a lot versus it’s funny because people still say versus granny Youtube footage it’s not that way anymore like I in two seconds dial up Alex SAR film then it’s awesome it’s as good as anything going to get anywhere else but it’s uh it’s still the average Fan’s not watching that on a Saturday afternoon it’s not on their TV Saturday afternoon on CBS or espan or whatever no doubt Keith real quickly before we get to segment three can we touch on Simone fonio he’s a restricted free agent and probably outside of Kade probably the only other guy who’s a real priority to resign uh this offseason maybe Quinton Grimes is in there but uh just how do you see that that playing out uh what are the mechanisms they have to sign them and uh just sort of how would you project his value and the market around him yeah the good news is the Pistons have early bird rights on him if I remember correctly um so they’re not in a position where he’s not going to get paid I don’t think more than what they could give him with his early bird rights like that’s like roughly 17 million in starting salary you start getting above that that’s and that then then I’m starting to feel very uncertain about that kind of contract but if if it’s anything around even the mid-level exception which is about 13 million that’s probably fine now here’s the challenge is restricted free agent unless there’s a team with cap space that is really made fonio their priority um that helps the Pistons right because restricted free agents the process just sucks for them they get squeezed unless they are really really really really good players guys like that probably shouldn’t even have gotten a restricted free agency it does it’s those guys are always later to go off the board like I almost look at it similar to what happened with Grant Williams a year ago where similarish players and that they’re forwards who can shoot the ball um Grant’s a little bit bigger fonio is a little bit better a ball handler and those kind of things but I think there is a position with fono where could be maybe there’s a team that says hey we want to do the full midlevel I don’t think that’s enough for Detroit to Blink though I think he was a targeted acquisition now the bit level’s around 13 right so you’re looking right around like a threeyear 40 something million deal that would be yeah in that range a little a little bit more than that but yeah I think um unless you’re in a spa where Trent langton’s like yeah he I think he stinks and I don’t want any part of them here I didn’t trade for him which I don’t think is going to be the case I I think you’re looking at the pist is getting him back and probably on a more friendly contract than even a mid-level deal you’re probably talking about him maxing out around maybe eight to 10 million uh with that and that that’s great because that doesn’t even need it in your cap space if you sign them something like that you just hold it you you sit on that low cap hold use up your cap space and then sign him last after your cap space is used up or in the I know I shouldn’t say last but after cap space is gone because you room exception could come after but you’re at that point you’re in the exceptions and signings so that’s what I was going to ask and I know Amari before we go to break we need to get the injury update on on fonio but what is the me what is the order of operations I’ve listened to the front office show enough to know orders of operation matter go back to math class and everybody what is the order of oper is there a way that because he’s a restricted free agent it can screw it up like will they is there a path where he has to he’s GNA end up getting signed first and that eats into the cap space as opposed to last where it doesn’t like what are the ways this could play out in in terms of that yeah so order of operations is huge it’s so what happens in the process of this is we’re all going to get a whole flood of tweets at six o’clock on June 30th of player X has agreed to why you know contract y with Team Z and what’s going to happen is everybody’s going to immediately start running off and plugging those in and saying team has now no cap space left to whatever let’s say the Pistons come right out and say let’s say it’s one of the early tweets is pistons and font you agree to $8 million a year contract I’m just making it up what what will functionally happen is the Pistons will use 64 million in cap space that’s my projection so I want to run with it use that up then after they’ve used that up then they come back because they still had Fon teo’s cap hold which is just a a placeholder on the books then they’ll sign him after they’ve used the cap space that’ll take them up and over the cap then the room exception they could do the room exception first it doesn’t matter once you’ve used your cap space you could kind of lay out the transactions almost whatever Direction you want so that’s what they’ll do now where it could get screwed up is let’s say Orlando or Philly are like man we love fono and we’re we’re we’re parachuting in here with a $17 million a year contract then what happens is the Pistons have 24 hours to match it once that’s signed and that’s where it could screw things up it goes on the books immediately right yeah so what happens is that offer sits on the books until they decide to match or not match and if they match it’s immediately on the books because youve now matched a signed contract offer and entered into contract that’s the only way gets messed up I don’t think any of the cap space teams or even a team with the full midlevel is going to come in and try to mess around with Detroit and I think what would happen is let’s say it’s let’s say that is a situation where it’s like hey we’re not going to match this we’re not going to keep you what you do is you work it out with that other team to say hey let’s turn this into rather than an offer sheet let’s turn this into a sign and trade so we could still maximize our cap space then we’ll sign and trade the guy to you and we’ll toss in a second round pick or whatever the case needs to be to to incent that other team into doing that okay no that that’s what I wonder because I knew the order of operations was important there and I was just wondering if there’s a way he actually Aid into the cap space as opposed to after it so and then Amari I know you have an update on you know some offseason injury news with with tech yeah just quickly uh he missed the last 15 games last season with the tow injury he had surgery on that within the last few days and he’s expected to make aord recovery and be healthy until a training camp so for those who are curious about fi status that’s where it’s at not expect it to be a serious deal um we’re going to go to segment three and in segment three we’ll answer some of your questions and also talk a little bit more about free agency and who’s available at the draft all right we’re back with segment three Keith just to open and I’m not sure how much you can really project this until you actually get into it and see where the evaluations are uh the Pistons obviously owe a future first round pick to the New York Knicks because of the Isaiah Stewart deal they have they have cap space of course they can absorb salary how do you in a league where you have teams like the Thunder and others who are just sitting on draft picks do you see that as weakening the Pistons in the market when it comes to getting maybe the higher tier guys who are being dumped or how do you see that playing out yeah I I think they’re in a good this is a weird summer for cap space teams because a couple of the highest uh projected cap space teams are also really good so you have Philly Philly yep Philly should be really good Orlando’s pretty good Oklahoma City’s really good those are three of the top four cap space teams and Utah’s in a little bit of a weird spot where Utah has I it’s almost gotten weird to me to the point of how much they’re reminding everybody at every turn we’re going big game hunting we’re going to try to get a star we’re we’re doing whatever it is it’s like Justin danic just got back to work after the the kidney uh procedure and like he’s immediately like we’re going big game hunting this summer and it’s like man is that all you thought about their recovery like we’re we’re we’re right here on that line so I would say they’re in a weird spot too so of the teams with cap space this summer it’s a little odd that Detroit’s kind of the only one that’s bad normally teams with cap space are bad teams and it’s just and even San Antonio I would say is in a weirder spot than the Pistons because they’re bad but they’ve won Bama so you’re you’re you’re almost operating in a weird spot so that allows the Pistons if they wanted to play the game and I know everybody’s gonna be like oh great this again but eat contracts for draft picks they’re better position to do it than anybody else because nobody else is really sitting on cap space to be able to do that and their teams certainly are not going to put up with that right Oklahoma City Thunder fans if they ate a contract for a draft pick this summer they might Riot you know they might tear the building down like they’re they’re gonna lose their minds so they don’t get a 25th draft pick yeah exactly yeah yeah the 25th draft pick that’s probably going to be the 25th pick in the draft right something like that so that’s where I think Detroit has set up pretty well again that flexibility of we can play this a lot of different ways I’m gonna sound like a broken record but that’s where you G have that organizational alignment what are we playing for are we trying to be good right now we trying to be in a position where hey we’re going to I know it maybe not what everybody wants to hear but we’ got another year rebuilding ahead of us if that’s the case you could do those kind of things so I think they are really well positioned to do that but I think more importantly it is let’s try to get some guys who can play because there’s going to be guys who can play actually play available this year and it’s not shouldn’t just be let’s just eat a whole bunch of contracts I think it’ll be a spa where we can actually get some good players and really try to move this thing forward all right we got quite a few questions in the queue and we don’t want to your time is very precious Keith so we’ll we’ll start getting to those Amari and we’ll just go through him as fast as we can and we’ll we’ll try to get to some NBA draft stuff also I kind of like this question from Keith battle are there any players on the current Pistons rather that other teams would actually want like do you think there’s value out there for how do how do teams do you think view Jay naivy Jaylen durren I’m not saying the Pistons should be considering trading those guys but maybe there is a consolidation of young Talent or an Isaiah Stewart something like that you know outside of Kate Cunningham are there guys on this team that you think would be um attract Ive to other NBA teams yeah at all various levels right that’s the benefit of they’re all either still on their rookie deals or they are on reasonable deals even Isaiah Stewart who by the time like we kind of flip to the off season is likely to be the biggest contract on the roster he is somebody I teams would say 15 million for what what he should be is a solid backup five that’s fine right many teams are going to be okay with that kind of thing I I know teams that love Jaden Ivy I have had at least four or five teams be like he was criminally misused last year and it’s partially because I’ve also written and tweeted about that so they’re they’re gonna say that because they know like they’re in agreement with me on that but it it is a um spot where I know there’s a lot of teams like plug this guy in on a really good team and he’s that and he could be a Malik monk type of six man where he’s filling up the scoring um Jaylen Duran’s a te guy that I know I don’t no teams that don’t like him especially on his rookie deal now I think that one could flip very quickly where if it’s that becomes an immediate Max contract in an extension then that might get a little weird uh for some teams but for now team teams are very high on guys like that so uh Thompson another one everybody loves that guy like he would be a very easily plug in play on a lot of these teams it’s what what happens at this time of year too is everybody starts evaluating them could you put them on the Celtics and they play a role in these big games could one of these guys played on the Pacers and lifted them all into you know more competitive games wise Series against Boston could they play for Dallas could they play for Minnesota that starts to be a lot of the conversation is could these guys get dropped in when these teams talk about them because if you’re trading for a guy like that it’s probably one of two things either you think it’s an ivy situation and the Pistons Z what they have potentially I think that swung is a year one a little bit or it’s a situation of we’re trying to be very good and we think this guy can pop right in and help us so so that’s where where where I think we’re definitely in a situation where we we we could get get get some value out of some of these guys I think the bigger thing is the Pistons kind of traded the tradable guys already and I I wouldn’t unless somebody blows me away with an offer I’m keeping all these kids I’m not I’m not doing anything uh drastic this summer with any of these guys no doubt uh we have a question here from Mohamed uh what realistic Target do you think would fit K like a a glove and I guess with with that you’re probably looking at guys almost like fonio right like just getting more shooting AR yeah I mean that’s a lot of it right is G give him shooting because I I think l so last year which sounds weird because the team was worse but in the prior I know the year before it was it was his season was a mess but I’m going back to like his rookie year I felt like he lost faith in guys there were too many times where he broke down a defense made the right read jumper got clanged off the front of the rim jumper got cracked off the backboard I feel like then what happens is all right I got to do it myself that leads to I’ll take this crappy mid-range pullup rather than make the right passing read I thought really started year two for him where he was making the right right kind of moves making the right decisions then I think it really flipped into this year I thought he made the right decision more often than not is far as being a playmaker now what’s also nice with him is you can really go into the season saying hey you are functionally defensively are one two or three we’re going to play you at any one of those positions I I very much believe positions now are defined more by defensive role than they are offensive uh or Define defined by what you do defensively offensive things I think are more roles than they are positions per se um so I think yeah getting more shooting around him ideally three and D guys right let’s improve the defense too so I saw somebody pop up narie Marshall yeah that’s I definitely would be on a guy like that the good news is this is a draft or free agent class you can actually get guys like that which is I think is going to be valuable like I I think guy a guy like Gary Harris could be somebody you could get without breaking the bank that could really help I think uh Gary Trent Jr is another guy you could bring in that could help again you’re you’re just trying to get guys in there that without breaking the bank if you wanted to get a more stable point guard in there and transition Kate a little more into playing with another ball handler a guy like tyus Jones could come in and be be a good addition and then uh if you want to go a little further down Caleb Martin Heywood heith Royce O’Neal these are all guys that you could get Tory Craig is another guy I really kind kind of like where you could get all these guys and none of these guys are going to be you’re not throwing the parade for signing these guys but these are the types of signings when we look back in it’s February and it’s like hey the Pistons are still kind of hanging around the playing tournament race it’s probably going to be because of guys like that that came in and filled a role right away with that and that’s the nice thing about Kade Cunningham you don’t have to because he’s so flexible where you could play him you could draft all kinds of guys if he was a a scoot erson type point guard where he’s a true point guard you have to be careful you don’t draft somebody who’s over top of him or sign someone who’s over top of him where Kate is that that that gives you that value because of his flexibility we had a question earlier and then I lost it but what do you think like Isaiah hartenstein versus Nick claxton’s suitors are going to be this summer whether it’s a piston I know both of those guys come up a lot in Piston’s conversations what kind of contracts do you think those two guys have played themselves into yeah it wouldn’t Shock Me if either guy landed around 20 million a year I I I think they they could for sure um get get into that range and it’s funny people still have this like block with 20 million but 20 million’s not it’s one sth of the salary cap this year when we get into the cap growth we’re talking you know by by the time we’re done a $20 million contract is going to be the midlevel you know so we’re we’re not talking a contract that’s massive so I I think that’s that’s part one right you could definitely get into to you could see those guys getting contracts like that I think Haren sign’s probably more likely to just stay in New York I think he’s found a home there players do value this team believed in me enough to sign me a couple years ago I don’t need to break the bank for them when I’m gonna get more money than I’ve ever seen anyway and he may give up on a little bit of money to stay do the Bobby poris thing Keith he could yeah that’s definitely an option where where he resigns and then plays out another year and then uh is a free agent again yeah we could see something like the full bird is that right because right now he has the early and then he could go one more year would get him the full he could do a one-ear or he could do if he resigns using he could do a one-year for similar money to what he makes now or he could do a early bird which would have to be two years and then an option and come out of it or he may just say hey I don’t want to play games just give me 17 million right now and we’ll call it good and awful like that that could definitely be a thing and then I think claxon there’s going to be a lot of what’s going to come down to that is one how much the Nets value where are the Nets going as a team I think that’s a weird situation with a lot of different possibilities there and that may be if you parachuted in and said 25 million a year the Nets may be like we’re out we just we we don’t even want to touch that i’m g go that direction so I that th those guys are definitely I think going to get paid I just think carton sign’s a little less getable because I think there’s a sense of he may give the Knicks a little bit of a discount to just stay there because because that has been such a great spot for him Kei we’re going to close out by touching on the draft uh we have a question from Aruna How likely are the Pistons to trade out of this draft the the Intel I’ve gotten is that they’re pretty likely just given the spot and also where they are as a team uh we could probably tweak this from more of a value standpoint do you see the value of the F pick being tradable or do you have guys at that five spot that you think are worth taking if you’re the Pistons are just going that route yeah I think what kind of stinks for the Pistons in that position is you don’t have teams that are still in the same is range where teams have multiple picks that you could like like let’s say you had a team that had um 10 and 12 you could probably say all right that makes sense like we’ll we’ll take 10 and 12 for five there’s some like that and just try to flush it out but I think the other challenge is who’s trying to come up like that’s that’s going to be be my thing that that would have to be a very targeted player that a team very highly believes in is coming up to to get that uh to get that guy so I think that’s the that’s a little bit of the challenge there this is not this doesn’t really feel like that kind of draft where teams are going to be doing that but that said sometimes when the draft is a lot more flat guys slip that that teams love and then that could be where it opens up let’s say for some reason Alex SAR or Zachary reash is sitting there at five I could see a world where a team says no we got to get him let’s get up there to get to that fifth pick and and we’ll give Detroit some value here to to go make that happen and just a little spoiler Amari did trade the number five pick in an upcoming mock draft that will be out on the basketball bulletin in a couple days we’ve been going at this for like 10 days guys and so uh we’re finishing it up here slowly but surely and I’m not going to spoil who we traded it to and what happened there but Keith like you text me today with one of your picks and like I couldn’t or maybe it’s the other day like couldn’t let this person slide anymore so in our mocks that type of stuff happens I want to ask you about some Pistons specific players and then we’ll let you go Keith Pistons talk and I think he was talking about maybe the the one that would make sense would be trading back to seven and 14 with the Blazers if the Blazers wanted to move up to five for somebody but he brings up Cody Williams tin John Salon we don’t have to talk about tin John Saloon Wes does that enough on our podcast that’s his guy but Cody Williams Zachary Reet Dalton connect give us your Pistons wish list if you were Tran Langan or advising him I would let’s let’s throw Alex SAR out and say he goes number one I think everybody else is somewhat possible what do you think Keith you you’ve scouted these guys you’re doing the doing the work yeah I like reash I and I also I’m trying not to get swayed by recency he played really well in some big games down the stretch and that that means a lot to me this is the equivalent to me of the guy who has the big NCAA tournament run you have to be really careful because you have to you have to use your full body of work and your full Scout on this and some of that I’m SED a little more because I’m spending more time on this now than I did earlier in the year but I like the kid um I you know I like Cody Williams probably I think I like him more than you do yes um he he he’s somebody I I think he’s really good I think he got caught in super weird situations in Colorado where it felt like it was kind of his team then he had some injuries then it kind of became KJ simpsons’s team to run with the ball then he had more injuries and then by the time we were into the conference tournament and the NCA tournament he’s playing with a mask he’s limping around on a not great ankle and he didn’t look very good but if if we go again Body Work Cody Williams shot the ball better than I thought he was going to um I thought thought he shows a lot athletically I don’t know that he’s quite as strong or athletic as his brother is but I think there’s like a smidgen under that which is pretty good because Jaylen Williams is a really good athlete I also think Jaylen Williams saw the game better sure but he also had the ball in his hands a lot more for Santa Clara than right Santa CL I think it was Sant yeah I I tend to get Santa Clair and Pepperdine guys confused because it’s like California schools and then I’m like I don’t know they play in the same league they play Santa Clair is the one that’s putting all the dudes in the NBA that’s what they would tell you the difference because that’s where pods came from as well exactly yeah and I knew I knew Pensky was there so um but yeah with Cody Williams I I like him quite quite a bit other players that I personally have in that range on my board I think Nichola toic could now be there I I think there’s a world where we’re going to see him potentially SL a little bit depending on how how worried teams are about this knee stuff um it’s not the knee injury it’s the second knee injury that I think has some teams concern there I would be all right if they if he’s still on the board Reed Shepard I think could be a I love Reed Sheard yeah man he’s tough he’s he’s really tough he gets after it there now if you trade back sure then that opens it up even more now now you’re talking instead of seven eight players that could be in range now you’re talking maybe 20 players if straight back even just a few picks and and I know we probably don’t want to get in all that I would I mean I would love to if we had unlimited time but I I don’t I don’t know that that’s what we want to do but yeah I there’s a lot of guys I would also my number two guy on my I have Alex SAR number one on my personal board my number two guy I like Donovan kinging also love him I and I think there’s a world where he could be really good I think Donovan kinging by like year five or six is going to shoot three-pointers I think I think he’s gonna have a Brook Lopez like career but the second half of Brook Lopez his career where ultimate rim protector I think he’s a pretty good rebounder I think he moves his feet a lot better than people give him credit for um I think people see big white kid and they think all right well he’s probably stiff he can’t really move he can move like he could cover some ground and and I I don’t know man I’m just a huge fan of his timing his shot blocking and I think he’s going to shoot so that that puts him just in a position where I I’m I’m right there with him behind SAR I mean I know that’s a little higher than a lot of people have him but feels like that’s getting more in range now I would that so yeah if he was on the board I’d be all over him too the thing with him is I wouldn’t be surprised if they go one two I mean if SAR goes one to the hog a chance I would not be shocked if the Wizards who need a big man you know took cing in I I I’ve been writing about these over on my substack and kingan has I’ve warmed up to the idea because the other thing with Kling is I don’t think he’s going to come in and play 30 minutes a night you know even at Yukon his minutes were a little bit lower so the first couple years of his career 20 to 24 minutes is probably what he needs to do you know kind of kind of like what we see in Dallas with Derrick Lively II right now in terms of limiting his minutes and another good big there also so yeah and I think in Washington’s case I mean if I was Washington I think SAR goes first that’s my been my opinion now for a solid month or more um I would go if Clingan is on the board I would take him and not even I don’t even know that I’d really listen to trade offers or anything because they’re probably not gonna be good enough and then you have ran Holmes maybe you play him a little bit you have Marvin baggley you play him give cling in 24 25 minutes a night as a rookie let him build into to the role play the other guy behind him or even in front of him if you need to to start the year let him grow into the role because you can afford to be patient you’re not you’re trying to win you know just be patient with him and he he’s going to be big time so yeah I I’m I’m really excited about him Keith I think we’re probably cut cut it off there a little past time but always such a pleasure to have you on especially now with the Pistons probably being one of the more interesting teams of this off season just with all the different ways they can go please tell our listeners where they can find you find all my written work over at spot track I am in the middle of offseason preview series there where we’re about uh 17 teams deep now maybe 18 I can’t remember we go in order of elim ation so uh anybody who’s a lottery team is up Pistons are obviously up uh there so um if anybody wants to read that I’ve also got free agent previews coming out we do them by position traditional positions just because that’s easiest that’s what most people understand uh point guards and shooting guards are are posted there are 217 potential free agents that is inclusive of all of the two-way players I ranked all 2117 of them within their position buckets and wrote something about all of them I buried my self in g-league film trying to understand more about the two-way guys trying to look for two-way guys that could pop and maybe bnba a rotation guys spoiler there’s not very many this this class round there’s a couple but but there’s some guys I like um one of whom that I actually like is Jared Rhoden who I don’t understand why I didn’t get more of a chance in Detroit I really liked him uh quite a bit but yeah it’s um so that’s all coming out I Bryce mentioned it earlier NBA front office show with Trevor Lane and I um we we have a blast on that show we new episodes come up every day Monday through Friday every Friday is a live show um where we call front office Friday it’s the fan no no no do it Keith if you’re I can’t do it I have to save it for the show okay I almost did it but then I felt bad I know you guys gotta go check it out what we’re talking about just yeah the beginning of every show it’s amazing it starts because I get I get fired up I enjoy talking basketball with my buddy so he’s Trevor’s one of my best friends for those who don’t know Trevor’s a Lakers guy I’m a Celtics guy so there’s a lot of in with that there too but we we we we have a lot of fun with it but we have a blast those Friday shows are phenomenal there for the fans to uh you know really it’s it’s your show to ask questions and and get into that and sometimes we go completely off the rails and Fridays get nuts we will also be live for the NBA draft uh probably for the first round we’ll see on the second round but definitely for the first round and then we will also be live each night uh starting on the 30th probably somewhere around 1:2 a.m. um because well we do is we go live when free agency starts to slow down a little bit for the day and we recap everything um there uh you know throughout the course of what’s happened that day in the NBA with free agency so you can find all that and then the basketball bulletin which right now Bryce is carrying uh with all of his scouting notes and everything uh for us it’s just this time of year is hard for me to get a lot of words up there uh but Trevor’s had some stuff going up there as well we have a good time over there too so lot of stuff going on this is a this is my favorite time of year and not only just because the Celtics are back in the finals but that certainly helps and I appreciate Amari wearing the green shirt tonight too yeah completely coincidental but we’ll make it a retroactive honor I’m like I’m from Detroit like cover the Pistons I cannot like I can’t even joking act like I’m signing with the the the Celtics like they will kick me off the pot so I don’t know apparently conferences are now a thing right it’s St into college sports where was like SEC SEC like we got we have to root for the conference which is the Trevor’s leading the charge like listen I thought I thought the like banter back and forth on the show was a little bit of like a stick like no like Trevor has texted me things where I’m like dang you really hate the Celtics like you really he does you really want them to lose oh yeah he he’s been on his favorite team is the Lakers his second favorite team is whoever’s playing Boston so he has been since the Celtics have kind of rolled through which easy path fully get it not nothing they did except to earn it by being the one seed but yeah he uh Trevor has been 100% he’s like I need somebody’s got to beat these guys he he does not want them getting that 18th title so there I I assume by game one of the finals he’s gonna be wearing Maverick’s gear and all out and going crazy for Dallas but yeah I uh I I obviously I I grew up in Boston so I’m a Celtics kid and I you know forever will be and that’s uh that’s my team but yeah I’m fired up but yeah man he he’s he’s but yeah it’s now turned into this weird like conference alignment thing like we’re not turning the NBA into stupid college football let’s cheer for even though we hate this school and we would burn the entire campus to the ground and salt the Earth underneath it like but we’ll root for him because it’s it’s our conference in a bowl game that’s nonsense that is not a thing and we’re not doing that in the plant your flag yeah fair enough also Keith I don’t think you actually have time to watch the MCU I was thinking about you went to ra 17 guys I don’t like it’s like how theide the NBA guys called out cat for the 1500 jumpers I don’t think you actually watch the MCU I don’t think you have time for that no yeah I you know funny thing is I’ve been very thankful for this slowdown within Marvel right now because I would not be nearly because I I do devote a good amount of time to that but yeah I love it I love it man I those Marvel movies my favorite thing in the world there is there is a good chance if there’s not a basketball game on my TV there’s a Marvel movie playing at some point and every summer I it’s now it’s getting very hard because there’s so many movies and TV shows I used every summer uh my daughter’s gotten into it now too we would do a full rewatch now it’s that that’s like that’s an investment of time that I don’t know that we can make but yeah man and I’ll be there day one Deadpool I can’t wait that’s it slots right between summer league and and the Olympics so I can’t wait I’m all fired up for that and that’s the also the only MCU movie this year which makes it easier too instead of the usual four exactly yeah yeah but yeah no you’re you’re you’re absolutely right I would not have had time and I can be honest I probably wouldn’t have watched as much G League film if there was more Marval stuff coming out hey well the MCU we can thank for that right there it hey ke always such a pleasure to have you on and I’ll go ahead and close this big thanks to our audio producer Robin Chan our editor andin Chief Nico Avery Nichols and our executive producer Kirkland Crawford and big thanks to Wes as always and we will talk to you all next week think

The Pistons Pulse is your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast for all the best news, analysis, insights and opinions on the team.

Hosted by Omari Sankofa of the Detroit Free Press and Bryce Simon of Motor City Hoops. Omari brings insider insights and analysis as a Pistons beat writer and Detroit native combined with Bryce’s in-depth on-court analysis as a former D1 player and current high school coach of 12 years.

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