Cade Cunningham Is MUCH BETTER Than Paolo Banchero! NBA.com Ranking Paolo Ahead of Cade is CRAZY!

Cade Cunningham Is MUCH BETTER Than Paolo Banchero! NBA.com Ranking Paolo Ahead of Cade is CRAZY!

NBA.com has Paulo Ben Carol ranked ahead of Kate Cunningham in the Eastern Conference. I’m gonna tell you guys why that is absolutely foolish and why Kate is clearly better than Paulo Ben Carroll. We’ll talk about it 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 on Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host Cougill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons over the last four years for the lockdown on network band credential media member over the last three years. I appreciate all of you guys who make locked on Pistons your first listen of every day, the everydayers, the first listeners. I appreciate all of you guys, all the support as always. And today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Later on, I’m gonna tell you guys why starting to come around to the Caris Levert signing, why he could be pretty good for the Pistons. I’ll break it down later. And then also, are we going to see Ron and SR play together this season? I’ll talk about that a little bit later as well, but I’m about to spend probably 10 plus minutes on this segment, man. NBA.com, they put out a ranking of the best players in the Eastern Conference. They had Giannis number one, Jaylen Brunson number two, Donovan Mitchell number three, Paulo Ben Carroll four, and Cade five. I don’t want to spend time talking about Giannis. Don’t want to spend time talking about Jaylen Brunson. I might try one day I might try to argue Donovan Mitchell, but I’m not even going to try to argue that one. Paulo Ben Carroll being over K. Cunningham is utterly ridiculous. And I’m going to not only spend this time talking about why K Cunningham is clearly better than Paulo. Paulo is becoming one of the most overrated players in the NBA right now. I’m gonna tell you guys why. Let’s just start with the basics. Okay, we can start with the basics. K Cunningham on the season averaged 26 n 26 points, 9.1 assist, 6.1 rebounds on much let me not say much better on better efficiency than Paulo. He shot 56 he had a 56.5 true shooting percentage. Paulo this year, if we’re just going to do straight box score numbers, we can do that first. He averaged 25.9 points a game, seven and a half rebounds, 4.8 assists of 3.0 turnovers on 54 55.1 true shooting. So K was more efficient. He’s a much better playmaker. Like just based off the box score numbers, he’s a much better playmaker than Paulo. Paulo also turns the ball over a ton for not being a good playmaker. It’s not like he’s turned the ball over a ton, but also creating for his his team offensively. He’s not doing that. He’s not a good playmaker. He doesn’t touch Kate as a playmaker. Kate is a more efficient scorer. He’s a better scorer and he’s just a better defender. People look at Paulo and think because he’s big and long that you expect him to be able to play defense and theoretically he should be a good defender, but he has not shown through his career during the regular season with the Orlando Magic that he himself individually is this great defender. I think Kade is a better defender consistently night to night than Paulo Beno is. But that’s just the straight box score numbers. I want to leave the straight box score numbers because this is where I’m really about to start getting heated, bro. And this is why I I don’t understand, actually, I do understand why Paulo Beno gets so overrated because in the playoffs, he goes from shooting 32% from the three-point range, he shoots 44% in the playoffs and everyone thinks he’s having a great playoffs when really he’s shooting 42% on twos and the only thing he’s able to do in the playoffs is make threes at he’s making threes in the playoffs as someone who does not be who is not a good three-pointer shooter. That’s not sustainable. That’s the only thing that’s happening in the playoffs for him. He puts on these big numbers, scores 30 points in a game while he’s shooting 2% from the two-point range. But because he hit five threes, a fluke five threes, people think he’s I’m about I’m really about to get heated, but let’s go ahead and just keep it going. K. Cunningham shoots better from short mid-range than than Paulo. He shoots better from long mid-range than Paulo. He shoots better on all mid-range than Paulo. He shoots better from corner three than Paulo. He shoots better than non-corn corner threes than Paulo. Paulo, this is where Cade ranks on all these in all these areas on the floor. 85th percentile short mid-range, 68th percentile in long mid-range, 89th percentile in all mid-ranges, 45th percentile on corner threes, 51st percentile on non-corn corner threes, and overall from three, 56 52nd percentile. This is where Apollo ranks on these. 46th percentile on short mid-range, 64th percentile from long mid-range, which again, we’re going to go X. You know what? While we’re bringing it up, the reason why Paulo is inefficient, the reason why Paulo is another reason why he’s just not better than Cade of all the players to take long mid-range, long twos, Paulo ranks in the 96 percentile in the amount of shots he takes from long mid-range. He’s inefficient because he takes bad shots, he takes dumb shots, which is going to be brought up a little later as well. He shoot he’s in the 43rd percentile on all mid-ranges despite taking some of the most mid-ranges from long mid-range than anyone in the league. He’s one of the worst 40 43rd percentile. She’s 42% from mid-range. He’s 11th percentile on corner threes. He’s 46 percentile on non-c corner threes. He’s 43rd percentile on all threes. Kade has him beat from every area on the floor except at the rim where Paulo is a better finisher than Kade. We’ll give him that. He is a better finisher than Kate. Kate shoots 57% at the rim. Paulo shoots 67% at the rim. He is a better finisher than Kade. The problem is Paulo doesn’t take enough shots at the rim for that to really matter because he’s too busy taking bad shots all the time. Which will now translate in the next piece of the evidence that showcases why this is not even an argument and why Kate is clearly better than Paulo Beno because I’m not even sure Paulo Beno is the best player on his own basketball team. You want to hear why? Let’s go ahead and break it down. K Cunningham this past year when he’s on the floor the Pistons have a net rating of 2.84. They’re beating teams by 2.84 points per 100 possessions. When he’s off the floor they are over two and a half points worse with him off the floor. Let’s go back to even last year. You guys will get where I’m going with this in a minute. Let’s go back to even last year where the Pistons had the most the most diabolical season in franchise’s history. Even during that season, the Pistons were still 2.3 points better with Kate on the floor. Does that mean they were beating opponents with Kate on the floor? No. The team was bad. Everywhere was bad. But they were clearly a better even in a terrible season like that. They were clearly better with Kate on the floor because he is their best player and he makes everyone better. He makes the team better. He makes him like he makes everything better because he is the best player on the floor. That’s Cade last two seasons. Every time Kade touches the floor, the Detroit Pistons are better. Now, let’s go to Paulo, which will continue to showcase. This will continue to be my argument for why he’s one of the most overrated players in the league. He takes terrible shots. He takes bad shots. He he soaks up the ball. He’s a high usage player that’s not a good playmaker, and he’s not generating good shots out of it. Last year for the Orlando Magic, when Paulo Ben Carroll was on the floor, they were being outscored by 79 points per 100 possessions. when he was off the floor, they were winning those minutes by 61 points per possession. They were over one point better with Paulo off the floor. Let’s go to the previous year. Okay, let’s go back. Let’s go to 2324. Two years ago, when Paulo Ben Carol was on the floor, the Orlando Magic got outscored by.12 points per 100 possession. When he was off the floor, they won those minutes by 7.8 points per possession. They were nearly eight point actually they are eight points better with Paulo off the floor than they were with him on the floor two years ago. This has been this has been this is not a a random number. This is not you know picking and choosing certain sample sizes. This is this is this is multiple years of sample size with Paulo. Go back to his rookie year. This may be a little bit unfair but it’s a it’s a trend that keeps happening every year after year. Go back to his rookie year. When he was on the floor, they got outscored by 4.4 points per 100 possessions. When he was off the floor, they won the minutes by 63 points per 100 possessions. We have three years of data that when Paulo Banker’s on the floor, they are our worst basketball team. When Paulo was hurt this past year, but Fron was healthy, the Orlando Magic were still winning games. Let’s go ahead and pull up even more sample size, which continues to showcase why I’m not even I don’t even believe he is the best player on that Orlando Magic team. When Paulo and Fran share the floor, the Orlando Magic outscore opponents by three points per 100 possessions. That’s good. When they’re both on the floor, you know, they they win their minutes. Good. When Paulo leaves the floor and Fron plays and it’s just Fran on the floor and Paulo leaves, the Magic are winning those minutes by 8.3 points per 100 possessions. They are dominating teams in the minutes with Fron without Paulo. Switch it around. Take Fran off the floor and leave Paulo on the floor or take Fran off and leave Paulo on. They are being outscored by 7.5 points per 100 possessions. This is three years of the team he is on being outscored when he is on the floor and being a much better basketball team when he is off the basketball floor. Paulo Ben Carroll is becoming one of the most overrated players in the league. And it’s because he’s the first overall pick. He looks cool. He’s physical. He he takes the the the ball don’t stop type of shots, the post fadeaways, the step back midis. He still shoots like it’s 2009. Like that’s why he’s he’s so overrated. And because look, he has had some monster numbers in the postseason, but those postseason numbers are fluky because it’s not like he’s getting to the rim more. It’s not like he’s hitting a better percentage of his shots of the shots he always takes, which is those long twos. In the playoffs, he’s shooting 40% from twos. The only difference is, and this is while taking 19 shots from two, shooting 40% or not 40, yeah, 43% on twos, is because all of a sudden in the playoffs, in the five game sample size this past year, he shot 44% from three. That’s the that’s that’s his saving grace is all of a sudden he goes on a heater from three. He still can’t hit free throws. Shoots 65% from the free throw line this past year in the playoffs. Despite him getting to the free throw line more than Cade, which should make him a much more efficient basketball player, he shoots 72% free throw. So, it doesn’t matter because even though he’s getting to the free throw line a lot more, he’s still he’s not taking advantage of it. There there is not one actual basketball argument. There’s not one There is not I I’m not joking. There is not one basketball argument that doesn’t involve Paulo looks cool. He takes cool shots. There is not one basketball argument to say that he is a better basketball player than K Cunningham. There’s not one. K’s a more efficient from every part on the floor besides at the rim. He’s a He takes better shots. He play makes for his teammates better. The team wins when he’s on the floor. Wins his minutes. They’re better with him on the floor. He makes the guys around him better. If you double him, he will find the open player. He doesn’t slow down your offense. He doesn’t make your offense worse because he’s too busy taking long twos and not looking for the open guy. Ca cage, not only is he just a better player, he’s a smarter player than Pablo. I I don’t There is not one basketball argument for why Paulo should be overcade outside if you look at the box score and say, “Oh, he scores 26 points, therefore he’s better.” It It makes no sense. It m it makes I literally I I can’t see the argument for how Paulo could possibly be better than Kade. And despite this, by the way, again, despite Paulo being a better finisher at the rim than Kade, Kade shoots better on twos than Paulo. Why? Because Kade takes smarter shots within the three-point line. He’s not taking fade away pull-up twos from long from from 20 feet from the rim. I I I saw this ranking and I got absolutely heated, bro. There is no way. I don’t even know if Paulo is top. Like I’m not even going to do that. I don’t know if he’s even better than France. Fron is a better driver. He’s a better passer. He’s a better finisher. France has not had as good of a playoffs as Paulo has had. That is true. But Paulo is just having fluky playoff runs when he shoots 40% from three. Everything else is just as bad still. And that’s why they still lose. Now, I do like Orlando. Paulo has a lot of potential. And I do think Orlando will probably be better than the Pistons this this year because of the overall team construct. And can Pablo get much better in the future? Yes. He’s still really young. But as of now, there’s not one basketball argument for Paulo being a better basketball player than K Cunningham. There’s not one. I I can’t see it. I This This absolutely got me enraged. So, I want to thank youNBA.com in the dog days of the offseason on July 31st when I’m struggling to find out, h what do I want to talk about? Do I want to talk about this? I want to talk about that. You’ve gifted me 12 minutes, 13 minutes now we’re going of me being able to rage about something because you guys put out an absolute stupid ranking. stupid, dumb, dumb, dumb ranking. Let me know in the comments section down below or over on Twitter, Cookie Hill how you feel about the Paulo versus Kate Cunningham comparison here. Kate’s so like he’s just so clearly better than Paulo. But coming up, Levert, I’m starting to turn I’m starting to come around. I think Levert might be pretty good for the Pistons this year. We’ll break it down coming up. We’ve all been there, longing on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale, only to lose your spot for a show you’ve been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of of ticket shopping. That’s where Game Time comes in. Game time makes getting concert tickets easier and faster than ever. Prices actually drop as it gets closer to the showtime. 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Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. We’re going to get into Caris Levert and why I believe I’m starting to come around on him on the signing and believing that he might actually be pretty good for the Pistons this year. I’m going tell you guys why. First off, it really goes the first thing that we have to talk about is the comparison between him and Dennis Rutder. And I will say I don’t think I I don’t believe I was as I don’t think I concentrated on this as much as I should have when the Caris Levert signing happened because I’m not a huge fan of Caris Levert throughout his career and his game. But I I I feel like if I’m going to critique myself, I feel like I should have spent more attention on this aspect earlier on. Um, B’s too busy worried about the concerns I have with Caris Levert, the basketball player. But the first place we should be going, and I should have went, is Izzy better than Dennis Rutder. And Dennis Rutder had a great playoffs for the Detroit Pistons, which I think maybe gives the I think that that maybe is why this wasn’t at the the forefront of my mind because Dennis was tremendous for the Pistons in the playoffs. obviously 47% from free throw um from three shot uh scored 12 and a half points a game 3.7 assists didn’t turn the basketball over shot 49% from the field he was really really good for the Pistons in the playoffs. So I with that in mind that’s kind of the last you saw of him. If we are going to take like the overall sample size of Dennis Shruder with the Detroit Pistons and this is by no means trying to take a shot at Dennis because he was huge for the Pistons to break their playoff win drought. And maybe because it was just his, you know, he was still getting his feet wet with the Pistons. That’s part of the reason why it wasn’t as good during the regular season. Maybe if he was brought back, he would have looked more like he did in the playoffs for the Pistons next year. Maybe. But during the regular season, it was not all sunshine and rainbows for uh for his time with the Detroit Pistons. Was not very efficient at all uh with the Detroit Pistons. The numbers just went away. Okay, here it is. 37% from the floor, 30% from deep, 43% on twos. Was not very efficient at all for the Detroit Pistons. Now, the Pistons welcomed having his extra ball handling, but that was more because of they didn’t have any other ball handling before him. of simply adding any ball handling in the half court with Cade was going to be helpful. But was Dennis Shruder himself super impactful or super good in the regular season? Not really. He was not very efficient at all. 51 true shooting percentage. Not good. So, can Caris be better than that? He should be. He He absolutely should be. And that’s that’s where I should have spent more of my time with this past year for the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers. He I’ve said this before, he had his most efficient season of his career. uh 58 true shooting percentage over this past year. Again, it’s a careerhigh. I mean, now I want to get into why he had his most efficient season and why it’s going to be he’s that’s why I believe he’s going to be better than shooter. But I want to get into why he had his most efficient season of his career. Now, if you look at his three-point rate, it’s the highest it was since his rookie year. You want to know what’s coincidence with that is that his rookie season, if you go this past year, most efficient season he’s had, what’s the second most efficient season he’s had? His rookie season, where his three-point rate was a careerhigh at 48.4%. This past year, he was at 47.4%. He was trading in a lot of those mid-ranges that he took. And he was taking a lot more threes based off the the shot attempts he was getting. He was taking smarter shots. He was taking better shots. Now, if you dive even further into this with Dennis or not Dennis Shruder, but with Caris Levert again, do I have questions still about is he actually the player we saw last year or is he the player we saw the previous eight years? I need to see him. He’s going to have to prove to me that last year was not the outlier and he actually has changed as a basketball player. I’m gonna need him to do that for me. But with that said, this past year gives reason to believe that that will be the case. This past year for Caris Levert, if the numbers will stop disappearing for me, can I just say real quickly, basketball reference, I need you to step your game up. I don’t know what’s going on with the constantly crashing down on me randomly on the podcast. Don’t like it. You guys need to fix fix your website. Don’t know what’s happening. I love using basketball reference along with clean the glass, all that kind of stuff. But you guys, you guys need to get need to get better here. Um, anyways, this past year, Caris Levert, all mid all of his mid-ranges that he took, the percentage of his mid-ranges that he took was only at 17. Bro, this thing just reset on me. Okay, there you go. My god, I’m so sorry for the technical difficulties. Um, 17% of his shots, basically what I’m trying to get to, uh, came from mid-range. If you look at the previous eight years, previous eight years where he was extremely inefficient, one of the most inefficient scorers in the league, it goes from 17% this past year go up 28% of his shots in 2023 were from mid-range. 29% of his shots in 2022 was from mid-range. 2021, 43% of his shots were from mid-range. 2020, 41%. 2019, 40 20 uh 2019, 38%. So, my point is that previously he was taking so many mid-range jumpers when he was not that good at mid-range jumpers and it was such a heavy dose of his shot diet that he was an inefficient basketball player and it’s one of the main reasons why I did not like him as a basketball player. However, this past year he cut a lot of that out. He took a lot of those out of his game and again it result in his most efficient year. Instead, this past year he shot 39% of his shots at the rim. You look at the previous years, 35% the previous year at Cleveland. Go before that, 31%, then 31%, then 28%, then 30%. He’s taken nearly 10 plus% of his shots more at the rim, which is again leads to better shot quality, leads to more free throws, leads to more kickout uh instances. It’s just better brand of basketball. Along with this, this past year, 45% of his shots came from beyond the arc. You go previous years 37% 40% 27 28 29 29 28 29 overall point is all the numbers suggest that this past year hopefully he decided and realized I have to be smarter with the shots I’m taking I have to take better shots if I want to be as impactful as a player as I possibly can be and he did that and he was incredibly efficient this past year I hope that’s the case and if he is able to maintain that he actually will be really good for the Detroit Pistons. He just has to keep those old habits out and these new habits that it seems like he’s brought into his game allow them to stay at allowed them to be a new found parts of his game. Also, he was much better finishing at the rim this past year than any other point of his career with the Atlanta Hawks. 71% from the at the rim, which is tremendous. Um, the other thing with Caris, and this is we’re gonna move away a little bit from the offensive side because my overall point with all the numbers I brought, the overall argument I’m going to make is that I think he can be just an overall more efficient basketball player than Dennis Shruder. He also doesn’t turn the ball over a ton at all. He averages like one turnover a game over the last like four years. He doesn’t turn the ball over. He’s a fine playmaker. Dennis is probably a better playmaker than him, but he’s a fine playmaker. He’s a better scorer than Dennis, at least it was this past year. He has more in his bag. theoretically. And if he plays like he did this past year, he’ll be more much more efficient than Dennis. Then if you go on the defensive side of the floor, which I’ve talked to a lot of people uh this past year that watched the Atlanta Hawks a lot, and I talked with some people from um from people that watched them this past year with the the Cavs, specifically the Cavs people, I I liked talking with the most because they spoke about how he wasn’t that great of a defender to start off, but they thought he got better and better and better as a defender as the years went by. And then talking with Atlanta, the people I that watched Atlanta, they said he was a straight-up good defender for them in Atlanta. Now again, that’s not something he had been known for throughout his career. But it seems like he has had a career turnaround midway through his year, midway through his career. Realize the better way to play basketball is being better on both sides of the floor and utilizing that 67 size, that long wingspan to actually have an impact on the defensive side of the floor at the point of attack and in the passing lanes and just being more active as a basketball player. And I think having that size, having that length for the Detroit Pistons at the guard position will be really good for them. As long as he just maintains the same level, the same type of player he had this past year. If that’s the case, he’s going to be much better than I originally thought. And I’m hoping that that is the case because that player actually is useful. A guy who can ball handle, a guy who can score, takes the right shots, can play make, and also play defense is not a complete liability on the other end of the floor. And even though Shruder, we talked about this a lot at the end of the playoffs, even though Shruder was being aggressive with Jaylen Brunson, we talked about it a ton, Jaylen Brunson was just too strong for him. He could just knock him off and then just shoot over him late in games. They would just clear the floor out and then he would just overpower Shruder and just even if Shooter is aggressive with them, Brunson was just too strong, was able to shoot over him. A guy like Caris Levert, you won’t, and now I’m not saying he should guard Jaylen Brunson. My point is is that Carris Lever, you’re not going to be able to just do that as easily with if you put him on guards or whatever. He just brings more length, more size, strength, etc. So, if Carris, my final conclusion, if Carris can be the player that he showed he changed into this past year, he will be much better than Dan Shruder for the Detroit Pistons. He’ll actually be a really good find by Traan Langden and he will have a good really good impact for the Detroit Pistons this upcoming year. And maybe I was a bit too tough on the signing because of the larger sample size we have of Caris Levert. And maybe I should give him a little bit more credit instead of just looking as an outlier. Maybe I should give him more credit for even later in his career being willing to change and improve his game. And I think that’s the angle I’m going to look at it from now on. And maybe I should have looked at it earlier on. So let me know in the comment section down below or over on Twitter, Kahill. How do you guys feel about the Caris Levert signing? Do you think he’ll be better than Dennis Shruder? And have you if you didn’t like it at first, have you come around like I have to the signing? Again, let me know. Comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cook coming up. I had a few of you guys ask me over the last few days, coup, do you think that Assar and Ron Holland will play together at times this year potentially. We’ll talk about it coming up. So, I want to thank you guys again. Make locked on 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 at Locked OnPance. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. So, I’ve had a lot of you guys ask me, let me not say a lot, I’ve had a few comments that stuck out to me. So, I was like, you know what? I should probably talk about this. I’m interested in it. Um, asking, will we see Ron Holland and Assar Thompson play together this upcoming season? I think potentially. I think maybe, but probably not too much. And here’s why. Um, first I want to bring up the numbers from this past year. They played 148 minutes together this past year. Sar and Ron together on the floor. They outscored opponents by 14.23 points per 100 possessions. They dominated the minutes. Now, unless we’re going to go through and look at every single minute, because that is a small sample size. Unless we’re going to go through and look at every single minute. Some of those mids, maybe it was in garbage time when they got to beat up on some guys. Maybe it was through, you know, small stretches throughout the game. Maybe midway through the game when they just suffocated teams defensively got in transition. I I I’m not going to sit here and act like I’ve went through every single minute, but the the overall sample size says it was pretty good. I think if you, you know, let it play out for a much longer sample, it wouldn’t look that good because the offense eventually would fall down. In those 14 or 148 minutes, they had an offensive rating of 115.1. Do I think that would maintain over a larger sample size? I do not. I think the half court offense would catch up to them. And again, I qu I I do have a bit of a question on whether or just how much of these mints came in the actual balance of games and how many of these minutes came when you know um they were just game to play at the end of the game um together, but in like a blowout or something or you know, whatever. Even though I don’t remember the Pistons being, you know, blowing too many teams out, but either way, sample size this past year was pretty good. Um, I I wrote earlier in the offseason for the Substack. If you haven’t checked it out, you guys should go check it out. Um, I wrote earlier in the offseason before free agency what I was hearing for the Detroit Pistons um, heading into the draft, heading into the free agency, and heading into the next year. And one of the things I had heard this off seasonason was there is an obvious I don’t think this is really breaking news but I it was cool, you know, I thought it was a cool input is that there is a want from some within the Pistons to see Ron and Assar play together on the floor. There is some people who believe that that is the tandem moving forward. Like that is the tandem they want to see moving forward like deep into the future. That’s what they think is going to be the dominant d tandem there. like they think those two guys can really at one point at one point in the next few years really play and dominate together on both ends of the floor. So there is, you know, this level of quite a bit of interest in seeing these guys play together on the floor. However, now this is not this is not what I’ve heard. This is now just, you know, analyzing the situation. Neither Ron or Assar are great shooters. And you would then think, okay, if they’re going to play a lot, then you’d probably need, if you want to play them together, I should say, actually, you’re going to need to have a stretch five option on the floor to balance out those two non-shooters because we’ve seen that Ron or Assar and Dur I should say, excuse me, can fit together because then you have shooters at every other position because of the playmaking of Assara and Dur, etc. Now, you can have you can try to get away with two non-shooters even though Ron will get I mean, obviously, Ron looks like he’s trying to improve it. It looked pretty fine in summer league. We’ll see if it actually carries over. I don’t know if he’s going to shoot that well in the regular season, but we’ll see. We’ll see if he actually has improved a ton, but as of they’re not great shooters, neither of them. And so are obviously farther away than Ron. If you’re going to play both of those guys, you need the le the rest of the three on the floor to be good three-point shooters. So then that leads you into, okay, well then you need a stretch five. Then obviously you have the rumors all throughout the offseason that the Pistons were interested in multiple stretch fives. I believe that was because they would like to have they would have liked to have that option available to them. Not because they want to move on from Duran, not because they want to move on from Stu. Not how you fit you would have fit all three. Maybe you don’t. But it’s not so much about wanting to move on from one of those guys. It’s just simply about you’d like to have that option to just simply test those minutes out. Whether it’s for five minutes here and there or, you know, a three, four minute stretch here and there. You’d like to be able to say, “Okay, we’re going to put a stretch five out there. Let’s put Ron and out there. Let’s see if it works. Let’s see how that works. And I think that was the the reasoning behind them being interested in so many of these stretch fives. And even Santiama that is maybe not a stretch five, plays the most of his minutes at the four, but can play the five in short stints. So you could then test this out. You can figure out can we play these two guys together with the shooter and how good does it look? So I do think there’s definite interest from the Pistons. Not think I was I know that there was definite interest from the Pistons throughout this offseason. I do think it’s going to maintain interest obviously moving into the future of wanting to see these guys eventually play together somehow. My concern is I don’t know how much they actually will be able to get that done this year if they don’t have someone else that could space the floor. I don’t think you can run three non-shooters on the floor. And as much as Stu improved as a three-point shooter two years ago, we’ve seen him completely get that removed from his game this past year. And now all that built up, which is one of my biggest criticisms I had in the season review this past year was all that built up progress and uh respect you had from the defense that he built up in that year. He shot really well from three is basically erased because last year he just stopped shooting him. So now even if he does return to shooting him this year a little bit, defenses are not going to be closing out and still because they’ve seen now over the last three like it’s not something that they’re going to really want to happen. The Pistons that is they’re not going to want that. that’s not one of their main parts of their offense. They’re not really loving that option. So, defenses aren’t going to respect it. I I feel like that should have been part of their offense though because of the builtup equity you were getting as a shooter, the respect as a shooter and eventual eventual gravity. So, then Stu could be like the spacer here. Um maybe they think that could happen still. Maybe they tell Stu this year, “Okay, we’d like to see you shoot more threes.” I’m skeptical. I’m just skeptical now if defenses are still going to guard Steu now after having him just not shoot him at all this past year. like our defense is going to respect that and actually close out. I don’t know. Um, this is basically a long way of saying I think they want to see Ron and Assar. If one of them can improve as a three-point shooter, that will definitely enable them to play together. Especially if Ron has actually improved his three-point shot, I think you will see a lot of Assar and Ron together. But I don’t think Ron’s theoretically going or hypothetically going to jump as a three-point shooter from 20 something% to 38% to where it makes it work. I can see him jumping to 33% something like that. But is that enough to play long stretches with Ron and Assar? No, that’s probably not. So unless one of them take a large jump as a three-point shooter and that will allow them to play together or the Pistons get a stretch five to try to stretch that or test those minutes out in short spurts. Or maybe they just tell Steu to start shooting more threes and try to see if that eventually works. Those are all options. I do know that there is a want to see some minutes from these guys. I just don’t know how much you actually will be able to get to see from them because of the lack of spacing and because the Pistons weren’t able to get a stretch five or even a guy like Santi Alama who spends most of his mints at the four and then can play the five for those stretches. So, I’m not sure how much we’re going to see for them, but I I’d love to see as much as possible if given in the right circumstance. So, let me know in the comment section down below or over on Twitter. Do you guys think we’ll see Ron and Assar this year and how much of it do you think we’ll see? Let me know again comment section or over on Twitter. I appreciate all of you guys. That’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys. Make locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. Free and available on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button to the YouTube channel. Leave us a five star view. Whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. I just published a film breakdown of K. Cunningham’s game two in the first round against the New York Knicks. If you want to check it out, go to the Substack. The link’s down below. Check it out. But until next time, I will see you guys later. Stay safe out there. Until next time. Peace out, everybody.

CADE CUNNINGHAM: Underrated NBA Star? Shocking Player Rankings Revealed!

Host Ku Khahil passionately breaks down why Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham deserves a higher NBA.com ranking than Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero. The discussion covers Cunningham’s superior playmaking, scoring efficiency, and defensive impact. Khahil analyzes the Pistons’ Caris LeVert signing, comparing his potential role to Dennis Schröder’s previous season. The episode explores the intriguing possibility of rookies Ron Holland and Ausar Thompson sharing court time, addressing potential spacing issues and solutions.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of Cunningham’s true value, LeVert’s improved shot selection, and the exciting future of Detroit’s young core. Will the Pistons’ bold moves reshape their roster for success?

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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