The Detroit pistons have a HUGE problem...

Hey, I'm back with another video. It's been a couple months, and I figured since we're

like a quarter of the way into the season, I'm going to try and maybe over the next couple

weeks assess every team just a little bit just to get a feel of how every team is kind

of stacking up. And I thought there was no better way to start that than to start at the

bottom with the Detroit Pistons. Because I think a lot of the discourse around the Pistons

this year has been really weird. People are acting as though this team is completely directionless

and hopeless, and that they got here through just disastrous moves one after the other, but I would

like to argue that, first of all, Troy Weaver has really not done that bad of a job, and I think he's

just gotten pretty unlucky and gotten the short end of the stick in a lot of these situations

and the construction of this roster, while it is terrible, it's not as though any one player

on this team is like like torpedoing the ship if you will like monty williams is not doing a great

job i think that's a big problem monty williams rotations are really weird for some reason assar

thompson's minutes keep dipping up and down and so do jiden ivy's and i really wish he would maybe

play isaiah livers more in the starting lineup i really don't understand why we're still going on

with killian hayes as though that's a thing but we're going to talk about all the x's and o's in

minute. I just want to maybe do the Troy Weaver apologist thing. And I'm going to start by just

we'll just talk about the draft, the last four drafts that he's had to do. So 2020

and we start with the Troy Weaver experience with Killian Hayes and Isaiah Stewart

Obviously the kill pick didn't end up working out. Like we can all see that Killian Hayes is a

disaster. It is like barely an NBA player. But like at the time that was like a pretty reasonable

consensus pick for them. You know, a versatile, lengthy, raw French point guard with potential

on both sides of the floor seemed really interesting at the time. And especially with a team that was starting the rebuild and had very little, like, in the way of potential

I think that pick actually wasn't that bad at the time at all. It wasn't a reach to me

And yeah, the Halliburton thing ended up, like, if they had Tyrese Halliburton right now

things would be completely different. But, you know, a lot of teams passed on him. uh and then obviously the beef stew pick was a massive steal so like in that way i would say

that like the 2020 draft really didn't go all that poorly for them like a lot of teams missed

in that draft i would say really most of the teams in the lottery actually in the long run i would

say most of the teams in that lottery ended up like not doing too great with their picks you can

think of like isaac coro ob toppin denny ovdia like none of these guys really ended up becoming

stars, and they've still got potential, but, like, nothing more than role players. Then 2021 is

obviously the Cade draft. They had to take him. They made the right pick there. Was that the year

they got livers? They got livers either that year or the year. I think they got livers in 2021, yeah

So they got livers. That was kind of a big deal. I don't remember when they moved on from Luke

Canard. They moved on from Luke Canard at some point during this time. That was kind of a not

super great thing, because if they had Luke Canard right now, they'd probably be able to do him a lot better as well, but, you know, it happens, and, like, so, so far, like, two drafts in, like

Troy really wasn't doing all that bad, yeah, they weren't making splashes in free agency, and, yeah, like, there were still, like, a bunch of problems, they were, like, but, like, you know

it's a rebuilding team, these things happen, right, and so, then, next, the next year, they get into

the 2022 draft, and they get Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey, which is a really interesting

uh, duo of players because next to Cade, neither of them can shoot. Like, coming out of college

we knew that Jaden Ivey wasn't going to be an elite three-point shooter. We knew he had, like, some bursts to him. We knew he had, like, a little bit of playmaking upside, but it was really just

his, like, monstrous athleticism that was really the draw for him. And then, like, he's got the

potential to be a jump shooter I especially think his mid game could you know come along going for it I really need to talk slower in these videos So Jaden Ivey like next to Kate on the wing seemed like a really interesting fit

We'll talk about the speed dynamics between the two of them later. And then Durham, a super raw, super athletic, physically gifted center like him

I think that was a fantastic pick. We can all see that that was a bit of a steal. um so so far like three drafts in I really think Troy was doing pretty well I think other than the

kill pick he'd hit on all their picks and gotten some pretty good steals like throughout um

especially with those late first rounders you know obviously livers is pretty good um and you know

they were collecting like a pretty solid group oh I forgot to mention Sadiq Bey um I guess that's

kind of the next big movie made the Sadiq Bey for James Wiseman trade I don't think it was a direct

trade between them the Warriors and the Hawks I think they traded Sadiq for five then rerouted

all five of those to the Warriors and a separate it ended up working out the same way um so

obviously Wiseman has been terrible um I think anyone in Detroit will tell you that

James Wiseman and Marvin Bagley minutes are like hell on earth and completely unwatchable and that's

true uh because James Wiseman doesn't really know how to play NBA basketball yet so for some reason

so yeah that was a pretty big disaster but you know i think it ended up being like not super

consequential like sadiq bay is good and he would obviously be helping them a lot right now but it's

not as though sadiq bay was like this star that he threw away for like nothing um he's like a good

role player sometimes like most of the time he's pretty good he's a good three-point shooter which

obviously would help them right now and then we get to this year's draft and then i think they make

maybe the coolest move of the entire thing, which is taking Asar Thompson fifth overall

that was also pretty unlucky because they had the highest odds to get the number one pick

or at least tied for it, and then between the three teams, like their worst case scenario was

to get number five, and they ended up, you know, falling to number five, so that's not super great

but they ended up getting Asar anyway, who's arguably been the second or third best rookie

this year, definitely top five, like inarguably, and I think Asar Thompson, if you haven't been

watching Detroit Pistons games this year, which I would understand, which is the entire point of

this video, then you haven't been paying attention to Asar Thompson, who I think is going to win a

defensive player of the year eventually. He's a animal on that end. He's super athletic

long, he's got amazing instincts. He's one of the bounciest players you'll ever see

So I think that pick was amazing. I don't remember, did they have another first round

this year? I don't think so. I don't think they did. They also traded for Marvin Bagley at some

point, and they extended him, and the Marvin Bagley contract, by the way, like, really not that bad

it's, like, three years, 35 million, that's, like, not bad at all, even if it's, like, two years, 35

million, that's really not, like, a terribly consequential amount of money to give, like, a guy

who's gonna come off the books next year, so, um, really, I, like, the big moves that Troy has made

and we can obviously talk about, like, the fact that they've done very little in free agency, like, I mean, they've added, like, Boyan, they added some shooting this year, but, like

I would argue that like first of all Detroit is not like a huge market like historically Detroit

has not been the team that draws the big superstars every year and usually when they get guys they

have to pay out the ass for no reason to get them like think of like the John Lure contract for

example just an ungodly amount of money for no reason to a guy who's like wasn't even very good

um and um I think like this year they actually did kind of okay in the free agency market they

added joe harris who's like obviously been like historically a very good shooter now the acl tear

has kind of set him back quite a bit but i still think he could be good they added monte morris

who's you know another shooter another good table setter who i think should be getting killian hayes

minutes when he comes back from injury and then um they added another guy god i can't remember

they added another shooter um but it neither here nor there who it was they added someone else and I think when you at this roster like obviously when you look at it in its totality now it looks like like really bad

But I would say, if you look at every single significant move Troy has made, and the most

important ones have been the draft picks, like, every single year, he has, like, hit on the pick

Like, if you go back to last year, like, you would not argue that the Pistons should have taken

god they had the fifth pick right yes they had the fifth pick so you couldn't argue that they

should have taken you could argue maybe they should have taken like shade on sharp or even

ben matherin but i think isaiah livers is perfectly fine um or not isaiah livers sorry jaden ivy is

perfectly fine in comparison then you could argue like 2021 were they gonna take jaylen green or

evan mobley absolutely not um 2023 like thompson is was clearly the best player available and he's

clearly, like, like, over-exceeded expectations of anything, and then, like, Jalen Duren as well

that's a steal, Isaiah Stewart, steal. Now, the kill pick definitely would have taken some guys

over him, but, like, at the time, that wasn't that bad. Yeah, the Killian Hayes pick wasn't great

but, like, I mean, that wasn't, like, that wasn't, like, that was gonna, that wasn't a huge deal

There were a lot of misses in that draft, um, and it was pretty understandable, and so, like

I really don't see how you can look at all this and like just throw it all on Troy Weaver as though

he's been like this terrible GM. He hasn't been great, but like every single time he's been

presented to the opportunity to take an NBA player who is better than where they were

like slated to be taken. Like he takes them and it's not as though there is like some

masterful sharpshooter that he misses on because most of the time that just doesn't really exist

in the position that the Pistons are usually drafting. It just so happens that they just

don't manage to land shooters in the draft. Jesus Christ, can you guys shut up? Sorry

And then now let's, I guess we have to talk about the , hang on, hang on. There's so much

yelling inside. It's not even funny. Anyway. Um, so let's talk about how they can fix this

And I'm going to say something that I think everyone's kind of thinking, but it's kind of

also going to make everyone a little uncomfortable when I say it out loud. And that is that they

needed to move one of the core four guys or sharply reduce one of their roles or completely

change the starting lineup or i think i think a big problem they they have a weird problem with

jaylen duran because he's developed into such a solid center so fast and i'm not saying that jay

duran is this great player really the only reason he's so good right now is his physicality he's

really not like that his basketball iq hasn't really gotten that far he's not like this extremely

intelligent. He's just like a big bruiser and like a lob threat. He's not like a great defender

by no any means. He misses his rotations all the time. He's kind of slow on his feet. He will like

clean these things up, of course, but the fact that he's like this good already has kind of meant

that they have to start him, and I think in the ideal situation, then he'd still be on the bench

right now, but anyway. Him, Thompson, Jaden Ivey, and Cade, you cannot play for non-shooters on the

starting line if you can't um so i think a solution now would be to move jayden ivy to the bench

um which early in the season people were really uncomfortable with that but i think realistically

um the stylistic differences between him and cade are just gonna like up the offense

um in most cases and i think another shooter on the floor would make the offense flow a lot better

jayden ivy likes to push the pace insanely fast he likes to make these crazy rambunctious plays

And sometimes that works and sometimes it creates a good offense. But Cade likes to, you know, play with pace

He likes to, like, set guys up. He likes to run the pick and roll. He likes to find his spots in the midrange

He likes to kind of dig in a little bit. When he catches the ball and comes down with a rebound

he's not looking to, like, just, like, burst out into the fast break and get two points as fast as possible And I think that spark plug off the bench which Jaden Ivey could provide now could actually just like benefit the second unit a lot because their second unit kind of thin

So I think Livers in the starting lineup, Joe Harris when he comes back, I think he might be

back now. I honestly don't know. But one of their shooters in place of Ivy, and then it would be

Asar, Duren, Cade, and Bogdanovich. And that's a little better. You have maybe two and a half

shooters depending on the night i would still like to see them run um and then obviously asia

stewart's gonna have to come off the bench that's gonna have to happen but i would like to see them maybe run even like assar thompson off the bench as well because um assar can kind of do both assar

is like he's not a good catch and shoot player by any means but he's a good cutter he's like

extremely athletic and he's a good secondary playmaker and then he can also run the fast

break, he creates offense off the bounce extremely quickly, but in, like, a very, he has a very herky

jerky way in which he, like, kind of moves sometimes, and he can kind of run the fast pace and the slow

pace, like, well at the same time, so I think he fits perfectly with both Cade and Ivy, so I don't

really see, like, a huge disadvantage to him in either lineup, and then, like, long term, I think

I'm not really sure what Ivy's ceiling is. There's a possibility. I see a world where

Jaden Ivy has a lot of similarities to Tyrese Maxey. Now, there are obvious stylistic

similarities in their burst and their general demeanor as players. But like, okay

maybe let's retract that. Let me take that take back. They're both fast

That's like the only similarity between them right now. But again, I don't

know what ivy ceiling is i think he has the potential to be a very good player um i think

his jump shot could come along pretty well he kind of reminds me of like what i thought caris

leverte was going to be what caris leverte was before he dislocated his ankle like he's this

extremely just like viscerally like can't turn him off there's no stop and start he is only on

100 all the time, like super fast, sometimes unreliable scoring punch. And that would have

been Karis Lovert's all-star year. People forget that. And I think in the long term, that might be

a problem because they're probably going to just have to keep him up the bench. I just don't see

him and Cade. I just don't think him and Cade works just stylistically. I think they're two

different. If one of them could become a more reliable three-point shooter, then I think it

could work a little better. And if Ivy could maybe clean up, if either of them could clean up their

turnovers, I think that would also help them a lot. But I mean, like as of right now, neither of

them are complete projects and Cade is obviously the better player and Cade is going to be better

like long-term. They've also invested like way more into Cade. They've made this whole thing

about him. So it's important that I think they write the ship with him. And so, yeah, I think

in the long term they're gonna have to trade um one of these guys they're gonna have to probably

diminish ivy's role like now but i don't think this is like over i don't think i don't think

like this team is like like a pit of negativity i think they just got really unfortunate with the

way they had to build the roster in order to acquire the most talent and i think if they were

to play that talent correctly if they were to run lineups that actually made a little bit more sense

and use Ivy and Cade in ways which maximize their skills individually

I think they could probably make a more competent team now and maybe get some value for Ivy if they decide to move on from him

which I don't know if that should be the number one option right now. There's nothing wrong with being an elite sixth man

Tyler Hero might make the all-star team this year. Well, I guess he's not coming off the bench anymore, but you get it

I don't really think I have anything else to say about the Pistons. Monty Williams do a better job

and um Kade's super underrated alright see ya up