.Mike
@ToTheBasketPod
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Founder & host of Driving to the Basket, a Detroit Pistons podcast | Episodes Wednesdays | #Pistons | #PistonsTwitter | Podcast and blog links in the LinkTree ⤵
Denver, CO
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Among 282 qualified players (at least 15 GP and 15 MPG), Isaiah Livers is:
282nd in Net RTG
282nd in DRTG
282nd in TS%
258th in REB%
256th in AST%
He's been arguably the worst rotation player in the NBA. Yet he played 36 minutes last night, more than Ivey & Ausar combined...
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Jaden Ivey had the ball in his hands and was ready to drive for the first time this quarter against a weak defender, and Monty hated it so much that he immediately called a timeout.
The Pistons subsequently turned it over by shot clock violation.
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Over the last three games, Monty Williams' first-half all-bench lineups have been outscored:
By the Cavaliers: 12-2 (4:53)
By the Bulls: 13-8 (4:05)
By the Knicks: 16-4 (5:34)
... for a total of 41-14 (a 27-point deficit) across less than 15 minutes of total game time.
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I took a deep dive into Jalen Duren's defensive tape from this season. It left me even less confident in his ability to become a reliable defender in the NBA.
It wasn't just his lack of engagement. He was also simply very bad at all of the basics.
25+ minutes of tape below.
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The Pistons' offseason wasn't just about whom they added. It was also about whom they subtracted.
Killian Hayes, James Wiseman, and Isaiah Livers combined for more than 1,900 minutes last season prior to the trade deadline. All three were among the NBA's worst rotation players.
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Ausar Thompson against the Bucks:
22 PTS
9 REB
2/2 from three
His best game as a Piston.
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Just some samples of Isaiah Stewart's rim defense from the 2023-2024 season.
Isaiah's 53.9 defensive field goal percentage at the rim ranked him in the NBA's top ten among all players who contested at least three shots at the rim per game.
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Don't look now, but the Pistons are only two wins out from 27th 😯
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Since Wiseman inexplicably reentered the rotation five games ago, he has the worst DRTG and worst defensive on/off on the team, has allowed opponents to shoot 67% against him at the rim, and is tied for second among all NBA centers in fouls despite having played only 81 minutes.
Monty on playing Wiseman over Muscala: “I like what he’s giving us, especially on the defensive side.” Said that when you have smaller guards like Sass and Flynn, you need rim protection.
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If Tom Gores is serious about this organization, he will replace Monty Williams immediately. In Williams' brief time with the team, he has been a coaching disaster of nearly unparalleled proportions.
The roster is not THIS bad. Few teams in NBA history have EVER been THIS bad.
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Some basic advice for all you aspiring NBA coaches out there:
🏀 Do not leave all-bench lineups out on the floor for extended periods against the other team's starters.
🏀 If the opposition goes small and you have a physically dominant center, punish them for it.
🤦
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A very productive use of Ivey's speed that has yet to be meaningfully explored to this stage. I look forward to seeing it.
Some tidbits from last season:
Bickerstaff said he's looking forward to seeing Ivey catch the ball on the move and to play with that tempo.
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Marcus Sasser with a Lou Williams-esque night against the Clippers:
21 PTS
8/10 from the field
5/6 from three
🔥
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Jalen Duren's remarkable improvement on offense as a second-year NBA player served as a counterpoint to his disappointment on defense.
Duren developed from a very raw scorer and passer as a rookie into a much more polished and poised sophomore.
17 minutes of tape below:
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It's for this brand of elite defense that Monty Williams puts James Wiseman on the floor!!! 🔥🔥
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Jaden Ivey's combination of elite speed and acceleration, high motor, and solid touch at the rim helped make him one of the NBA's most prolific transition scorers this season.
Jaden ranked 13th in total transition points and 20th among qualifying players in transition PPG.
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I get that the roster is bad. But nothing can screw up a team like a bad coach can. If Monty Williams weren't a veteran coach on a gigantic contract, and were instead a first-year coach, he'd be looking at a quick end to his first job. He's been an absolute disgrace.
It
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The Pistons were outscored 102-63 from the second quarter on. Monty's response was his umpteenth "That's on me. I need to figure that out."
It's time for Gores to understand that Monty has no answers (to say the least) and should not be coaching this team.
Enough is enough.
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Ausar Thompson did a terrific job on defense against Mikal Bridges 🔒🔒
Thompson was on the floor against Bridges for almost every moment Mikal played, and he had the largest role in limiting Bridges to only 13 points (versus his season average of 21).
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Marcus Sasser with a 🔥hot🔥 game against the Blazers:
17 Pts
11 Ast
2 Stl
Two great games (and wins) to start off his tenure as the team's full-time backup PG!
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Kevin Knox tonight:
23 minutes
17 points
7/13 from the field
4/8 from three
3 assists
2 blocks
He sat for all but seven seconds of the final six minutes anyway. Why?
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For the first time this season, Killian Hayes is a DNP. It only took 41 games, almost all of them bad.
Is it finally over?
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Monty has taken a roster which might have won 25-30 games under a good coach and mismanaged it into lows never reached before in the history of the Pistons or the NBA as a whole.
I'm beyond being surprised at how this contemptible fraud finds the nerve to say these things.
Monty: "No excuse. I don’t care about the talent level, it doesn’t matter. I’ve spent my whole NBA career overcoming, and that’s just what it is. No player in this league has achieved anything without overcoming. That’s what I’m looking for with this group."
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Ausar Thompson's defense on Luka Doncic was excellent. His departure from the game was a turning point.
When Ausar left for good due to illness with 8:28 remaining in the 2nd, Doncic had eight points. With Ausar gone, he scored 18 more before the half.
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Langdon is the polar opposite of Weaver in terms of articulation in press conferences.
Trajan Langdon’s post draft availability:
-Said agents didn’t want their players to workout with Detroit
-Purposely were secretive about interest
-Thinks all Ron needs is a shot, not many prospects had the same level of skill
& more..
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Here's some of Jalen Duren's defense from his first week in the NBA at age 18.
It wasn't always pretty, but it was always high effort, and that work ethic was the difference between his raw but promising rookie defense and the distressingly poor defense he played as a sophomore.
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How to waste 10 seconds of a possession, featuring Killian Hayes.
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Let's do some Ausar film study from last night's game 🧵
Ausar is making a habit of hitting this short turnaround jumper. It's a shot his athleticism makes easy for him to get, and it's a good step toward him developing a dependable in-between game.
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Jalen Duren's evolution on offense this season has been genuinely impressive.
🏀63% on driving layups
🏀67% on floaters
🏀59% on turnaround hook shots
🏀59% on layups overall (49% last season)
Much improved handle, touch, poise, versatility, and scoring against tough defenders.
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We're into week two of Trajan Langdon deciding for no discernible reason to delay making a decision on the future of an unmitigated disaster of a coach who plainly did not want the job in the first place and coached like he genuinely wanted to be fired from it.
Only the Pistons.
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Jaden Ivey CAREER HIGH against the Kings:
37 PTS
5/7 3PT
7 AST
🔥🔥🔥
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Celtics commentator about Killian: "What is he doing? Get Cade Cunningham back in."
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$13m/yr coach's out-of-timeout play in the midst of a big run by the Heat was a Jaden Ivey curl which was inevitably going to run into Ausar Thompson's defender because that coach inexplicably had Thompson standing in the corner adjacent to Ivey's route.
This is so painful.
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Want to see how Cade can play in a lineup that meets the bare essentials?
Here are some highlights from the last two months of his rookie season -- the only stretch of his career to date in which he's played in a starting lineup that adequately spaced the floor around him.
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Eight minutes of Isaiah Stewart defense from 2021-2022, the last season in which he played center full-time.
He was a strong all-around defender at the position, and his 51.9 DFG% at the rim ranked him 5th among regular starting centers (the top four were all on playoff teams).
Seeing a lot of talk about how the Pistons need to add a rim-protecting center. They've already got one.
Isaiah Stewart is a perennially strong rim protector and all-around defender at center. If you want a strong defensive center, he's that. His troubles are on offense.
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Monty Williams DNPed him many times in favor of Killian Hayes, and the front office is considering keeping Monte Morris for the rest of a dead season rather than trading him even though keeping Morris would limit Sasser to small minutes.
It’s just a comedy of incompetence.
Marcus Sasser is shooting 47.0% on pull up FGs this year and 42.6% on pull up 3FGs for an eFG% of 56.7%, making him the most efficient pull up shooting rookie in the NBA so far.
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Ausar Thompson contributed on both ends against the Magic:
17 PTS
7 REB
3 BLK
1 STL
🔥🔥
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Monty Williams puts more emphasis upon finding bad shots for third-string point guards than he does on getting the ball into Jaden Ivey's hands.
Look familiar? It should.
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I much prefer this over a mad dash to just win more games. If the goal is still to build a contender, then I'm happy with that.
That said, I'd say added firepower plus the subtraction of Monty plus (hopefully) good coaching will still produce much better basketball next season.
My takeaway from the press conference:
Trajan really emphasized the “slow grind” having his core of young players and adding players who support their growth, while still collecting assets for the future. The pistons will probably still be bad next season and talk is only talk
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Cade Cunningham against the Knicks:
🔥 32 PTS
🔥 8 AST
🔥 5 REB
🔥 10/19 FG
🔥 5/7 3PT
🔥 7/8 FT
Success from three adds a very hard-to-cover dimension to Cade's game. He's 13/23 from distance over his past three games, and he's up to 38% altogether over his last 33 games.
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Not-fun Pistons stat of the day: among the 13 traditional centers who started in at least 30 games this season, Jalen Duren was both the worst (by percentage) at defending the rim and the only one who averaged less blocks per game than 6'0" Fred VanVleet.
Improvement needed.
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We've all been hoping for flashes from James Wiseman. I decided last night to pay a bit of added attention to his play, for better or worse.
He played nine minutes. This was his noteworthy film.
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Here's a video profile on potential Pistons free agency target Naji Marshall.
'23-'24 stats: 19 MPG, 7.1p/3.6r/1.9a/0.7s
Physicals: 6'6", 7'1" wingspan, 220 lbs, 26.5 y/o
Profile: Athletic three-and-D wing with minor creation ability.
Concerns: Limited shooting track record.
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Jaden Ivey continues to be consigned to the corner for no cause whatsoever.
Monty Williams has actively stood in Ivey's way all season long. The front office has intervened twice, yet he's still fighting them every step of the way.
How long will this continue to be tolerated?
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Gee, Duren showed real effort on this closeout!
His lazy closeouts happen on a regular basis. It's completely unacceptable.
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@Brady_Fred
If your coach decided to just not care for an entire season on the way to one of the worst coaching performances in modern NBA history, then why should he deserve a second chance?
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Seeing a lot of talk about how the Pistons need to add a rim-protecting center. They've already got one.
Isaiah Stewart is a perennially strong rim protector and all-around defender at center. If you want a strong defensive center, he's that. His troubles are on offense.
Just some samples of Isaiah Stewart's rim defense from the 2023-2024 season.
Isaiah's 53.9 defensive field goal percentage at the rim ranked him in the NBA's top ten among all players who contested at least three shots at the rim per game.
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Cade and Ivey have a lot to offer each other, but that'll require that they be actually used together. It'll require a coach who will consistently use them in conjunction to their respective strengths.
What they've got is a coach who's been against Ivey from day one.
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While other teams put claim on the best head coaching candidates available, the Pistons have yet to even decide who will decide what the team's head coaching situation will be next season, and they continue to retain the worst head coach in the NBA just in case.
The Lakers secured permission to interview Miami assistant Chris Quinn too, sources tell ESPN.
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Evan Fournier is first player off the bench. This is a coach being paid $13 million. You can't make this kind of bad coaching up.
It's simultaneously absolutely outrageous and completely unsurprising.
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The Pistons were 11-24 in close games last season with a worse roster, and that included a long stretch late in the season in which they were actively not trying to win games.
They're 2-18 in close games this season despite having a better roster.
Monty needs to be fired.
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You know, it’s really something when a coach repeatedly tries something that’s clearly going to fail, watches it fail, does it again, watches it hurt his team again, talks about how he needs to stop doing it, then does it anyway in the very next game with predictable results.
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By request: for comparison's sake, here's Isaiah Stewart playing defense as a second-year NBA center.
Stewart's combination of poor size and athleticism significantly limits his overall NBA ceiling, but he's generally a very strong defender at center.
I took a deep dive into Jalen Duren's defensive tape from this season. It left me even less confident in his ability to become a reliable defender in the NBA.
It wasn't just his lack of engagement. He was also simply very bad at all of the basics.
25+ minutes of tape below.
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Monty's switch everything scheme has willingly given up mismatches to Banchero all game. You can't make this up. This is an NBA coach making 13 million per season.
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Let's take this moment to remind ourselves that Troy Weaver had James Wiseman ahead of Anthony Edwards on his 2020 draft board.
James Wiseman was first on Detroit’s draft board in 2020. Troy Weaver has long been a fan. Curious to see if this gets across the finish line.
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I don't care what point Monty is trying to make. Starting Killian alongside Ausar creates a lineup that is broken on offense to a comical degree and is almost guaranteed to flunk as a result.
He has other options aside from Ivey. This is a self-inflicted wound.
Please stop.
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@jack_kelly_313
Killian shouldn't even be in the rotation, and he's gotten to spend a lot more time on the ball than Ivey.
Monty has got to be stopped.
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It's been quite a story: a very depleted six-win roster winning away games on back-to-back nights -- including a 23-point comeback -- thanks largely to the efforts of its youth.
Lots of fun to watch, and help is on the way for Saturday afternoon's game against the Clippers!
That was the happiest Pistons locker room I've seen all season.
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Very happy with this deal. Good term + price.
Tobias still offers solid value. He hits his threes at a decent clip, he can attack off the dribble, he hits his open midrange pullups, he's a good restricted-area scorer and off-ball mover, and he's a hard worker and model teammate.
Free agent Tobias Harris lands with the Detroit Pistons on a two-year, $52 million deal, sources tell ESPN. An ideal fit on the floor and in the locker room for a young, developing roster.
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Please yes. This *needs* to happen. By all means, fire Weaver as well. But please, please get rid of Monty. He took a poor roster and mismanaged it in ways so genuinely insane that they defy reasonable explanation. And one can only wonder at the damage he did to development also.
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Has anyone done a better job of slowing down Giannis this season than Isaiah Stewart?
Through two games, Stewart limited him to only 13 points on 19 scoring opportunities -- and committed only one shooting foul in the process.
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It's worth noting that the org did not set out to tank this season. Weaver and company fielded an inadequate roster (probably 30 wins max), and Monty took that inadequate roster and did an all-time job at making it stupendously worse on the court.
It didn't need to be like this.
I will say this, I agree with
@Charlottean28
The Pistons continue to get what they deserve. Prove to be a serious franchise and actually do something well besides being the best at being the worst.
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WE'RE FREE!
Now there's much more optimism for the future.
I hope we learn more about this season's behind-closed-doors situation with Monty. After that, I want to never think about him again.
(Apologies to Gores, about whose part in the firing saga I was clearly incorrect.)
The decision to fire Monty Williams now was made at the ownership level, sources tell ESPN.
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We have not heard even a peep from Troy Weaver, who has stressed throughout the rebuild the importance of accountability, responsibility and character, during the entirety of this losing streak.
It's a really, really bad look for an organization has repeatedly failed its fans.
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A fun fact for all you Red Wings fans: even though they've been rebuilding since 2016, the Wings still have more regular season wins, playoff appearances, playoff wins, and Stanley Cups than any other NHL franchise over the past 30 years.
We were spoiled for a long time.
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Jaden Ivey has struggled lately. There's no doubt about it.
But can long-term judgments be safely made from a season which saw him be consistently marginalized by a coach who seems to simply dislike him?
What Monty did to Ivey is **VERY** bad for a young player's development.
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Ivey is a truly elite NBA athlete who's got high-caliber touch at the rim. More emphasis should be placed upon hunting advantageous matchups for him to attack in isolation.
Check out some of Ivey's best isolation highlights from 2023-2024 so far:
Top 10 Isolation Scorers:
1. Kawhi Leonard
2. Dejounte Murray
3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
4. Stephen Curry
5. Jaden Ivey
6. Tyrese Haliburton
7. Nikola Jokic
8. James Harden
9. Luka Doncic
10. Jalen Williams
Ranked by Points Per Iso, via
@SynergySST
. Minimum 60 possessions.
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Jaden Ivey, who has 22 points on 13 opportunities, has thus far played fewer minutes than Chimezie Metu.
Monty's self-centered and arbitrary dislike for Ivey has been horribly irresponsible from day one, and I don't think it'll ever go away until Monty himself goes away.
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Cade's proportion of unassisted offense is 62.3%, 13th among qualified NBA starters. No other Piston is above 43%.
He's certainly had his individual struggles, but he's creating a ton of his own shots, he's doing so under VERY difficult circumstances, and he's had very little
A look at which guards have been more impactful getting to and finishing at the rim.
⬆️Shooting better at the rim relative to shot quality
➡️Self creating more shots at the rim
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Monty's reaction to the Celtics nearly erasing a 19-point lead was to put an all-bench unit on the floor.
Wow.
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@DETmentalitee
I was very ready for the org to move on from Casey, and I think he was a bad on-court coach, but he's a pleasant memory compared to Monty.
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Isaiah Livers is the first man off the bench. Isaiah Livers, who has been terrible on both ends all season. Isaiah Livers, who may be the worst rotation player in the NBA.
You can't make this sort of bad coaching up.
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Would Ausar have gotten the opportunities he found today if Isaiah Livers had been available to Monty Williams?
I don't think he would have.
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A massive thanks to
@frankgarza57
for coming onto, what we believe, is the best episode of Driving to the Basket to date! Recorded the day after
@LukaG_55
secured a two-way contract, this is a must-listen … and don’t forget Frank, Dante owes you a beer!
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As of today's trade, this front office has sent out 11 second-round picks since draft night in 2020 for a total return of Monte Morris and James Wiseman -- both of whom will be free agents this summer.
Yikes.
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I'm struggling to think of a good reason for what amounts to Trajan dumping Grimes, a strong multi-positional defender who is only a year removed from a season in which he shot nearly 39% from three and was a top-15 starting shooting guard.
Dallas has traded Tim Hardaway Jr. and three second-round picks to Detroit for Quentin Grimes, sources tell ESPN.
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Jalen Duren's defense against the Heat was absolutely deplorable, and that was primarily due to an outright lack of effort.
This can't keep happening.
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Jaden Ivey against the Clippers:
28 PTS
11/18 from the field
3/8 from three
7 REB
+5 (one of only two Pistons with a positive plus/minus)
🔥🔥
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James Wiseman dunks against the Raptors through the open lane💥
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Absolutely epic effort by Jaden Ivey: 48 minutes, five seconds.
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Behold a coach using a player according to his strengths and weaknesses. Compare it to Monty Williams using that player’s twin brother, the league’s worst perimeter shooter, as a corner specialist for much of the season because he was too lazy to actually coach him.
Amen Thompson has been playing power forward and you know what…he’s actually REALLY good at it.
18 PTS | 14 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK
8 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS
6/12 FG
58% TS
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The average team avoids fielding even one non-shooting perimeter guy. Monty decided to "improve" spacing tonight by still starting two of them.
If you're thinking defense: have a look at Killian's long-term troubles at navigating screens on that end, as displayed tonight👇
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This is doubly stupid after Gallinari was let go as well. Having shooting at center was a very helpful thing to this team, and to Ausar Thompson in particular.
I wonder if Muscala asked out after being sentenced to DNP exile behind Wiseman for no reason.
ESPN Sources: Detroit Pistons C Mike Muscala is finalizing a contract buyout, clearing the way for him to be eligible for the playoffs with his next team. Muscala has interest of a few contenders.
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@JLEdwardsIII
This season, Duren is shooting:
🏀63% on driving layups
🏀67% on floaters
🏀59% on turnaround hook shots
🏀59% on layups overall (49% last season)
Some more extended highlights:
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Holland shows his strength in transition and puts it in over Filipowski.
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I usually don't get this angry about sports, but...
F**k you, Monty Williams. You clearly don't care about doing your job, so take your flunkies with you and get your ass out of Motor City forever.
You're a disgrace.
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@michaeldomps
What you’re saying is equivalent to watching an auto racer be given low-performing cars and then, when he totals those cars in every race because he’s an awful driver, excusing it by explaining that he’s been given low-performing cars.
Williams has taken a bad roster and
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