Detroit Pistons & 2022 NBA Season Hype

Getting Hyped For Detroit Pistons & NBA Season

Matthew Bassin: All right. Speaking of the Detroit Pistons, NBA season is around the corner. Preseason is underway. Whole bunch of headlines throughout the NBA leading up to this season.

Ime Udoka, wandering eye. And can Joe Missoula keep the Celtics in the hunt? The Denver Nuggets are happy they’re getting boat. Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. back in healthy. The rich seem to be getting richer. Ryan, James Wiseman is healthy and playing for the Warriors. His first preseason game man balled out for 20 points in 24 minutes.

Also had nine rebounds to go along with that. And for LA non Laker fans, Clippers’ fans out there, Kawhi Leonard. I don’t even know if y’all remember that he’s on your team. It’s been so long since he played for the Clippers, but he is back and healthy and the Clippers should be a team to reckon with Ryan.

We will talk about our Detroit Pistons as well, but this is our season baby. You and me Throwing Stones back inside of Griffin & Bass. But our Detroit Pistons are coming back right around the corner. We got some young new. That’s gonna be joining the fray. Got some guys like Killian, who needs to start stepping it up. And I, for one think this year, he will. We got a season right around the corner, man. It’s our time. 

Ryan Griffin: Yeah, man, I’m excited. The NBA is pretty wide open this year. Like I think the Celtics are somehow still the betting favorite till when the title even without Udoka. But they’re a good team.

Regardless, they just brought on Blake Griffin, former Detroit Pistons player. Now they lost, Danilo Gallinari for the year, probably about a month ago or so. It was announced that he tore his acl. But you got a wide open east and you have a really good and really competitive east where you’re probably looking at six teams who could have a reasonable claim that they could actually win the east.

And then you got some dark horses. If you’re talking about a team like the like the Cleveland Cavaliers. even, right? They’re not in that upper echelon of Eastern Conference teams, but now they have Donovan Mitchell. You’re gonna have your second year of Mobley and you obviously have Darius Garland.

And then you’re even looking at, again, a team like the Atlanta Hawks who brought in Dejounte Murray this year to pair with Trae Young and Dejounte Murray had a really good. First preseason game with the Hawks where he, he had damn near triple double, I think he was at 25, 9 and eight in, 25 minutes of game time or something.

So these guys are the east is really wide open. I’m super excited to see. How it plays out. Obviously you have Brooklyn who’s been a powder kick all summer, but their talent is just undeniable. And then you have teams who are just there every year. You’re looking at a team like the Miami Heat, the Philadelphia 76ers seem like they’re always up in that mix.

Even though Toronto Raptors I think have a shot to do something this year, if Scottie Barnes is what the Raptors thinks that, Scottie Barnes is, and then in the West. You have the return of just a lot of people you know, you’re gonna get LeBron and Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook all healthy to start the year.

Will they finish the year like that? Probably not. But you mentioned Kawhi Leonard. The Pelicans get Zion Williamson back and the Pelicans now also have Brandon Ingram. And CJ McCollum. So I think the Pelicans could be a really good team out in the west. The Suns are dealing with, the Robert Sarver stuff and they just lost their preseason opener to some foreign team, the Adelaide 36ers.

But that’s still a team that has Devin Booker, they have Chris Ball, they have Deandre, and they’ve been there the last couple years. You’re looking at a team like the Nuggets. They get Jamal Murray back. The Mavericks obviously have Luka Doncic, you lost Jalen Brunson, a brought in Christian Wood who they plan to plan to bring in off the bench.

So there’s just a lot of there’s a lot of intrigue. I think the league, I didn’t even mention the Bucks in these, but they might be the best team in these. And there’s just a lot of intriguing man, and I think the NBA as a whole has more talent. Than they’ve ever had. And it’s not totally evenly spread out, but it’s, there’s a fairly even spread where you even look at some of the teams who are gonna be really bad, You would think like the Detroit Pistons, but they still have Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey. 

You like, There’s still a reason to watch the Detroit Pistons. Look at the Thunder. They got some young guys, they still got Shai Gilgeous and the Pacers are gonna be pretty bad, but Tyrese Haliburton we already know is a pretty good player in his own right. So even some of these really bad teams the Magic ,Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, like that’s a team that can make the play in I.

As well. So even the bad teams, there’s a reas, there’s some leak pass potential with pretty much everybody except maybe two or three teams. 

Matthew Bassin: Yeah it’s crazy with just the number of teams that were missing. Either their star flat out or their second or third star. That just can completely change the landscape of the NBA as far as where their seating will be when it comes to the playoffs, to the play in tournament as well.

That Denver one is just intriguing to me more than anything. Jamal Murray coming back, Michael Porter Jr. coming back we haven’t seen them being able to play with Nikola Jokić, at all. And so to get to see, what is a possibility of a team that was already dangerous just on the back of what Nikola was doing for them to have these studs involved in the mix.

Denver is gonna be a very dangerous team, Obviously, like I said, with the Clippers, having a healthy Kawhi Leonard and a healthy Paul George. It’s another team to throw into the mix that really wasn’t involved last year to test the Golden State Warriors and the Warriors themselves with James Wiseman, who has not been on the court for them.

They want a title last year without him. And now they’re gonna have this. Stud of a seven footer who can not only, you know, get involved in pick and roll, pick and pops with Steph, but also get his own buckets on his own. Grab 10 rebounds a game, get a few blocks as well. It’s just ridiculous. And then the east, some new players on new teams, the Calves, you brought it up with Spida Mitchell.

And him, I guess he is taking a real challenge to proving that he can play defense to go along with his offense, which I’m sure the cabs are gonna love to hear and their fans would love to hear cause that won’t make the team better. I’m sure the Jazz would’ve liked to hear it, but that man was just not happy in Utah.

And I understand why. But who can blame him? Yeah, exactly. I don’t know how much happier he’ll be in Cleveland. He’ll be a little bit happier. But as far as. As far as our Detroit Pistons, like you said, with rookies like Jayden Ivey, Jalen Duren to go along with Cade, Saddiq Bey, Beef Stew (Isaiah Stewart II), and then the aforementioned Killian Hayes.

So Hayes, we’ve seen him two years, struggled a little bit, apparently, we, this preseason so far, he has stood out in a good way, knocking down shots, being aggressive, controlling the ball and everything that we wanted to see from him right away when he came to Detroit. It looks like he’s doing that in a time where he might be that leader off the bench, second unit for us, if everything plays out the way that we think it will, between Cade and Jaden Ivey.

Ryan Griffin: Yeah, just Killian I think the time for him to claim a starting spot is probably come and gone now that you have Cade and you have Jaden Ivey. But if he can come off the bench and be Shaun Livingston or something where he can just control the offense. be a little bit more aggressive in shooting the ball and being obviously more of a threat to shoot.

But even if you’re a threat, you still gotta put the shots up to make teams, fear you and then even just being really good defensively you have to be a threat to shoot it. And he’s looked more confident in his shots. Even in the preseason game, he took 13 shots. I think he only made five of ’em, but he had a pretty solid game.

Other than that, and if the shot starts the fall, then you can be somebody you know on the second unit who can just control the offense and play, not even just with the second unit, but you can be in the game during crunch time and you can be a guy when the Detroit Pistons eventually make the playoffs, that , like the Detroit Pistons are comfortable with playing in the playoffs when those rotations get shorter, and then those minutes for, everybody just gets longer and now you’re only playing maybe eight or nine guys instead of 10 or 11 that might see some normal run.

And just, I’m excited for Killian and, I want him to succeed. I think Killian my best shot to succeed might even be elsewhere. Cause I think the fan base has soured on him Now, if he has a good year this year, he’ll start to win some people back. But if he starts off rough I think the fan base just might turn on him completely.

And he’s still a kid that’s, I don’t even know that he’s 21 years old yet. Like , he’s 21. You might just have to push you might just have to go on to try and find greener pastures elsewhere. 

Matthew Bassin: I hope not. I hope he shines here. 21 years old. That’s the thing. We got him so young that, he’s still growing, still learning, and, and now he’s in his, about to start his third year in the NBA.

I think this is the year we will see him shine and, maybe play with a chip on his shoulder as if we’re already talking about him losing his job to Jaden Ivey that we haven’t even seen playing a game yet for the Detroit Pistons, an actual game, NBA season game. So I’m sure he’s gonna be ready to go and I hope that he’s able to prove us all wrong from what we thought of in the past on him that the scoring is up, his control is up, and his ability to, to run the.

And especially, we know what he can bring to the table defensively, incorporate everything he can do offensively. Now he can be an extremely dangerous player for our Detroit Pistons. And I, for one, I’m excited for the season to start. We are gonna have plenty of time to talk about these Detroit Pistons as well as the rest of the NBA more and more as the season goes on.

Obviously next week as well with the Detroit Lions on a bi-week. We’ll have some more time to get into both the NBA preseason and the MLB post season. 

Ryan Griffin: Plus Killian is French. So when we get Victor Wembanyama, boom match, match made in heaven. 

Matthew Bassin: Mm-hmm. , there you go. Exactly. All right. That’s gonna do it for us. I wanna thank y’all for kicking it with Griffin and Bass for Ryan Griffin. I’m Matt Basson, as always, wu-tang is for the children and we will see y’all after the weekend. Go green . 

Ryan Griffin: Whemby! Go white!

Matthew Bassin: And go Lions! We’ll see After the weekend!

Ryan Griffin: Forward, down the field.

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