00:00Good morning! Got a chance to win some money in 25 minutes, two grand slam.
00:05Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park, Gov, and Greg behind the glass.
00:09NBA players asked about who they think will win the NBA title this season.
00:16146 players asked by The Athletic. The overwhelming pick was the Oklahoma City Thunder.
00:23No surprise. Half the players said OKC's winning the title.
00:2825% of players said the Spurs. Again, not a surprise. Not a surprise.
00:34Celtics, another popular choice, 8% of the vote.
00:41Nuggets with 7%. And the Pistons check in with 4% of the vote to win the NBA.
00:49So the players have more respect for them than Vegas does.
00:53I was just going to bring that up. Because this is going to get turned into a disrespect thing.
00:57But it's actually the players giving them more love than the market.
00:59Right. Because I think the market says Cleveland, which only 1.5%, just shy of 1.5% of players,
01:07thought that Cleveland, which I think is very interesting.
01:10Cleveland's not really in the market to win an NBA title.
01:16So keep that in mind.
01:17Because there's going to be a lot of narratives about what the Pistons can and can't do.
01:21So I'm not surprised at all that there are three teams out of the West that would be favored.
01:27Maybe a little bit surprised that people think Denver, but they do have a multiple-time MVP in Nikola Jokic.
01:39Yeah, they've done this before.
01:40It's not disrespect to think.
01:42The Thunder who've done it, the Celtics who've done it, the Nuggets who've done it are all ahead of them.
01:46And the Spurs have Wemenyama.
01:48Yeah, and a better record than this Pistons team.
01:50Yeah.
01:51The thing that gets me is that the players respect what the Pistons are doing.
01:56You're betting sites like not only the Cavs, but the Knicks more as well.
02:00Yeah, that one.
02:01I don't understand.
02:02I mean, the Knicks didn't even make this list.
02:04Right.
02:04For the players.
02:06Players are like, nah.
02:07Nah.
02:08Not seeing it.
02:10So, do you put the Pistons in the title contender tier?
02:14I mean, they're the one seed in the East.
02:15Kind of feels like you should.
02:16Oh, yeah.
02:17I mean, the top five?
02:18Mm-hmm.
02:19Yeah, I think that's title contender tier.
02:20The top two in the East.
02:22Yeah.
02:22And the question is going to be Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown with the Celtics.
02:29Their ability to shoot threes.
02:30Their ability to space the floor.
02:32The ability to also go big.
02:35That's going to be the question.
02:36If they meet the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, do you believe that they can get
02:43four of the seven games?
02:47Do I believe the Pistons can get four?
02:48Yeah.
02:49I can.
02:49Yeah.
02:49I wouldn't pick them today to do it with a healthy Tatum.
02:52So, you're following the players.
02:53Yeah.
02:54And I don't disagree with that.
02:55I don't think they addressed this in The Athletic.
02:58The Pistons got dissed.
03:00You know, air quotes dissed.
03:01It says it's a strong word.
03:02Only a bit, though.
03:03The Pistons have been the Eastern Conference's best team by record for the majority of the
03:07season.
03:07They finished the regular season 60 and 22 and secured home court advantage.
03:12Here's the quote from an anonymous player.
03:15Tough team out of the East.
03:17Not an easy team to beat.
03:19They play physical as hell.
03:20They dictate the physicality of the game.
03:23And if you don't go in there and play physical with them, they will beat you.
03:26They will beat the bleep out of you.
03:29Sounds like someone who's played the Pistons this year.
03:31Yeah, that that has their formula, though.
03:35They have to win a rugged defensive slugfest.
03:42We don't see this Pistons team in a seven game series against a good defense scoring a
03:48million points.
03:49So, you're going to have to kind of choke them out.
03:51Asar is going to have to do the job on Tatum, right?
03:55You're still going to have to account for Brown.
03:56You're going to have to protect the rim.
03:58They're going to have to miss some jumpers.
04:02And you're going to take advantage of your home court, right?
04:04And it but it also goes to the last time they played the Lakers and they were fully
04:10healthy.
04:11They were able to force those misses because of the defense that they played.
04:19Now, it's because when you read it like that, it's like, oh, well, if the Celtics don't
04:23perform up to their level, if they missed some shots, well, the reason they're missing
04:28the shots is because the defense is able to to get in their face.
04:33They're able to harass them.
04:35They're able to make all of those shots that they normally make extremely difficult.
04:41Here's a note.
04:42The four previous editions that they've done this, the anonymous player poll, none of the
04:47teams chosen to be the title winner wound up winning it.
04:52Oh, really?
04:53So you're asked to take OKC or the field.
04:56This would suggest OKC is not winning it.
05:00I think the Spurs are probably their biggest problem.
05:03They've played so well this season.
05:05The Spurs might be my pick if they asked me this question.
05:09What would your answer be?
05:10If they're fully healthy?
05:12Yeah.
05:12Yeah.
05:13I mean, they've got a completely an unbelievable difference maker.
05:17And we got to see him here in Detroit, like the fans who went to that game.
05:21I mean, they describe him as like it's like an alien is on the floor.
05:24Right.
05:25Like the proportions.
05:27Yeah.
05:27It doesn't make sense, but he can close out on stuff that nobody else can close out on.
05:31He changes the geometry of the game.
05:34Shoots three.
05:34He runs the floor.
05:35Yeah.
05:35You know, does does does all the things that you would want basically any player to do.
05:39But he does them all.
05:40Yeah.
05:42Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97.
05:44I don't take this as a diss.
05:45I don't take it as disrespect.
05:47I actually think the Pistons get a little bit of love here from guys who played against
05:49them and recognize what they're capable of.
05:51The only team in the East they're being slighted to is a team that's won the NBA finals and is
05:55now healthy and is now healthy.
05:57So that'll be something they got to navigate.
06:00Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97.
06:02Some of the text coming in.
06:03Um, uh, it says some of the stuff's on the lions.
06:06We're going to, you know, dig a little deeper into them to, uh, text says Vegas has the Pistons
06:11at 18 to one to win it all.
06:13That's a five and a half chance by Vegas.
06:15So for is slight disrespect by the players.
06:21Uh, no, cause it's skewed like the thunder got half the votes, right?
06:27And it's, these aren't odds make there.
06:30Yeah.
06:31There's not, there's no, these aren't odds.
06:32These are votes.
06:33Yeah.
06:33So it's, it's, it's, I mean, your apples to oranges when you're talking about 18 to
06:37one versus 4.1% of the vote.
06:40No, I absolutely don't think the Pistons are title contenders this year.
06:44Inexperience combined with coaching that doesn't show up in the playoffs combined with really
06:48bad matchups against Cleveland and Boston.
06:50I don't think this team even makes it to the Eastern conference finals.
06:53So I know JB's taken some bullets in the last two days, which I can't understand.
06:57I understand the history.
06:59I think he's what nine and 19 in the post season with Cleveland and they moved on because he,
07:05they, they didn't feel like he could get it done.
07:07Couldn't get them over the hump.
07:09Now he's got a team that he has taken from 14 wins to 60 wins in two years.
07:18He's not done writing his story.
07:21He can look at those years in Cleveland and say, well, here's, here are some, some things
07:27where I did not give our team the best chance to win.
07:30And given that opportunity, again, I will learn from those into them differently.
07:36I just don't get the, we haven't seen him.
07:39We've seen him one time in the post season.
07:41And do we think last year that they lost because of JB Bickerstaff or was it more the
07:46inexperience?
07:47No, I think it's more of the inexperience.
07:49They let some leads slip, a lot of close games.
07:52Yeah.
07:52I mean, look, Beasley missing shots and Kate getting his first taste of the playoffs and
07:56you know, some real candid conversations about him closing those games out.
08:00Like those are things we pointed to a lot more.
08:02I look more towards, is it a lack of experience in the post season?
08:07They haven't won a home game.
08:09They haven't won a series.
08:10All those things that Trajan Langdon told us that we've talked about.
08:13Like, yeah, there is an experience issue if you are getting to the Eastern Conference
08:20finals playing against the Boston Celtics who've been there, done that.
08:23See, I think it was easily Beasley not shooting well is why they lost.
08:28Like if he shoots like he didn't realize season, you're playing game seven and it's a
08:31complete toss up at that point.
08:33I think the other thing is if beef stew's healthy and that's a team that they played
08:36last year that went to the East final.
08:38They got to play the Celtics and that's when Tatum got hurt.
08:40Yeah, you know, but if the same fate played out with the Pistons, I mean, I think people
08:45should be positive about him going in.
08:47I do think Cleveland and Boston are toss ups until you see what their playoff basketball
08:51is.
08:52I think those are tough matchups.
08:53That's the part of this.
08:54I would circle and underline.
08:55Yeah, he says bad matchups.
08:56I'd say they're tough matchups for this team.
08:58I think they're going to put the Pistons in tough positions, but do I think the Pistons
09:02are a team built to play that kind of ask?
09:04Like, hey, do you question this team in an alley?
09:07I don't know in terms of them winning an NBA championship in this poll and all that odds
09:14and all that.
09:15Isn't this thing the Thunder Spurs versus the field?
09:19Yes, feels that way.
09:20Yeah, 100%.
09:21So if you did tears, it would be tier one is the Thunder and the Spurs drop off tier two
09:28might just be the Celtics by themselves.
09:30And then I'd put Detroit and Denver in that next grouping.
09:33I might almost do it as a tier one with the Thunder because I think the Spurs, I know
09:38they've had success against the Thunder.
09:40They don't have any playoff experience.
09:43Sure.
09:46Could be having the same argument in San Antonio.
09:48Sure.
09:49Text says the last time the University of Michigan won a title, the Pistons did the same year.
09:54Also had 60 wins.
09:56There you go.
09:58So it's a foregone conclusion, right?
09:59Yeah, we could just book our tickets now and as you say, it's what value value.
10:05It's destiny.
10:05Yeah.
10:0618 to one.
10:07There you go.
10:08I think that's the I should have looked this up first.
10:11I think they might have the best odds to win a title of any of our teams.
10:14I think the Tigers are right around the same number and the Lions are right around the
10:17same number.
10:18Okay.
10:20But one's got the one seed and starting the playoffs this week.
10:22Yes.
10:23Yes.
10:23Well, we've seen what the one seed does for the Lions.
10:25You know, don't put that out there.
10:26One difference from not having Beasley, but then having Robinson is that Robinson has
10:30significant playoff experience.
10:31Yes.
10:32Well, it goes both ways, though.
10:33I mean, he's been run off the floor in playoff series.
10:36Yeah, but he's had good experiences, too.
10:38So the hate against Bickerstaff is ridiculous.
10:42He's taken his team to a height that has not been known in 20 years.
10:45He's also been up for coach of the year multiple times.
10:47Yeah.
10:47I mean, that's why I just don't understand those text messages.
10:50I get it.
10:51I just don't know why you would take the time to send that in right now, because just
10:57because Andy Reid in Philly couldn't get it done there, goes to Kansas City and obviously
11:05Patrick Mahomes, but it takes a coach to put it all together.
11:09And is he not recognized as maybe the elite coach in the NFL?
11:14And is he the scapegoat for Cleveland coming up short?
11:18In other words, like they had other problems.
11:20I mean, they traded for James Harden this year.
11:22It's not that they thought their core was NBA title bound.
11:24Right.
11:25They had their own flaws, too.
11:28So look, Pistons will play Sunday, 630 NBC game.
11:32We'll find out their opponent as this week goes.
11:34NBA play in tournament starts tonight.
11:36You got Heather's news to Grand Slam coming up next.
11:39And then Holmes, Brad Holmes on his philosophy.
11:41Do they have to take edge or tackle?
11:44We'll play you what he had to say.
11:45It's 97 one.
Comments