00:01Is that who's singing this song?
00:02No, John.
00:03Good morning, 97.1.
00:05Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park, Gov, and Greg Behind the Glass.
00:08We are having a great start to our Tuesday.
00:12Got Heather getting off the two Grand Slam questions.
00:15Is that how you put it?
00:17I did put it that way.
00:18Yeah.
00:20Yeah.
00:21We're talking Pistons.
00:22We've got a Game 2 matchup tonight.
00:24Or Game Series 2, Game 1 matchup tonight.
00:27Yep.
00:27And we mentioned the Scoobl stuff, which isn't fun.
00:29But it's been part of the conversation today.
00:31Loose bodies in that left elbow.
00:33Shout out John Marossi for spending some time filling us in on more of that.
00:38Yeah.
00:39From Tulsa.
00:40That's the loose body?
00:44I was just about to get back on track, and now I'm off again.
00:50This is why when I do say something innocent about the restaurant or something like that,
00:56and Heather looks at me like I get it.
00:57You know, like I understand.
01:00Well, we're going to talk restaurants coming up at 8 o'clock.
01:03Yes.
01:03But until then, the Pistons.
01:06Who does this series say the most about?
01:09Because I think we got some answers on what kind of player Kate is and what kind of player
01:14Asar is.
01:15Who does this series say the most about?
01:17Is this an obvious Jalen Duren spot?
01:19Is this JB Bickerstaff against the team that fired him because he's a regular season coach?
01:25Can't get him over the hump?
01:26Yeah.
01:27So who does this series mean the most for?
01:30Who's it about?
01:31Well, that's a tough one.
01:36Can a series really be about a coach?
01:40Because if it is, and I, okay, to answer my own question, I think it can be.
01:45And we were talking about the adjustments that we wanted to see from JB, like trim down the
01:50rotation.
01:51He did that, and ultimately, they end up winning the series.
01:56Now, it's Cade as the reason why they won the series.
01:59It's going to be Cade for however far they go in the postseason this year.
02:06So I would say that, for me, it is about JB and the matchup because it is Cleveland.
02:13And I imagine that he's going to try and downplay it.
02:17People will ask him, and he'll say, no, it doesn't play a factor.
02:21And, you know, no, it's not about me.
02:22It's about the players, and we've got to go out there and play, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
02:25But you got to believe he's a competitor.
02:29He was fired.
02:31You want to beat that team with the passion that you just can't generate without that
02:38experience.
02:39So, yeah, there's going to be a lot of this series riding on the eyeballs are going to
02:43be a lot on JB.
02:45Yeah.
02:45I mean, his record to postseason is terrible, right?
02:48Yeah.
02:49So we had the comparisons last week.
02:52Is he the next Thibodeau?
02:54Like a guy that during the regular season, he can win a lot of games.
02:57He can get you from a 14-win team to a 60-win team.
03:00He did it in a matter of two years.
03:02But can he actually win a championship?
03:05Can he even get to the Eastern Conference Finals?
03:08Can he get to an NBA Finals, let alone win it?
03:11Yeah.
03:12He's now 13-22 as a playoff head coach.
03:17And you know, whether we're dwelling on it or not, Cleveland will and a national perspective
03:23will.
03:25So we have a member of our radio station, Jeff Rieger, who maybe is a sickness, but he listened
03:32to a lot of Cleveland radio yesterday.
03:33Yeah.
03:35Sickness.
03:36Diagnosed.
03:36And there's really no treatment.
03:38And he brought up some of what he heard last night on his show.
03:41And I texted him.
03:42I said, I'm not staying up for this.
03:43I'm sorry.
03:44I've got to get up early in the morning.
03:45What were they saying on Cleveland sports radio?
03:47And this is what he relayed to me.
03:49They're not worried about the Pistons because the Pistons can't score.
03:53They know what JB is.
03:55And Kenny Atkinson is a much, much better coach.
03:59Allen will give Durin fits and the Pistons were lucky because of Franz and the game six
04:05second half.
04:05Stuff like that.
04:07Well, and you even go back to things that, that, you know, were reportedly said in the
04:12locker room going into the last matchup in the regular season.
04:17And I don't remember what the exact quote was for you, but in essence, it was, yeah,
04:22we're not worried about them.
04:23Like, you know, they can't match up with us.
04:25Um, and even though we all believe that the, that the Pistons have the best player on the
04:33floor between the two teams, we're going to go back to some of the conversations we had
04:37last week.
04:38How many of the top players are playing for each team, right?
04:41You got Cade.
04:42All right.
04:42That's one for the Pistons.
04:44And then you've got Harden.
04:46You've got, um, you know, Donovan Mitchell, you've got the two bigs.
04:50Like, so do the Pistons have one of the top five and the other four playing for the Cavaliers?
04:56Like, that's not, those aren't good odds.
04:58No.
04:59The quote was, they're not in our class.
05:01Right.
05:01Yeah.
05:04Well, who's the series say the most about?
05:07Is it JB Bickerstaff?
05:08Is it Jalen Duren?
05:10Is it somebody else?
05:13So I do believe it's going to be a, uh, a lot about JB on the court.
05:19A lot of eyeballs are going to be on Jalen Duren and you know, is he what we saw through
05:2582?
05:26What is he, what we saw in game seven or is he post-season Duren that we saw in the
05:32first
05:33six games?
05:34Right.
05:34Because we don't even have the convenient, like Angel Reese thing to joke about anymore.
05:39Like it's just either you are, you are not a playoff player.
05:42Either you are a big who can make a difference in the post-season or you're just your generic
05:46rebounder lob catcher that doesn't anywhere near deserving of a big payday.
05:50And here's what I hate about that is if he does have a good series that everybody is
05:55going to give more credit to the issue with Angel Reese.
06:00Like I could give you Duren stats against the Cavs in the regular season, but you're going
06:04to say the regular season is a fraud.
06:06What the hell does that mean?
06:07Right.
06:08He did great in regular season against most teams, but he was 21 points, 12 rebounds per
06:13game, two assists and two blocks per game when facing Cleveland in three meetings in
06:18the regular season.
06:19But as I say it, it should go in one out there, one in one ear and out the other,
06:23because
06:23it didn't translate in round one and it absolutely has to translate in round two.
06:28They have Mobley and Allen who are going to be problems at the rim.
06:31If he can't win those matchups, they're going to be playing four on five on offense.
06:38And I love a SARS all around game, but he's also not a guy who gives you a ton of
06:43spacing
06:43in the offensive end.
06:44So you start playing three and a half on five and boy, you better have the best defense in
06:49basketball.
06:50So that's why a lot of it does shift back to Duren winning his matchup down low.
06:54Yeah.
06:55And it's, and, and so you talk about Duren, we know what we have in Cade and to how much
07:02of this is about Tobias Harris.
07:03Can he continue that five game stretch of 20 plus points?
07:07Is that not one of the biggest things that changed the series, right?
07:09Franz Wagner going out as part of it, Cade hitting that extra gear in, you know, connection
07:13there.
07:14But Tobias Harris being the number two that we were asking for was the biggest reason
07:19that they ended up, right.
07:22But I have a hard time saying it's the Tobias series when he just dropped 30 in a game seven.
07:28Well, he just needs to continue playing at that level.
07:31If he doesn't, then isn't it just a reflection of like, well, yeah, I mean, we kind of knew
07:34he was not an ideal number two on a title team, right?
07:38Um, and so a lot of it, I'm going to get back to JB for a moment is going to
07:43be about the
07:43rotations because of the two bigs and the issues that Cleveland presents.
07:49And, you know, in terms of defending the three, like the Pistons are good at defending the
07:52three point shot.
07:53So the defense should help mitigate that a little bit.
07:57I think there's going to be a lot of eyeballs on Duren on the bigs.
08:02And what does JB do to counter that is, is there a combination of Duren, uh, Isaiah Stewart
08:08and B ball, Paul that he uses more so than he did against Orlando.
08:14And that's going to be a coaching decision.
08:15Well, I'll give you another wrinkle.
08:17How many phone calls and texts did we get last week about Ron Holland, right or wrong?
08:22People thought he could be a spark.
08:24And, and I didn't agree with it because he didn't give them any additional shooting.
08:28He wasn't a guy that was going to dribble and create for others.
08:31So it didn't make sense, but he may make more sense in this series.
08:35If you need to throw people at their guards, because they've got Mitchell and Harden who
08:41can create offense and you only have one, a Sar Thompson.
08:44So if he's out is Holland in to hound those guys, are there stretches where they're both
08:50and not for a, for a lot of time or a ton of time, but strategically in spurts or is
08:56it,
08:56Hey, Ron Holland is just, he's too young.
08:58This is not his moment.
08:59We're not going to play him at all.
09:00JB's decision there is going to be a factor.
09:03Yep.
09:03So a lot of it comes down to JB's decisions.
09:05All right.
09:05You guys tell us who is this series the most about two, four, eight, five, three, nine,
09:0997, 97, eight o'clock.
09:11I once gave John a recommendation.
09:13It did not go well.
09:14We'll revisit it today of all days for a reason.
09:17It's 97 one.
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