00:01okay um yesterday the Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon addressed
00:08the medium uh we had talked a little bit about what he would say post season uh leading up to
00:14that news conference and actually before the news conference was even announced uh because we knew
00:19that last offseason we had the quote and we'd read it a bunch of times uh how he approached
00:24the offseason prior to the season we just have so after the 2025 NBA season concluded
00:31Trajan said we're going to focus on development if we can make some moves on the margins
00:36we will do it but I don't expect to be particularly aggressive which was kind of a little bit to
00:42a
00:42degree giving away the farm as to what their offseason plans were I don't know how that would
00:46help them other than you know teams hear that and think well they're not going to trade for our
00:51superstar whatever the case is season comes go through the season win 60 games they make a move
00:58on the margins at the trade deadline uh and he made something he also made some moves in free agency
01:03on the margins but nothing that felt like a particularly big move he followed through on
01:08what he projected was most likely so when the season ended on Sunday against Cleveland we actually talked
01:16about a Monday what's he going to say this year and then we found out later in the day Monday
01:22he was
01:22having a news conference on Tuesday that we carried live um I don't think there's much disagreement
01:30amongst piston fans and amongst even us that the piston should be pretty aggressively looking for
01:38outside help do you agree that the piston should be pretty aggressively looking for outside help
01:42100% Kang do you agree that the piston should be pretty aggressively looking for outside help
01:47yes I agree that the piston should pretty aggressively be looking for outside help
01:52and if you listen to Trajan and you know what to expect from him he did leave the door open
02:01to seeking outside help
02:05the news conference led to some surprising reactions I was surprised so people were pissed
02:15and I believe completely unnecessarily so now let me be very clear on something in my opinion that
02:22press conference didn't warrant any extreme reactions one way or another like he didn't give the
02:29impression that he's 100% going to totally put the pedal down or they're cooked because he's just going
02:36to run it keep the band together and run it back next year but when asked about being aggressive he
02:43did
02:43not say I don't expect it which is what he said last year he left the door open for that
02:49but the
02:51interpretation is what surprised me is that there were angry fans out there and I you know I mentioned
02:59the beat writers the one that came to mind was Amari Sankofa tweeted out yeah I don't know why
03:04everybody's so mad today um but yeah I think there's something that we in the business called winning the
03:13press conference winning the press conferences is something that feels good in the moment
03:21but doesn't accomplish anything I I the people that were mad I think wanted him to say
03:31use the word championship a lot and I went back and listened to about half of it today to see
03:36if he ever
03:36dropped that word I didn't hear it and I think they interpret that is that he doesn't care if they
03:43win a championship or not that that's not the goal and and I think it in my opinion it's absurd
03:51to think
03:51that Trajan Langdon doesn't want to win a championship I think I think it's absurd it is absurd um but
04:00you
04:00know how some fans get they want they want somebody loud they want somebody that's going to be fired up
04:08and passionate and show that right I have no doubt that Trajan Langdon Langdon has the passion for being
04:15the general manager of this basketball team and leading this team to a championship there's no doubt
04:18in my mind you don't get into business unless that's what you want to do he admitted he was surprised
04:24at
04:24how well that they they played last season or this past season here uh or current season we want to
04:30look
04:30at it that they they did not expect them to be a 60 win team or be the number one
04:33seat that they're thrust
04:34into that championship conversation before he thought they were ready but hey now they're ready
04:40now they know okay and and they're going to act accordingly but because you don't say it loudly
04:46people get upset because you're not going to spell it out directly and say yes we're going to be very
04:52aggressive in free agency and find those players that are going to be able to create their own shot
04:57find those players are able to help space the floor find those players are going to help bring the
05:02ball up the court and we need somebody that's going to take i mean people want everything
05:07explained in the press conference maybe promised yeah it's just so that it it jibes with what their
05:12narrative is and what they want to happen which i understand i mean everybody wants to be validated
05:17with their thoughts by the guy who's in charge because everybody thinks that they can do the job
05:22right which is of course and a whole other absurdity but nonetheless it's out there we can all have
05:28opinions we have opinions and we have things i've got players that have i brought up names of players
05:32i want them to go after but i don't expect the gm of the pistons to say things like yes
05:39we're going
05:40to aggressively pursue colin sexton the free agency yes we are working on a deal for lori market and as
05:45we speak it's going to take a lot but trust me guys we'll see if we can get that done
05:49that's not
05:50going to happen right so what they want is maybe even just the general idea of at least come out
05:56and say yes we are going to be aggressive in the free agent market and what we're really going to
06:01be doing is we're going to be aggressive it's not the free agent market we're going to be aggressive
06:04in the offseason and trying to find players outside of our organization that will take us to the next
06:09level okay it's great to be the number one seed it was great to to win a series and push
06:15a you know
06:15the second series to the brink only to lose in game seven but we need to level up and the
06:20next
06:21level is conference finals which means you're competing for an nba championship that's what
06:25people wanted to hear and they didn't get to hear it in those terms he didn't he didn't he didn't
06:29win
06:29the press conference in their eyes no and that's fine with me but not for them yeah now i don't
06:35want
06:35this to be misinterpreted i had no issue with the press conference i did not think it was
06:42a reason for victory laps or or but i think i think it's a it was clearly to me a
06:49different tone
06:50than what he had to say the year before and the message he got uh he he had the year
06:56before
06:56uh the door was left open um and for people who didn't hear it we'll play some of the highlights
07:03of some of the things he had to say coming up today at 10 31 and then we'll get into
07:07whether or not
07:08you believe langdon can get it done because i still think that is a question that's valid
07:13to ask can langdon do what is necessary do we believe that trajan langdon can do what it's
07:19necessary to to actually find that move whatever that move is and we will get to that coming up this
07:27first hour as well again if you missed the best of what he had to say we'll play it for
07:31you next
07:31you're on karshen anderson on 97.1
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