00:00248-539-9797.
00:03It is Carson Anderson here on 97.1.
00:06Hey, the Lions play their final preseason game Saturday night in Indianapolis.
00:11Do fans travel for the preseason?
00:17I would imagine that some would.
00:20Not like they do in the regular season, like we've seen takeovers.
00:24But when you think of it, Indianapolis is five hours away.
00:30Buffalo is four hours away.
00:33He's a little closer than that, I know, from recent experience.
00:40You've got some cities that are close by Cleveland.
00:43These are teams that would typically play in the preseason.
00:45And Cleveland's only two and a half, three hours away.
00:48I would imagine that there are fans that would travel to see the team play.
00:52Because when you talk about an average ticket price at Ford Field, I think it's like $400.
00:57That's what people are paying for tickets.
00:59That, okay, if I can't do that, then I'd like to go see something at a much discounted rate and
01:06see a preseason game.
01:07If it's close enough.
01:09Unfortunately, you're not getting the real product.
01:11Yeah.
01:12Yeah.
01:13I mean, I think it's pretty hardcore to travel for a preseason game.
01:16Especially if you're getting on a plane.
01:19Well, if you're getting on a plane, yeah, that's a whole other thing.
01:21But that's why I say one of the things I love about living in Metro Detroit is the proximity you
01:28are from so many big cities within a six-hour radius.
01:31I mean, an easy drive.
01:32You've got so many cities.
01:34It's not just, oh, you know, it's only four and a half hours to Chicago.
01:37Yeah, I got that.
01:37Yep.
01:38Chicago's great.
01:39And so is Hammond.
01:40But look at these other great cities we have.
01:41Hammond's even closer.
01:42Yeah.
01:43Hammond's even closer.
01:44You know, it's Cincinnati and Cleveland and Buffalo and Toronto.
01:48And there's just a lot around here.
01:50Yeah, Pittsburgh, absolutely.
01:52There's a lot.
01:52In this case, Indy.
01:53Yeah.
01:54No, you're right about that.
01:56Feedback coming in.
01:57Once this Durin deal gets done, the Assar deal will get done.
02:00And then we will know where we are at and make our all-in move.
02:04Don't forget that Langdon is an assassin of the Alaskan variety.
02:08He will strike when you least expect it.
02:10That's a fact.
02:11He is the Alaskan assassin.
02:13So, there is some – they are kind of in a similar situation with Brad Holmes
02:19in that they've got young guys worth keeping around for a long time.
02:24You know, those guys have to get better.
02:26They've got – two of those young guys have a limited offensive game.
02:30They feel like they're worth building around.
02:32But between Durin and Assar Thompson, their offensive games are limited.
02:37Now, they have an elite scorer and a guy who's emerging as one of the better players in the league.
02:42But they need to get a little bit more out of the other two, right?
02:45Well, yeah.
02:46And that's up to them.
02:48I mean, what we are asking, we are asking for these two players to do the most fun part of
02:56the game.
02:58Shoot and score.
03:00Assar.
03:00Right.
03:01Defensively, I mean, Assar is one of the best in the league.
03:04And that's why he's going to make money in this league.
03:06And that's why he's got so much cachet.
03:09He's incredibly valuable to a team that wants to go win a championship.
03:14But, yes, he is limited offensively.
03:16It looks like there is a ceiling for him, and it's not that high.
03:21Durin's a different animal, though.
03:23Durin's improved over the years.
03:25And it's a guy who's – what did he average last year?
03:2718, 19 points a game?
03:28Mm-hmm.
03:29It was just startling how bad he was for them in the postseason.
03:36And you wonder, were you hurt?
03:38What happened?
03:39I don't think he was hurt.
03:40I think his confidence got shook, and then teams just came up with a better plan
03:44to limit what the Pistons did in the regular season,
03:48which was a lot of lob work to him.
03:49And now he's going to have to go into the offseason
03:51and really work on other parts of his game.
03:54But as we've said before, that's the fun part.
03:56And the other thing with Jalen Durin is you know what you have to work on.
04:01That should be looked at as a positive.
04:04Like, okay, this is what I have to look at.
04:05I can get better doing that.
04:07From an unnamed texter,
04:08why is anyone boggled by Langdon's offseason?
04:10He's simply following suit with what all the other GMs in this town do.
04:15He sees staying relevant to sell tickets and merchandise works in this town.
04:19Championships are not a priority.
04:21Welcome to Detroit sports.
04:24I got to tell you,
04:28this is insulting to the GMs to think that they aren't trying to win a championship.
04:33They're not trying to do it the way you would do it.
04:36But the one thing that I think is one of the most misinterpreted things in sports
04:42is that there's always a great trade out there to be made.
04:45All you got to do is make it.
04:46Just make the trade.
04:47It is...
04:48Just go get that guy.
04:49You need a player, first of all, has to be available through free agency or trade.
04:56Then you have to have, if it's free agency, that player will have to agree to want to come there.
05:01You'll have to have the money to get that guy.
05:03If it's a trade, you have to have something that the other team wants that you can afford to give
05:07up.
05:08In the last couple of years, I think it's a pretty safe assumption that Scott Harris was fielding phone calls
05:15when he was trying to make a big trade for Kevin McGonigal, Troy Melton, Max Clark, Jackson Jobe.
05:23Guys who are going to be cornerstone pieces here, it looks like, for a bit.
05:27Now, there also might be some trades that he turned down that he shouldn't have.
05:32But the assumption that, well, Langdon's just following suit, I think it's just absurd and insulting.
05:40And I think it's turned into what I think is one of the most misinterpreted things in sports.
05:46Is that, just go make a great trade.
05:48There's one out there to be made.
05:49Just go make it.
05:50Well, look, in our business, there are things we look for to talk about.
05:54And when you have people that make wild predictions about, hey, here's a great fit.
05:59Here's a great free agent fit.
06:00Or here's a great trade fit.
06:02And then there are actual names thrown to paper and people read it.
06:06And then they assume that that must be available to them because I just saw so-and-so talk about
06:12it.
06:12Now, when you get credible reporting on a trade, and the one credible report that we had
06:18was that Vancouver wanted Simon Edmondson and stuff for Quinn Hughes.
06:26And the Red Wings, for whatever reason, said no.
06:29Now, what the stuff is, is really important.
06:33And Quinn Hughes' signability is an issue.
06:36It's a huge part of it.
06:37But that was a chance that I think was a blown opportunity.
06:43And we have been critical of Steve Eisenman on that front, assuming that that credible report was true.
06:51Because that was a team that needed to make a big move, that needed to do something to get over
06:55the hump.
06:56And they didn't because of the long-term feasibility of keeping Quinn Hughes in town.
07:01But the bottom line is, it's a chance worth taking because he comes here in the offseason.
07:08This is where he is.
07:09He played college hockey here, has a familiarity with this place.
07:14And you get the upper hand being the only team that can negotiate with him for two years.
07:19And they didn't do it.
07:21But that one feels like a big swing and miss.
07:24The rest, without credible reporting, I really struggle with being critical.
07:28Like, I guess you could say what you want, but I'm not going to co-sign on that.
07:32Because I've got to defend my position.
07:35And I don't think you can defend that without knowing what trades were turned down.
07:38Right.
07:39I mean, you see that Jalen Brown gets dealt to the 76ers and the package of players and draft picks.
07:46It didn't seem like it was all that impressive.
07:48They could have gotten worse.
07:50Should the Pistons have gotten in on that?
07:51I mean, that's the thing is it's going to be after the fact.
07:54And you don't know what was asked of the Pistons.
07:56In some roundabout way, we've got three GMs in this town that are being punished for drafting so well
08:01and having to keep their guys long-term.
08:05Like, the Lions, Pistons, and Tigers all right now have young players that I want to be here for a
08:12long time.
08:12Right?
08:13And for those reasons, those are the players that other teams ask for.
08:18And those guys have to be, their future contracts have to be accounted for on the books.
08:24Baseball's a little different in that there is no salary cap.
08:28But I bristle when I see that.
08:30And the idea that one influences the other to me is just naive and laughable.
08:34But 248-539-9797, let's go actually tell you what.
08:40Coming up at 1150, what the Wings are doing.
08:44There's a lot of angst in this most recent report.
08:47That at 1150, Carson Anderson on 97.1.
08:51There's a lot of angst in this a lot.
