00:00All right, people, get your predictions in for the coming Pistons season.
00:03Today is opening day, 3 o'clock tip.
00:05The Pistons hosting the Boston Celtics.
00:07We get this sort of marquee spot.
00:09I don't know if it's a full marquee spot because it's 3 o'clock on a Tuesday.
00:13But it's the opening game of the league season, and it is Boston.
00:18And, you know, it's the only game that's going to be on this afternoon,
00:21part of a trio of games.
00:23Hall, these are big games, right?
00:25And so Detroit, I think, got some respect in that they're on this day,
00:283 o'clock on a Tuesday is a little awkward.
00:31But, hey, we've had afternoon baseball games, so why not afternoon basketball games?
00:35Philly and New York tonight, so LeBron versus the defending champ,
00:39and then the two powerhouses out in the west at 930, OKC versus San Antonio.
00:44248-539-9797.
00:47Let's go to Matt on a cell here on 97.1.
00:49Good morning, Matt.
00:51Good morning.
00:52How's it going?
00:53Okay.
00:55All right.
00:56Uh, record, I'm going to go 50 and 32, and it probably is counteractive to my bold prediction
01:05where I think they're going to be a play-in team, only because the East is just so hard
01:11right now.
01:12Oh, that's a poor choice of words.
01:14Uh-huh.
01:14The East is very difficult right now with all the superstars and the superpower teams,
01:21and I just think everyone else is going to have a better record.
01:24And just because we haven't, we signed a few people in the offseason, but no one of significance,
01:30not that I think.
01:32So, yeah, I think they're going to just be a play-in team.
01:36So, who you got ahead of them, who are the teams ahead of them to make them a play-in
01:43team?
01:44New York, Philly, Cleveland, I assume.
01:48Indiana.
01:48New York, Philly, Cleveland, Miami.
01:52Miami with the addition of Giannis.
01:55Indiana with Halliburton back.
01:58Yeah.
02:00I mean, you can't really ever count Boston out.
02:03I mean, I love this Atlanta team.
02:05I always have.
02:06Orlando.
02:08Interesting.
02:09Play-in team.
02:10I think it's just a really tough, tough East, and I just think it's, I'm not saying the Pistons
02:16are bad, I'm just, it's really tough for them this year with all the additions to the
02:22Eastern teams.
02:24So, I mean, what the East did, like Philly, they get LeBron, they get Jalen Brown, you know,
02:28Joel Embiid hasn't played more than 39 games in each of the last three seasons, so you
02:33don't know if you can count on anything from him.
02:35Does New York have any kind of championship hangover?
02:38Toronto got Kawhi, but he's 35 and more injury-prone than he's ever been.
02:45Boston can shoot it, and you know that they will shoot it, and they added Mitchell Robinson
02:49from the Knicks, so they got some toughness there.
02:51I just, the one thing about the Pistons is that they're so young, the learning curve seems
02:56so steep, and they'll have no chemistry issues.
03:00It feels like pretty much everybody here knows their role, and they made such an emphasis
03:05on adding outside shooting.
03:07Now they got to go shoot it, right?
03:08I mean, John Collins is supposed to be a better shooter than Tobias, and John Collins didn't
03:12hit, I think he hit one three in the preseason.
03:15That might not be true.
03:15He hit a couple, but he didn't shoot it very well.
03:19So, you know, I mean, they got to go out and do it, and they got to make sure that
03:21those
03:22new parts fit, because there is something to be said for chemistry, and this team's got
03:26it.
03:27Well, there is, and there are other teams, too.
03:29We haven't even mentioned the Wizards, and that's a team that has added to their roster.
03:33They got Trae Young.
03:34They're going nowhere as a team.
03:36Trae Young, Thrice Middleton, and DeAndre Ayton, and Alex Saar, and they've got Anthony Davis.
03:42I mean, they've got some veteran players there that want to take another run at a championship.
03:49So, the East is absolutely loaded.
03:52Yep.
03:532, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97.
03:55Alex in advance says, I believe the Pistons win 56 games.
03:58They will win two playoff rounds this year.
04:01So, he's got them exiting in the Eastern Conference Finals.
04:05From an unnamed texter, I personally love the Tuesday 3 p.m. start.
04:10My days off are Monday and Tuesday, and I'm contemplating going downtown to get a new opening
04:14day vibe there.
04:15Great weather for it as well.
04:17Well, the sun is beating down.
04:20Yes.
04:20As we can attest to in the...
04:23We're like in an atrium here.
04:24Yeah, we're inside the LCA here, but it's beautiful outside.
04:29They are preparing for a lot of people out in the plaza area, and that could be pretty cool.
04:34Yeah, whoever sent this, you didn't sign it.
04:35Come on down.
04:36I mean, that's the question.
04:37I started to wonder, what if this really works?
04:42Like, what if the Pistons opening day, like Tiger opening day, what if this works?
04:48What if this place is packed?
04:50What, can they start petitioning the league to start every season at 3 o'clock?
04:53Well, I mean, I don't know if they even have to petition the league.
04:56Just say, we're playing our opener at 3.
04:58Don't put us on opening day if you want to make that a marquee day.
05:01We're playing our...
05:02We're going to play a midday, weekday opener.
05:05I mean, you know, if this works, it's not like they chose...
05:09I doubt the Pistons organization chose this.
05:11No, I mean, what's the difference between an October day and a late March, early April day with the Tigers?
05:17And let me be clear, this is not like some sort of crime.
05:20It's just unusual to open the...
05:21Like, I don't think that the league did us dirty here or anything like that.
05:26But there are fans that take exception to this being a 3 o'clock game.
05:29Yeah, that don't like it because they've got to work.
05:30I mean, our guy here, or girl, said days off are Monday and Tuesday.
05:35Very convenient for Monday and Tuesday day offs.
05:38Very convenient for people whose shift ends before 3 o'clock.
05:42But there is, you know, nobody ever complains about why are the Tigers opening at 1 o'clock.
05:50Nobody ever complains about that, right?
05:52No, I guess because there's a tradition associated with it now.
05:55Yeah.
05:55It's been around forever.
05:56Scott Carlton says, 52 wins, the ceiling is the roof.
06:01They go to the...
06:04I'm sorry.
06:05The ceiling is the roof.
06:06They go to the NBA Finals and lose.
06:10Jordan in a shop.
06:11Pistons will win 54 games.
06:13Bold-ass predictions.
06:14Pistons will win the championship this year against the Nuggets.
06:18Wow.
06:18Yep.
06:20From an unnamed texter, my bold-ass prediction is Ibuka Okorri makes first team all-rookie.
06:26So that's interesting.
06:28He had a kind of preseason that made people raise an eyebrow and go, oh, that guy.
06:34Yeah.
06:35Forgot about this guy.
06:35What do they have here?
06:36What do they have in Ibuka Okorri?
06:38Well, what do they have?
06:39I mean, we don't know how much he's going to play.
06:40I assume they're going to take it really slowly with him.
06:43This is not the team to come into when you expect to be a guy who's going to play 25
06:48minutes a night.
06:49This is different than what it was, say, five years ago when they're breaking in Cade Cunningham or Jaden Ivey
06:55and Jalen Dern,
06:56when each of those guys had their chances to come here.
06:59I mean, Cade was the number one pick.
07:01And then the next year, he's hurt to start things off, and Jaden Ivey is thrown to the fire.
07:06You've got to do what you've got to do, and Jalen Dern got plenty of time.
07:08That's fun.
07:09But this is an established team right now.
07:11So it's going to be hard to crack this lineup and get into the rotation.
07:16But I would imagine he's going to get opportunities.
07:19I just don't know if it's going to start from day one.
07:21Yeah, it's okay.
07:23What's reasonable here?
07:24He spells Danis Jenkins at the beginning.
07:28Can he push Danis Jenkins?
07:29Did he play better than Danis Jenkins in the preseason?
07:32Is he a player that gets that opportunity in this season because they aren't trying to win 60 games?
07:40That they go, okay, let's put the ball in this kid's hands at crunch time in a game and see
07:43what happens.
07:45You know, and that's one of the luxuries of kind of having been there and done that.
07:51Look, last year, we were reveling in every single victory as that season went on.
07:58And, you know, probably more so than most cities that are accustomed to regular season success.
08:04And we've moved beyond the time where we went through a stretch in the NBA where if you weren't one
08:08of the top three seeds,
08:09you really didn't have a chance to win at all.
08:11That's not really the case anymore.
08:13So, bottom line here is the regular season might be time for experimentation where, hey, this is a late-game
08:21situation.
08:22This kid creates shots for himself.
08:26Let's clear out.
08:27And not because we think it's our best play.
08:30You know, the Pistons might be thinking, let's do this just to see what happens
08:34because we want to know if this is something we can rely on, something we can count on.
08:39Well, he creates shots for himself and others.
08:42That's what's fun about it is that he draws attention and he can dish it off to somebody who's cutting
08:46in the lane.
08:48Mark in Ann Arbor says 53-29, losing the second round.
08:52Bold ass, win the conference finals.
08:55So, the bold ass prediction is supposed to correlate with something you actually think is going to happen.
09:02You know, you can't.
09:03I mean, if you want to predict they're going to lose in the second round and go to the NBA
09:07finals.
09:07That's hard to do.
09:08Yeah.
09:09My bold ass prediction is that the Pistons will regress slightly due to all the new faces.
09:13I see 51 and 31 and get bounced in the second round again.
09:18That's from an unnamed texter.
09:19What do you think is going to go down, people?
09:21248-539-9797.
09:23We're at LCA, Pistons opener.
09:25I do want to get Detroit's reaction to the 3 o'clock start.
09:29Could this become a thing?
09:31Could we embrace it?
09:32Could this be awesome?
09:33Are you out there going, no, this sucks.
09:35I can't get out of work.
09:37I have no, like, didn't know.
09:39This is the exact opposite of awesome.
09:41248-539-9797.
09:43It's Carson Anderson here on 97.1.
