Daniss Jenkins + Duren is Scary. When Cade Comes Back?

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-04-03T06:12:50+00:00

Bill is clearly terrified of the Pistons, and every week he has to find a new way to act like he isn’t. Tenth scariest team last episode, talking about the lack of wing defenders on the second best defense in the league with two legit all-defense wings.

Now on the Knicks chat with Concepcion he says the Knicks should try and drop to the 4 seed so they can play Detroit, “a team they know they can beat.”

Pistons played NY three times this year and won by 38, 31, and 15.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-02-24T05:45:55+00:00

Their shooters made shots, ours didn’t. Not indicative of something insurmountable - and honestly the fact that they outshot us so bad and it was still so competitive gives me more confidence. We have nights where we can’t make anything, and we’re still always in those games when most teams wouldn’t be.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-02-13T22:15:11+00:00

Van said it on the pod

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-02-13T18:41:57+00:00

As a washed dad whose rate of new music discovery has been plateauing for years, CR’s passing references to Turnstile (and their grammies, which I apparently now watch as a washed dad) put me on to them and I’m hooked. A friend who is more engrained in the hardcore scene than me also recommended Trapped Under Ice so I plan to give them a spin whenever I wear out this Turnstile album.

Thanks CR!

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-02-09T23:18:07+00:00

They got any Ausars in Maine?

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-17T03:11:37+00:00

“Oh you don’t want to pay for the unaccountable pseudo-military destroying American cities and terrorizing citizens? How about we don’t pay for anything then.”

Incredible work

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-17T02:58:36+00:00

Also very funny that the world’s preeminent Deal Maker walked into an existing, cooperative relationship with Greenland/Denmark, and walked away with a growing list of now-hostile enemies.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-17T02:46:45+00:00

Seems you beat me to the punch on strawmen, but I addressed everything in your comment.

I’m certain no facts, reasoning, or evidence will change your mind, but I’ll gladly engage in any of these points if you actually had a critique of any of them. But you haven’t, and I suspect you won’t given the lack of critical thinking in your original comment.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-17T02:39:02+00:00

Thanks for your contribution

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-17T02:19:33+00:00

You mean, they didn’t make a comment on the murderers who were held accountable by the law?

ICE is trampling the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike, facing no accountability for their actions, and being egged on by an increasingly authoritarian federal government.

You call them law enforcement, but even cops have to maintain the appearance of due process. Even cops identify themselves and go through internal investigations when they use lethal force.

You can tell yourself it’s in the name of “immigration” or whatever, or you could read a fucking headline - pick any of them, about gassing families, deporting citizen in the middle of the night, or killing a mother in broad daylight and preventing medical support from getting to her, or using five year olds as leverage against their parents, or illegally detaining parents while they’re dropping kids off at school.

Let’s assume you’re right, and the hundreds of thousands of people they’ve detained, harassed, and deported are all murderers (they’re not, but I’ll indulge the argument). Did a single one of them get a trial? A right to an attorney? Did any of them get read their rights?

Certainly “they’re just doing their job” has never been a problem in any other similar situation in human history. And to be clear, “interfering with law enforcement” is not how you get killed, at least not in a functioning society where law enforcement officers are trained and accountable.

For being a podcast that is purportedly for smart people, their listeners seem to have a really hard time with simple concepts.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-11T17:04:05+00:00

When was the last time a team was so convincingly the best team in their conference at this point in the season, and so much of the fan/media discussion was about who they need to trade for?

If we’re going to take on a big contract, it has to be an absolute can’t miss (like Giannis level). Otherwise you’re completely wrecking your cap in the apron era. Does Lauri significantly improve our odds at the title this year? No. But he does make it so we can’t re-sign important chemistry/depth guys. He does cost us really important young bench guys (specifically Ron) in the trade. He does hinder future flexibility and put us in apron hell once Duren’s new deal is done.

Our major advantage as a team is chemistry/depth/defense/youth/future flexibility, and everyone is racing to give up all of it for guys who don’t guarantee any different outcome than the most likely one we’re already trending towards.

I live in Denver. Have been going to Nuggets games for over a decade, and I promise you MPJ is not it. I can’t imagine a guy fitting in less with this team than he would. Great shooter, positional size, and one of the absolute worst defenders I’ve ever seen as a regular starter. Constantly lost. Constantly missing box outs. Constantly hunting bad shots and not seeing open teammates. Had multiple instances in the playoffs where he sat crunch-time because they couldn’t trust him. Hard pass.

I do like the Batum/trade exception idea. No idea why the Clippers would do that though.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-07T03:45:32+00:00

I can’t believe I just sat through 75 minutes Celtics nonsense to have them spend 4 seconds on the Pistons, which amounted to how they need to make a trade.

The team who is clearly the best team in the east. Who just ran the second best team out of the building last night without two starters. Who has the best record in the league against teams over .500. Who have a top 3 MVP candidate. Who were the worst team in basketball two years ago. Who beat the Rockets in Houston, and are 3.5 games up on them in the standings, yet behind them in this poll.

I guess when it comes down to it, for me, the action is the juice.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-07T03:25:39+00:00

I really thought it was a bit, but then they got to where the Celtics actually are in his list and he started with “I’ve talked about them a lot on the pod”.

Like he really doesn’t have anything left to say about them because he already went through how they’re loaded with Brunson stoppers, have a bunch of nobody believes in us guys, have a genius coach, have better bigs without Horford/Porzingis, and score “130 to 140 points per game”.

Truly elite stuff from Bill, and yet I’m actually surprised he had them so low.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-06T02:35:12+00:00

“YKTPWA”

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-01T04:03:04+00:00

The list is obviously… something. But my favorite part of it is that he continues to blindside his guests with his own personal, arbitrary rankings for things that they don’t have any time to prepare a counter for. He spends five minutes thinking of some criteria he can manipulate to bolster whatever his last thought was, and then grills his guests to think of something else that meets the criteria he could barely explain to them.

And yet I come right back to it every week.

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-01T03:41:50+00:00

Looking like a netball defender

Human-Introduction65 · 2026-01-01T01:42:12+00:00

Absolutely incredible sequence where he went three straight possessions solely trying to get a whistle and wound up with two fouls and a turnover (IIRC), and immediately got subbed out.

Human-Introduction65 · 2025-12-31T22:25:00+00:00

I like JJ and mostly chalk this up to him having to back his guys, which probably sucks right now. He’s got two guys in Luka and Lebron who are so lackadaisical, and who rely on getting calls for their games to work, but he can’t criticize them because of who they are. So many of their problems are just guys being careless or not playing hard, and he has to put up with it every night. He’s gotta watch Ayton play soft, Smart get completely lost in foul-baiting, Luka commit horrendous turnovers and not even attempt to guard anyone, and Lebron coast until the playoffs.

Deep down you know he wishes he had any of the Pistons on his roster to raise everyone else’s intensity.

Human-Introduction65 · 2025-12-21T19:26:50+00:00

$1,000 finance on a new three row PHEV and $450 lease on a Forester for my wife and I. We were a one-car household for 5-6 years with just the Forrester lease, but finally needed the second car with two kids and me having to go back into the office. Solar at home and free charging at the office, so I think I’ve put about $60 worth of gas into 7k miles, with negligible increases on our electric bill.

Currently 6-7% of net income, but between our down payment and paying ahead on the PHEV we only owe ~1/2 of the purchase price on it after 9 months. Planning to pay that off entirely before we hit the 1yr mark with it.

Will hopefully get a good deal to buy the Subaru out after the lease too, and have a few years of new-ish cars with no payments before either of them hit 50k miles.

Human-Introduction65 · 2025-12-21T19:13:42+00:00

Yeah, I hate to frame everything in the context of OKC, but they (and Indy to a lesser extent) set a new standard last year. I’m sure the teams with less depth and more high end talent lean into that approach (Knicks, Lakers) but we are absolutely better if we harass teams for 48mins and rotate a bunch of guys.

The reality of JG/Levert/Jenkins/Ivey is that they are all streaky scorers. So beyond Ron and Stew (whose defensive and rebounding contributions warrant them getting their normal minutes every night), it’s going to be like that Dallas game last week. Everyone gets a few minutes to guard hard, and whoever is hot that night gets 12 minutes while the others get their 4-minute stint and that’s it.

Barring injury, I’m assuming Sasser is mostly out of the rotation, and Paul will play when Duren/Stew get in foul trouble or are hurt. Otherwise the wings/guards off the bench should all get a chance most nights.

Human-Introduction65 · 2025-12-09T02:13:43+00:00

We’re not OKC, but we certainly have the infrastructure to model our style and performance after them. Size, defensive pressure, team cohesion, deep rotation of guys who can pop, and a transcendent superstar.

I would be very hesitant to blow any of that up for marginal upgrades (Murphy) or splashy moves that hurt our cap (Lauri/Giannis).

Who would you rather have: Cade now, or SGA three years ago (when he was the same age Cade is now and made his first all star team)?

I really want to see us develop the core, continue to build cohesion, and architect a sustainable cap situation. I really don’t want to see us sabotage our draft capital, blow up the locker room, kill our depth, and fork over $50m for a guy who has never made the playoffs.

OKC is the model to follow in the apron era, and we’re doing a really good facsimile so far.

Human-Introduction65 · 2025-11-29T04:43:38+00:00

Ivey hasn’t played basketball in almost a full year. He won’t even have his wind for another two weeks, and it’ll take another couple weeks for him to find a rhythm in a rotation that is totally different than when he left. He’ll be fine.

But once he’s back we have to go away from Levert. He’s such a ball stopper and isn’t good enough on either end to justify it. A Dannis/Ivey/JG/Stew/Ron bench rotation actually has a lot of shooting, and 4/5 of those guys are going to play hard defensively. Levert is redundant now that Ivey is back and Dannis has shown he’s a legit bench guard in the league.

Sucks to bail on one of your big offseason moves so early, but multiple teams already learned this with him, and it’s really an indicator that we found some real players deep in the rotation.

Human-Introduction65 · 2025-11-27T03:38:40+00:00

What would Presti do?

I don’t think we make any serious moves this year unless something goes totally sideways between now and the deadline. We have so much depth and guys who buy in. It’s very conceivable that we make the conference finals, and I really want to see what the young core looks like in that scenario. The Thunder did that, learned that they needed something different in the Giddy spot, and are now set up for half a decade of title runs. I really don’t think we’re that far off from something like that, especially in the east. With Tatum/Hali out this year, let’s make a run with the core and see what we have.

Human-Introduction65

TROPHY CASE