Pistons of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon joins Costa and Jansen to discuss retaining Malik Beasley, the team's postseason goals, and more.
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00:00Pistons won a couple games over the weekend. Trade deadline is behind us, and we are joined
00:04this morning by Trajan Langdon. Trajan, good morning.
00:08Good morning, guys. How are you?
00:10You had to feel really good, I'm sure, Friday night after you keep Malik Beasley, and he
00:13drops a career-high 36 points.
00:16Yeah, I was happy for him. I was happy for our team to find a way to win in a game without
00:24Cade, but yeah, he was amazing. He's always fun to watch when he gets it going like that.
00:29I don't know who anybody is, but I'm happy that he's still on our team working that
00:33kind of, having nights like that.
00:35Beasley mentioned some conversations that you guys had, and part of it was he wants
00:40to stay, business is business. When it comes down to business is business, how tough are
00:45some of those decisions that you've got to walk yourself through?
00:48They're really tough. I'm a proponent of getting to know these guys and trying to be
00:58part of creating an environment and a culture that they can be successful in. I think part
01:04of that is you gain a trust, and you're able to have difficult conversations with guys,
01:09and you try to create an atmosphere where their family is safe and comfortable. So when
01:14you have to depart with them or make these difficult decisions where they might be included
01:21in a trade, that is a difficult one. But at the end of the day, my job is to put this
01:27franchise and organization in the best position to be successful.
01:30You mentioned putting this job, this franchise in the best position to be successful, and
01:35I think most people outside of where you are in the conversations that you have and your
01:38experience thought at the beginning of the season, signing Beasley, Hardaway Jr., they
01:43were all going to be sold at the deadline. When did you shift your perspective, or did
01:49you at any point, because of the success the team is now having?
01:53I think it was a really good question. I think it was an ongoing thought of, it's always,
02:00can you get better? And so if there would have been opportunities at the trade deadline
02:06where those guys are included, where I thought that we could get significantly better either
02:11now or in the future, then those things would have been taken into consideration. Some things
02:17did cross our desk in terms of some of those players that were included, but I felt none
02:23made us better now or really made us better going forward. And so that made the decision
02:28easier in regards to those players. We're talking to Pistons President of
02:33Basketball Ops Trajan Langdon this morning, and one guy you did add was Dennis Schroeder.
02:38Why was he the right guy from, I'm assuming, a group of bench guards that you were looking at?
02:42Yeah, you're absolutely right. We went into the trade deadline thinking,
02:51obviously, with the cap space that we had, we wanted to gather as many assets as possible.
02:57We would have loved to gather more, but some deals fell through down the stretch on the last day.
03:02But I think getting a guard that could play a sidecade that could help run a second unit,
03:11obviously, with the loss of Jaden Ivey, we wanted to put a guy in that could have some thrust,
03:19but also guard at the other end. There might be some times we have to arrest some players,
03:24and he's a guy that can even fill in and start it sometimes in terms of running the team.
03:29All those were taken into account, and we just thought Dennis was the best fit to check
03:36most of those boxes that we were looking at. And we look at a lot of the assets that you
03:39guys have. And outside of the players, if we're going to talk about them as assets,
03:44it's also draft assets. And for somebody that doesn't really understand, and I think a lot of
03:49NBA fans, even the most ardent fans, the salary cap, adding salary, taking away salary,
03:57adding these guys to help other teams, along with that is second-round picks. You guys have
04:02accumulated a ton of second-round picks. What are the true value of having those second-round picks?
04:09Well, I think a lot of times you can look at them as just the pick that you wait until 2028,
04:16and then you got four of them. That doesn't, to a lot of people, make sense. Why would you have
04:22six picks in one year? I think for us, and for a lot of the leaguers now, is accumulating all
04:28these assets, and they're almost used as ammunition at times to go get what you wanted at a certain
04:33time that you want it. And if you don't have these assets, there's, I think, four or five
04:39teams that have the majority of assets in this league right now. And so if a player becomes
04:44available or a pick becomes available that you want to go get, if you don't have the assets to
04:49get it, you're just not going to have the ability to do it. And so right now we feel we're probably
04:55a little bit asset deficient, given where we are. And so when we have the opportunity, we try to
05:02gather more. So when that opportunity does arise, if there's a player, whether it's in the draft or
05:08on the trade market or a free agency that we want to go get, we'll have the ability to get that
05:15player. Trajan, is it safe to say playoffs are now the expectation for this group, given you guys
05:20didn't sell the deadline and you guys are in right now? I think that's what the goal is for our
05:27players. The expectation, I think, for us is to continue to evaluate the team that we do have
05:35and understand who we are at the end of the season to make the best decisions in the offseason to
05:41continue getting better. But these guys truly believe, and we wanted to have another player
05:49on the roster with that, with some experience. It wasn't just another additional ball handler. We
05:55were fortunate to get a player with Dennis's experience playing in meaningful games, not only
06:01NBA, but obviously international with the German national team. He's played in some huge games and
06:06won championships. So we feel putting a player like that would help us be more competitive
06:13in the second half of the season when this league ramps up about 15 to 20 percent in terms of
06:19intensity. What have you seen and how have you best seen Cade develop? Obviously, he's an all-star.
06:25We're all excited about that. He's playing at an extremely high level. How have you seen him grow
06:31since you've taken the job? I think on and off the floor, I think it's pretty apparent what he's
06:39doing between the lines as he's impacting the game in all different ways on both sides of the floor
06:45and transition on the glass. Defensively at the rim, I think he's taken steps all over the court
06:51to help us be successful. But I think that the biggest thing that isn't seen is his leadership
06:59outside the lines, in the locker room, when we travel, on the bench. He's done a really nice job
07:07of supporting teammates, holding them accountable at the same time. And when you lead and when you
07:14hold people accountable, you also have to hold yourself accountable all the time. Because as a
07:19leader, you can't ask your team or teammates to do a certain thing and then you not do that.
07:25You have to do that every night. And that's what he talked about, the step that he wanted to take
07:29this summer. So the fact that he's doing it and really having pride in being the leader of this
07:37team has been fun to watch. It feels like we all got cheated, and I guess especially you get cheated
07:43on not seeing Ivy with Cade for an extended stretch now. What did you make of the two of
07:48them together? And do you have an update on whether we would see Jade and Ivy before the season's over?
07:54Yeah, I think the first thing is they have a tremendous amount of respect for each other as
07:59people and as basketball players. I think that, for one, is important because when they go out
08:04on the floor, Cade sees J.I. working his butt off in the weight room and on the floor and vice versa.
08:11And so when they're out there, whether they're having a good night or an off night,
08:17they respect the work that they put in. They respect the approach that they have. They know
08:21that each of them are just trying to win games and be the best possible player that they can be
08:28for this team. So I think it starts there. And then there's a willingness to play with each
08:35other and trust one another. And so that was fun to watch. And they celebrate each other's successes,
08:40I think. When you have two players that are that close in age and position, sometimes that can be
08:46an issue, but it hasn't at all in my time here. So just to watch those guys play together was a
08:54lot of fun. Obviously, we feel awful for J.I. because he was having an incredible season.
08:59In terms of timing coming back, he's just starting to weight bear this week without crutches,
09:05starting to get on the treadmill. He's been on the underwater treadmill,
09:10but he's getting on the treadmill on the Alter-G. He's not full weight bear in terms
09:15of walking on the treadmill yet, but now that he is weight bearing in a boot, it's going to
09:22start progressing hopefully at a higher rate. And we'll just see where he is at in terms of
09:30returning. Right now, we don't want to put any pressure on him. We want to make sure when he
09:35returns, his mind is right, his body is right. It's his career. It's his body. So we'll be
09:40working together with him in terms of that timing. Last week, we had a chance to talk to JB,
09:46and it was leading into the trade deadline. We asked him about his involvement in that.
09:52Now that that's passed and your guys' team is above 500, you're in that sixth spot as we sit
09:58today, I'd love to hear how you're building a relationship with JB and the job that you've
10:04seen him do through the first little bit, but more than half of the season.
10:11Yeah, we're lucky to have him. I'll tell you that. I mean, everybody that ever asks about
10:18the environment that we've created, why our players are so close, I think it has a lot to do
10:24with him and his staff and some of the things that he basically communicated to them from day one
10:33through training camp about who we're going to be and why. Who he's going to be as a coach,
10:39how he's going to support him, how he's going to push him, how he's going to hold him accountable,
10:42but also have their backs at the same time. We're going to play a certain brand of basketball.
10:48The messaging, the communication, the collaboration with a lot of the players too
10:53in terms of what they want to do on some particular days, how they want to... He'll ask
10:59them questions about, this is what we're doing. Do any of you guys have anything to say? There
11:04is a collaboration between me and the players as well. I think they all feel involved and part of
11:10the process. That part of it that he communicated early, I think they've realized, no, this guy's
11:18genuine. He's doing exactly what he said he was going to do. The trust factor is there.
11:25There's a high care factor with JB and his staff as well, not only about the athlete,
11:29but also about the human being and make sure these guys are being taken care of as people
11:35off the floor as well. I think they trust him. I think they genuinely enjoy playing for him
11:41every day. I think JB is trying to get the best out of not only this team, but each individual
11:47player and cares about him as well. I think that goes a long way when you're talking about
11:52professional athletes and a basketball team that's playing through these stresses and pressures
11:59in this five, six, seven-month season, hopefully. Trajan, it's great to talk to you. Everybody's
12:03excited about the direction of the Pistons and we'll check in soon, all right? Thank you very
12:08much, guys. Appreciate you guys having me on this morning. Of course. You guys be good. Thank you,
12:12you too. He's the president of Basketball Operations, Trajan Langdon. It's 97.1.