FanPost

Pistons Podcast Power Ranking - Week 1 (8/17/21)

If it wasn't nerdy enough reading a fan blog like Detroit Bad Boys, there are a plethora of podcast options available to further immerse a fan in the world of Pistons fandom. By my count, there are over 10 active Pistons casts, and there seem to be newcomers all the time. Assuming an average of a 45 minute episode per week, that's nearly 8 hours of content per week. While I am a devoted fan, I don't have time for this much content.

So how do I choose what cast(s) to listen to? I could simply go by popularity, such as the ranking on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, but this biases towards the more established pods, in particular ones affiliated with a franchise podcast network. Maybe there are better pods that are newer or potentially less popular for whatever reason. I realistically only have time in my schedule for maybe 2-4 pods per week, so I need to know who is really worth my time. This is why I propose to maintain a power ranking of these casts for the 2021-22 season.

For this week, I am going to start by ranking the pods in order of popularity as a hybrid of Apple and Spotify rankings, and give my two cents on them as far as I know them. Each week, i'm going to update the list with some notes on each pod. For the first week, i'm going to try to listen to as many of them as possible in order to give them a fresh start. I'm going to attempt to deflect my historic opinions/biases against them and attempt to evaluate them objectively. Moving forward, the top 3 will be weekly listens, 4-6 semi-monthly, 7-9 I'll catch one per month (maybe), and 10+ once per quarter (or maybe never).

Week 1 Power Rankings

  1. Locked on Pistons Podcast - Part of the Locked On podcast network, hosted by Ku Khahil. I've got to admit, despite being the most popular on this list, I haven't listened to this one in a long time. The reason? The host Ku kind of bothers me. I like his enthusiasm, his passion for the Pistons is clear, and I think his basketball knowledge is overall solid, but I find his style kind of erratic, and with only one single caster it makes it a bit - well... annoying to listen to. Will be good to give him another shot.
  2. The Bun & Cardigan Show - An independent pod, hosted by Nicholas Henkel and Pistons beat writer for The Athletic James Edwards III. In general I find Nick to be energetic but somewhat obnoxious. He references some semi-obscure players from NBA history, as he's probably played fantasy and 2k for a long time, but his insight on basketball is pretty weak overall, often changing his opinions from episode to episode and being a general bandwagon jumper. JEIII knows basketball, and has some insight from behind the scenes of the team, so you never know when you might get some nugget knowledge that is cutting edge. However, given that he has an employer who is pushing subscriptions, he keeps a lot of the best stuff for paid readers, and to a degree it seems that he 'juices' info to create some scandals to hopefully generate clicks for his content. James also comes off kind of smug and flat, which gets old after a while. For the past several months, I would have considered this my favorite Pistons Pod, but... eh... I dunno, i think they're kind of slipping recently. It seems like they spend more time shooting the shit than actually discussing the team or basketball overall. Will be interesting to see how they hold up in this ranking.
  3. Motor City Hoops - Part of the Hoops Headz network.Hosted by Bryce Smith, a former college player and current HS coach. I actually just discovered this one in the past month or so, and thus far I really like it. I think the production is strong, and the host's knowledge of the game is pretty high. The host takes the time to break down the team and its news, often with multiple episodes in a week. The show suffers a bit from only having one host, but there are often guests to help keep things engaging. This one seems primed to rise.
  4. Palace of Pistons - Part of the BLEAV network. Hosted by Aaron Johnson, Mike Anguilano, and frequently Jasper Apollonia. For the most part, I find these guys to be fairly straight shooters with fairly decent knowledge of the game. The pod suffers perhaps by a bit of bland production, but its nice having 3 regular hosts in case one misses one, you've still got a play-by-play and a color guy. I consider this pod to be a "solid" but not an absolute "go-to".
  5. Everything Pistons - Independent pod, hosted by Lance Caporossi and Andrew Clements. Strives to cover literally anything about the Pistons in the news. I honestly think this is a pretty average, verging on below-average pod. The reason? The hosts are not reliable or engaging in their knowledge of the game. Lance is pretty decent as a host, but sounds like he smokes a pack of Marlboro Lights a day. Andrew is really not good... his favorite all-time Piston is Blake Griffin. Enough said. Honestly this one I still occasionally listen to and sometimes they have guests that make it worth listening to.
  6. Driving to the Basket - Part of The Basketball Podcast Network. Hosted by "Mike", "Tommy", "Dante", and "Wes". I gotta admit, this one is growing on me. It has below average production value, and the lead host "Mike" honestly is probably the most grating in his voice, presentation style. He comes off as one of those acerbic internet fans who thinks very highly of their own opinions but have little substance to back them up. However, overall, these guys really take the time to discuss the team in a meaningful way. I think having 4 commentators is a bit much, but they kind of rotate in and out. They might consider making someone else the lead guy and improving the production to gain in rankings.
  7. Detroit Bad Boys Podcast - Part of SB Nation. Hosted by Lazarus Jackson and Ben Gulker. This one scores pretty low on popularity, probably because of the relative infrequency of episodes. With Laz having a baby, I'm sure this will continue for a little while. As for the content, Laz is a difficult person not to like from his presentation style and voice, but his basketball insight is pretty inconsistent. Again, I have a bias against those who were favorable of the Blake Griffin era of the team that i'm trying to overcome, but just in general, I think Laz speaks well on the topic of basketball and says a lot of key words regarding the game, but his actual opinions and insight are fairly empty. Ben has better insight, but not as much as he thinks he does; it's clear he has a really high opinion of himself and his knowledge of the game, but i'm not sure he really equates to equal or better value as a listener. Will be difficult for this pod to get higher in the rankings without more content.
  8. Wired: The Pistons Pod - The official pod of the team. Short and biweekly, it makes for an easy listen, but its only available on Apple Pods. Nice to get direct insight from the team itself, but not much engaging chatter makes it easy to skip this one.
  9. Pistons vs Everybody - Part of the Blue Wire network. Hosted by Lazarus Jackson. Yet another Laz cast, but this time its him solo with guests. Even less frequent content than DBB pod. Again, Laz is a sweet guy, but I don't find him to be particularly insightful. Here's hoping for more content and more meaningful discussion.
  10. Three Rings - Only 4 episodes. Hosted by a bunch of kids. Only learned about it about a week ago. Have attempted to listen twice and eventually turned off due to poor quality. I'll suck it up and give it another shot.
  11. Gen Z Pistons Pod - Part of the Gen Z Network. I've never listened to this one, didn't even know it existed until now. Only 3 episodes thus far. We'll see...

Defunct pods

  • Pistons Thoughts - Only one episode this year recently. Never listened
  • E-Motown - a few episodes earlier this year but none recently. Never listened to
  • The Back to Work Pistons pod - no episodes recently.
  • The Ku Ballroom - ostensibly Ku's pod prior to joining the Locked On team.
  • Pistons pulse
  • Hashtag pistons

This should be fun! Ill check back in in a week.

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