By Jack Walker
Monday, Nov. 27 was a “big” game for the Detroit Pistons. Entering Monday, the Pistons were 2-14, the team they were facing, the Washington Wizards, were also 2-14. If the matchup was a college football bowl game it would be the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. In other words, it wasn’t a good matchup
The reason this game was “big” for the Pistons was because the team entered on a 13-game losing streak, tied for the second longest in a single season in franchise history. The Wizards entered the game on a nine-game losing streak. This was a chance for the Pistons to end their drought, because the schedule ahead for the Pistons is not too favorable.
Well, they lost. Not only that, they lost by 19, at home, to the other worst team in the NBA. The Wizards took the lead with 4:31 left to go in the first quarter and never gave it back. The Pistons are in year four of their rebuild, the Wizards are in year one.
When Pistons General Manager Troy Weaver took over duties in June of 2020, fans knew there was going to be a long rebuild ahead. Nobody, not even non-Pistons fans, expected the fourth year to go like this.
As of Nov. 28, the Pistons have the third worst winning percentage of all time, albeit they are only 17 games into an 82-game season, but regardless, this team is not good. The 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers that started their season 1-30, and finished with a .122 winning percentage, the Pistons currently have a .118 winning percentage.
The Troy Weaver era in Detroit has been downright brutal. It’s fair to say the previous regime did not leave Weaver a good roster. The team he inherited is limited with very few trade assets, old and declining players, etc. It’s also fair to say Weaver has not done well constructing his own roster. But, it’s year four of Weaver’s “retool” and it seems as if no progress has been made, but rather the team is getting worse.
In Weaver’s first year, the team went 20-46, fair enough for a first year rebuild. Year two, the team went 23-59, progress. Then Cade Cunningham got injured and the Pistons finished 17-65 in year three.
But now Cunningham is healthy, Jaden Ivey is healthy and ready for a strong Sophomore year, as is Jalen Duren. Another top five pick in Ausar Thompson was added along with a new head coach in Monty Williams, who they made the highest paid coach in the NBA at the time.
Where is the progress?
Well, there’s a good reason as to why the team is not progressing, it is the most poorly constructed team in the NBA. There is no spacing at all. Even in the Wizards game the Pistons shot 8-38 from beyond the arc.
It’s not 1970 anymore, shooting matters, and the Pistons severely lack it.
Ausar Thompson has been incredible so far in his short NBA career, but the guy couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. Jalen Duren cannot shoot, Marvin Bagley cannot shoot, Isaiah Stewart thinks he can shoot but struggles at times, Killian Hayes cannot shoot. It’s a roster full of players that cannot shoot a basketball consistently from beyond 20 feet. There is no way for a player like Cade Cunningham to succeed in this system.
Cunningham has his flaws too, he struggles with shooting and turnovers, but it would be a lot easier for him to strive if he was in a better system.
When the Pistons have a good 3-point shooter like Saddiq Bey, they trade him away for another non-shooter in James Wiseman.
After the Pistons hired Monty Williams, expectations for the offseason were high. They had just signed the highest paid coach in the league. They had plenty of cap space. It looked like they were ready to take the leap.
Instead, Troy Weaver did not trade an aging Bojan Bogdanovic to clear even more cap space and add a first round pick. He traded for Monte Morris, a solid backup point guard, but not a needle-mover. Weaver also traded for Joe Harris, the 2019 NBA 3-point shooting contest winner. The problem is that 2019 was four years ago. Joe Harris averaged 7.6 points per game in the 2022-23 season. The cherry on top is that he makes roughly $20 million per year. Which makes him the second highest paid player in Detroit behind Bogdanovic.
After trading for Morris and Harris, the Pistons essentially had no cap space left. Those were their two moves, a career backup point guard, and a sharpshooting, defensive liability, that’s roughly declining.
This season is the result of the Pistons horrendous offseason. In fact, the Pistons have only signed one free agent in the past two offseasons, Kevin Knox. A guy more known for his terrible Fortnite-themed draft day suit than his own NBA career.
Not all the fault is on Weaver, however, players regressing and poor coaching is out of his control. It’s organizational dysfunction.
After the Wizards game, the Pistons sit at 2-15 with a chance to make history in their next game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The history being their longest single-season losing streak in franchise history. The Pistons are so bad that their game against the Lakers was taken off NBA TV because of the Pistons’ embarrassing start to the season. It’s bad enough having your game taken off national television, but having it pulled in November against a team as big as the Lakers is almost impossible.
Where can the Pistons go from here?
Something has to change. A trade, a firing, a signing, cut a player, anything. There has to be a way of acknowledging to the fans that they are aware of what’s going on and are trying. The “we’re close to being good” post-game press conferences cannot last forever, because the team is not close to being good at all.
It’ll be tough to pull off midseason, but in the next seven months there will have to be a roster shake in a way that might ruffle some feathers. They have talented young players, but not all of them mesh. A fan favorite or two may have to be involved in a trade in order to get a roster that just simply fits together.
The Pistons absolutely have to utilize their cap space. Enough with going into the offseason every year with the most cap space in the NBA just to take on overpaid players. Sign valuable role players for cheap at the very least, they help.
When teams have a “dark future” it’s typically because they lack young players or have too many bad contracts. The Pistons have neither, and yet, their future sure isn’t as bright as it looked two years ago.
Pistons owner Tom Gores purchased the team in 2011, since then they have zero playoff wins, only two seasons of .500 or better, the best being a 44-38 record, and seven different head coaches. It appears that Gores does not care about the franchise, if he did, the results would be different.
The worst part about the Pistons situation is they are currently on pace for about 10 wins. If they can hit 15, they’ll need a 30-win turnaround next season to have a chance for the Play-in tournament. However, 30-win turnarounds are not easy, nor are they common. Which means at the very earliest the Pistons are probably looking at another two seasons before they can even reach the playoffs, and that’s if everything goes according to plan.
If they want an identity like the “Bad Boys” Pistons or the “Going to Work” Pistons something will need to change. The only identity and culture they’ve built over the last decade is a losing one.
The Pistons and Troy Weaver have over 60 games left to fix this mess they’ve got themselves into and avoid the dreaded “historically bad” team title. The way things are looking, it would shock me if they don’t find themselves amongst the 2015-16 76ers or 2012 Charlotte Bobcats for the “worst team ever” crown.
