Detroit Pistons butt of the joke in the NBA: 'This is now a 12-year run of abject failure'

The Detroit Pistons, yet again, fell short of shaking the looming threat of history.

The Pistons lost their 25th straight game Thursday night to extend the franchise-record losing streak and creep closer to the NBA record for the most losses in a row.

This time, the Pistons couldn’t get it done against a shorthanded Utah Jazz team missing its two top scorers on the second night of a road back-to-back.

It was the same old story for the Pistons, who fell behind by double digits in the first half because of turnovers and uninspiring defense everywhere. They clawed back to tie the score early in the fourth quarter, but the offense again went ice cold down the stretch, shooting 33% from the field and converting one of 10 3-point attempts in the final period to fall 119-111.

Former Piston Kelly Olynyk delivered the dagger with just over two minutes left, prompting the sizable crowd at Little Caesars Arena to chant “Sell the team”, directed at owner Tom Gores, during the final two minutes as the Pistons marched to an NBA-worst 2-26 record in Year 4 of this rebuild. This is ugly with little hope.

The misery has become one of the biggest stories in sports as the burden on the team grows larger by the game. International news outlets such as BBC and CNN have Pistons headlines, and social media posts about the Pistons go viral each night. People who cover the NBA nationally finally are talking about the Pistons, and not in a good way.

“We are going to lead with the pathetic Pistons,” The Ringer founder Bill Simmons said at the beginning of his self-titled podcast recorded Thursday night. “The Pistons lose 25 straight. This is a number, in 2023, that seems impossible with the amount of 3-pointers everyone takes. Just 3-point variance alone, it’s almost like flipping a coin 25 times and getting heads 25 times — that’s just as realistic to me. Yet, they did it.”

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After reading the upcoming schedule for the Pistons, which includes games with teams currently in the playoff race such as the Brooklyn Nets (13-14, ninth in the Eastern Conference) and Boston Celtics (21-6, NBA's top team), Simmons said the Pistons will break the NBA's 26-game single-season losing streak record unless they upset the Nets in the upcoming home-and-home Saturday and Tuesday.

“The problem with this team is they’re 30th in every 3-point category,” Simmons said. “So it’s not like they are going to shoot 22-for-45 one night from 3, which means they are going to have to beat you with talent. And they don’t have any talent. And they just get their asses kicked over and over again.”

Simmons and his co-host, SiriusXM’s Justin Termine, then talked about the Pistons’ failures since 2008, the last time they won a playoff game. Since 2009, when the Pistons were swept in the first round by Cleveland, the Pistons have the most losses of any NBA franchise, been swept out of the playoffs twice and their highest win total in a season is 44 (2016). Simmons and Termine criticized head coach Monty Williams for the losing streak, general manager Troy Weaver for his misses with the roster and Gores for the overall lack of success since he bought the team in 2011.

“(Gores) is the worst owner, just from a success standpoint,” Simmons said. “This is now a 12-year run of abject failure, but (he) never gets mentioned in the conversation of who’s the worst owner in sports. Like, just from a win-loss record, it’s Tom Gores.”

Former Piston rips organization

Nerlens Noel spent less than a season in Detroit during the 2022-23 campaign, but shared why he thinks the team is historically bad in a comment on an Instagram post from Bleacher Report.

In the comment, the former Pistons center said “good group of players — the front office and coaching staff was hurting them last year” about Weaver and former head coach Dwane Casey.

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Noel made 14 appearances before the Pistons bought out the remainder of his one-year contract in February. Noel, a nine-year veteran and the No. 6 overall pick in 2013, then played three games with the Nets in March. He signed with Sacramento this summer but was waived in September.

The butt of the joke

The Jazz social media administrators pulled no punches trolling the Pistons after entering the game as 2½-point underdogs. The official team account posted a TikTok of the famous "SpongeBob" clip where he says, “Hey Patrick, you know what’s funnier than 24? 25” then bursting into hysterical laughter while showing the final score of the game.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make "The Pistons Pulse" your go-to Detroit Pistons podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons under Tom Gores ownership an 'abject failure'