Pistons are woefully bad. Their rebuild is failing, their future looks bleak. What gives?
My friend Al, a fellow Michigan native now living in Los Angeles and a basketball fan raised on the 1980s Detroit Pistons Bad Boys and a decent hooper back in the day, saw the Pistons start the season 2-1.
He decided to purchase NBA League Pass, thinking it would be worthwhile to watch an improving team in the Eastern Conference.
The Pistons have not won a game since.
They are 2-25 with a franchise-record 24 consecutive losses – just two losses in a row from tying the NBA’s record for most consecutive losses in a single season (26, 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers) and near the record of consecutive losses spanning two seasons (28, 2014-15 and 2015-16 76ers).
The Pistons stink.
Al doesn’t lament the purchase as much as he does how bad the Pistons are and, more disappointing and discouraging, the absence of hope. The Pistons are 3½ years into a rebuild that is going in the wrong direction.
As basketball analyst and former coach Fran Fraschilla once said about a player but it applies here (and paraphrasing): the Pistons are two years away from being two years away.
If a team can’t sell the present, then it must sell the future. The Pistons struggle to do that.
At least the San Antonio Spurs, who ended an 18-game losing streak Friday, have Victor Wembanyama and the promise of a better day.
The Pistons are headed for a historically bad season, maybe the worst all time, right there with the 9-73 Sixers in 1972-73, the 7-59 Charlotte Bobcats in 2011-12, the 10-72 Sixers in 2015-16, the 11-71 Dallas Mavericks in 1992-93 and the 11-71 Denver Nuggets in 1997-98.
Better days are hard to envision.
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They are No. 29 offensively, No. 26 defensively and are No. 30 in net rating.
With a team as bad as the Pistons, there are no games on the schedule that say, "The Pistons should win that game." Detroit’s next 10 games are against Utah, Brooklyn back-to-back, Boston, Toronto, Houston, Utah, Golden State, Denver and Sacramento.
It’s the NBA. A good team can have an off game against a bad team and lose, but it’s reached the point where no opponent wants to be the team that loses to Detroit.
However, the Pistons' problems aren’t about one game even as they are on pace for a seven- or eight-win season, which would be the worst winning percentage in NBA history.
This is an organizational failure.
Owner Tom Gores, who bought the Pistons in 2011, hired renown player-agent Arn Tellem in 2015 as vice chairman. Detroit has two playoff appearances (2016, 2019), seven seasons with 30 or fewer victories and is headed for an eighth, and five coaches under Gores.
Since making the playoffs in 2019, the Pistons have not had a winning percentage better than .303. It was .278, .280 and .207 the three previous seasons.
The Pistons hired longtime team executive Ed Stefanski as a senior advisor in May 2020, and Troy Weaver from the Oklahoma City Thunder in June 2020 to run basketball operations. Weaver came to the Pistons with a strong reputation after working with Thunder GM Sam Presti, who has succeeded in the draft.
It hasn’t translated. Who on the roster is worth keeping long term? Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart and Marcus Sasser? Detroit should be looking to move Bojan Bogdanovic and his two-year, $39 million contract to the highest bidder.
Drafting Cunningham with the No. 1 overall pick in 2021 has been Weaver’s best move. Cunningham’s stress fracture in his left leg forced him to miss all but 12 games last season, and that slowed his development after a strong rookie season. Detroit acquired Duren on draft night in 2022, and he’s showed potential, along with Stewart, as a productive big man especially with his rebounding. Thompson, the No. 5 pick in June, can also be a valuable long-term contributor, and Sasser has a few decent games but fluctuating minutes game to game.
They have talented players with potential to be good. But the sum is way less than its parts.
Other draft picks and acquisitions have not worked. It must have been difficult for the Pistons in their 131-123 loss to Indiana on Dec 11. Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, who has developed into an All-Star, had 14 points, 16 assists, two blocks and one steal – and the Pistons passed on him (and Tyrese Maxey) for Killian Hayes in 2020. Jaden Ivey hasn’t taken off like the Pistons projected when they selected him fifth in 2022. Indiana took Bennedict Mathurin next at No. 6.
Detroit could have had a perimeter of Cunningham, Haliburton and Mathurin.
Trying to reinvigorate the franchise after going 17-65 last season, the Pistons replaced Dwane Casey with Monty Williams as coach.
Williams initially wasn’t sure he wanted the job after the Phoenix Suns had just dismissed him. In an odd, 1,300-word news release announcing Williams as the coach, the Pistons acknowledged the team’s, "initial overture to Williams, a call to gauge his interest in meeting to discuss the Pistons opportunity, was placed on hold as he took time to consider whether or not to return to coaching immediately, or wait a year."
The Pistons offered a deal that implored Williams to take the job: six years, $78.5 million.
Williams’ frustration is apparent. "It’s just a level of growing up on this team," he said after a late November loss. "Maturity, understanding what game-play discipline is, all the stuff we talk about all the time."
Someone pays the price – besides my friend Al for buying League Pass – and it won’t be Gores, who shares responsibility for this as owner, or Tellem. Both have shown a business and philanthropic commitment to the city and the region. Williams isn’t going anywhere with that contract.
Basketball operations is the remaining culprit.
Follow NBA columnist Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Detroit Pistons are bad to the bone. There's no easy way to recover.
