Motor City Blues

Are the Detroit Pistons tired of losing yet?

As tortured sports cities go, Detroit ranks pretty high.

The Red Wings are one of the proudest franchises in hockey, but they last won a Stanley Cup in 2008.

The Tigers are a pretty accomplished baseball team, with four World Series to their name, but their last one came in 1984.

The Lions haven’t won a playoff game since 1991, but having just won their division, there is hope.

There was also supposed to be hope in the form of this young Pistons team, who last won a title in 2004, but were thought to have a bright future.

That could still be true, but man — the present is brutal. It’s hard to look as hopeless as this team has over the last couple months, losing a record-setting 28 games in a row, including an absolutely devastating overtime loss to the Celtics last night. This team last won a game on October 28.

That’s not just bad. Teams that were actively trying to lose have never done this. The Process Sixers hit 28 consecutive losses too, but since it was across two seasons (the end of 2014-15 and then the start of 2015-16) and therefore two rosters, even that isn’t quite as bad.

On top of that, basketball is an inherently high-variance game, thanks to 3-point shooting. You’d figure the Pistons would have lucked into one by now.

In fairness, it’s not as if this team’s been especially competitive lately. Expectations weren’t sky high. They’ve been bottom-feeding for years, and the whole premise of the draft is that bad teams get to pick better players in the interest of competitive parity.

So they’ve had a top-10 pick each of the last four years.

• 2023: Ausar Thompson, 5th

• 2022: Jaden Ivey, 5th

• 2021: Cade Cunningham, 1st

• 2020: Killian Hayes, 7th

None of these look quite as bad as the Darko Milicic pick twenty years ago, because very few things could, but so far, none of them have gone very well.

Let’s go in order. Killian Hayes has been a solid defender, a decent passer, and a pretty terrible scorer. He’s still just 22, but the Pistons may move on from him before he becomes the best version of himself, if he ever does. Sorry, KOC.

Cade Cunningham was going to go #1 to whoever got the pick. His pro comps coming in were Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic, which seemed optimistic — as all pro comps are — but not outrageous. He was projected as a lead guard and fill-the-stat-sheet guy with enough size to overcome a lack of explosive athleticism. He’s also just 22, and he missed most of last year, but his shooting has been outright bad and his turnover percentage has been too. There’s time here, but that's a bad combo. They need a lot more out of their chosen one.

The book on Jaden Ivey hasn’t changed much since he was drafted: he’s a dynamic athlete with a hellacious first step, but he’s got turnover issues too and seems to perform best with the ball in his hands. The coaching staff — don’t get me started on the Monty Williams of all this — thought he'd be a stylistic clash with Cunningham, so he’s been coming off the bench for most of the year. That may well be a case of user error, but it’s not what you’re looking for with the 5th pick, so you’ve gotta wonder either way.

Finally, we’ve got rookie Ausar Thompson, who’s been an excellent defender, a plus rebounder at the guard position, and a mess on offense. He’s raw, as you might have expected from the first major prospects coming out of Overtime Elite. To be clear, Thompson has a high floor. He’ll be a rotation player in the NBA for a decade. But if he can’t figure out how to score, then his ceiling drops below 5th-pick territory.

Put that all together, and this roster just isn’t where you would want it to be, as evidenced by, y’know, losing 28 games in a row. Surely they’re better than that. Everyone is.

And that brings me to a point we’ve touched on a time or two before, way back in the All Fields annals. To be a good organization, especially in the NBA, where winning championships typically comes down to having one top-10 player, you need a hefty dose of luck. (Although the ‘04 Pistons are the ultimate counterpoint to that trend, so if anyone could do it…)

You need to have a chance to get that guy — like getting top-5 picks three years in a row — and then you need those drafts to be good, and then you need the guy you end up with to actually become the guy, which is never guaranteed.

Funny thing about top-10 players; there’s only 10 of them. At any given time, it’s a small group. Much of this rides on Cunningham, or Ivey, or maybe even Thompson, turning into one.

Would you bet on that? Right now, no. But hey, if they keep this up, they’ll get another spin of the wheel. Maybe this Matas Buzelis guy is him?

Till then? Welp. Go Lions, I guess.

Also, This

• As expected, the NFL stole Christmas from the NBA, and it wasn’t pretty. A 10x ratings gap will have Silver and co. looking forward to next year, when the 25th falls on a Wednesday, but you’ve gotta wonder if Goodell and co. will let that knock them off their perch.
  

• The Broncos have started divorce proceedings to separate from Russell Wilson, and I’m not sure how amicable this could be at this point. It’s kind of remarkable that they’ve been playing nice all this time after laying down an ultimatum in October. Wonder where he lands. New England? Atlanta? Washington? Vegas? New Orleans? Who’s to say!
  

• My low-key favorite story this week was reading about how Alabama has gone to great lengths to avoid any leaky faucets as they prep for those sign-stealing Michiganders. Please, do read this passage from ESPN:

  • “According to several players who spoke Thursday, while they typically had been able to have film on their iPads and take it home to watch it on their own time, players have no longer been able to do that as they prepare for the playoff game.”

    • Can you imagine? The indignity.