I'm not going to drone on about just how bad the Pistons have been this season, we all know how bad they are. Instead I want to figure out how they got here, and what exactly should they do to, at the very least, look competent on a basketball court in the future. Let's first check out a comparison that should put into perspective just how poorly the Detroit front office has handled this rebuild.
pc: Getty Images
Two other teams began their rebuild at relatively the same time as the Pistons: the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets. The Pistons rebuild has been an up and down roller coaster for around a decade now, but let's say this era of it began when the team selected Cade Cunningham with the first pick in the 2021 NBA draft. The Rockets picked Jalen Green with the second pick in that draft, and the Magic selected Jalen Suggs with the fifth and Franz Wagner with the eighth. (The Rockets also landed Alperen Sengun later in this draft). The following year's draft saw the Magic take Paolo Banchero first overall. The Rockets took Jabari Smith Jr. with the the third pick, and the Pistons selected Jaden Ivey fifth. Finally, in this year's draft the Rockets took Amen Thompson fourth, the Pistons took his brother Ausar fifth, and the Magic selected Anthony Black sixth. What I wanted to convey by listing all of these names was just how similar these team's drafts have looked over the past three years. I would argue the Rockets drafted the worst of these three teams, and I would argue the Magic drafted the best, leaving the Pistons somewhere in the middle.
Today the Pistons' record is 2-27 while the Magic boast a record of 17-11 and the Rockets sit at a respectable 15-12. So what went wrong? What's the difference between the Pistons and these other two teams that have such similar roster makeup? Well let's talk about that roster makeup, and why the players surrounding the names I mentioned earlier may be the most important factor when it comes to building a basketball team.
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When the Pistons drafted Cunningham they needed to put together blueprints on how to build a team AROUND him, not just with him. The year previous to Cade they drafted Killian Hayes and Isaiah Stewart, two less than stellar players. In that 2022 draft where the Pistons took Ivey, they also selected Jalen Duren, a big man who does the exact same thing Isaiah Stewart does, just a bit better. That same year they traded for draft bust Marvin Bagley, another big man with a similar skillset. They also added Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic, two score-first veterans well into their thirties. They then traded away one of their best players in Saddiq Bey in return for ANOTHER big man, James Wiseman.
At this point the front office realized that only two players on the team (Burks and Bogdanovic) could shoot a three-pointer, and that Cunningham desperately needed spacing to succeed. So they drafted sharpshooter Marcus Sasser with the 25th pick in this year's draft, and they traded for Joe Harris, who just a few years ago was the best shooter in the league. So far Sasser has been great, but Harris has barely played since coming back from injury. All in all, they just haven't made too much of a difference.
So there it is, that's the crux of why this Pistons team is so bad. They just don't fit. They have four centers that do the same job. They have a handful of guards that don't know how to shoot, and the ones that do are outside of the team's preferred timeline. Some people have blamed head coach Monty Williams for the Piston's struggles this year, but no coach could properly lead a team that's built this way. The blame lies with the front office and general manager Troy Weaver, who have totally ruined the infrastructure of the franchise over the past four years.
Luckily for the Pistons, when you have this many glaring issues it is very easy to fix them, because you know exactly what NOT to do. With that being said, I'm not sure we can trust Troy Weaver to make any common sense decisions, so let me break down what the Pistons should do to ensure they don't look this bad again anytime soon.
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The first, and very obvious move, is to fire Weaver. If the Pistons don't make that move, it's alright, even Weaver should be able to figure this stuff out. First (or second I guess, sue me), the Pistons have to thin out their big man rotation. The best big on the team is Jalen Duren, and he's getting better. Two of the other three have to go, maybe all three. I'd say Stewart is the best of the rest, but I'm not very high on him either. If they can get picks in return for these guys, great, but I highly doubt anyone will trade them useful role players for them. Stick with one of them for the time being, and draft a big man who can space the floor sometime down the line.
Speaking of spacing the floor, the Pistons HAVE to get that from their guards. Cade Cunningham is not a great shooter, but he's shown flashes. Jaden Ivey also can't shoot, but you can't give up on him. However, you know who you can give up on? Killian Hayes. Hayes has been awful ever since he got into the league, and he hasn't gotten any better. Trade him for a second round pick, I don't care, but he can't be on this team going forward.
There are a few players on the team who have value, but not to the Pistons. Guys like Bogdanovich, Burks, and Harris could help a contending team, but they aren't helping the Pistons. I actually do think you could leverage a younger player or two out of these guys, but if not they can settle for picks.
That should leave the Pistons with a core of Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, and Ausar Thompson. On top of that they will have Marcus Sasser, Isaiah Stewart, and Isaiah Livers. They can pick up guys on minimum deals to fill in the gaps, and then proceed to keep building using this draft. The most important thing is that they draft CORRECTLY.
pc: via Sportskeeda
The Piston's drafting strategy should be simple: draft for fit unless there's a talent that they absolutely cannot pass on. That means drafting guys who can shoot the ball. They've got their lead guards, but they're thin on the wings. A few three-and-D guys would go a long way for this team. They also need to draft a better backup center than Isaiah Stewart. This team is going to have top picks for the next several years in addition to the ones they get via the trades I mentioned earlier. They just have to extract value using the draft, which really isn't the most difficult thing in the world if you have a half-decent scouting department. I'm just not entirely sure that Detroit has a half-decent scouting department.
There's how the Pistons break free of this nightmare. The rest of this year is going to be awful either way, might as well get some good draft assets out of it. If the Pistons follow this relatively easy process they may actually be a decent team in a few seasons. Until then, you can expect this Detroit team to be one of the worst teams in the NBA.