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#27 in the LBB end of the season team rankings...
It may seem a little wild to have a team that lost an NBA-record 28 straight games on their way to a league-worst 14-68 record ranked ahead of three other franchises, but with Cade Cunningham, the Pistons have far and away the best player going forward from this bottom-four grouping. Which brings me to another point of process: anytime I do rankings, while I will not necessarily identify the bins, I essentially have groupings that are interchangeable enough that a well-reasoned argument could convince me to move a team a slot or two. So, if you don’t agree with Detroit being ahead of Portland, Washington, or Brooklyn, that’s okay, just know that you’re wrong (I kid). There is a lot of exciting young talent here, and I think Cade is made of the right stuff to be a franchise hitching post. Because of that, I would rather be in Detroit’s situation going forward, particularly if they can figure out some key things this offseason.
#27 Detroit Pistons
Record: 14-68 (30th); 15th in the East; 100.45 Pace (9th); 118.0 Defensive Rating (25th); 109.0 Offensive Rating (27th); -9 Net Rating (tied, 28th)
Total Salary Cap Allocations: $148,157,919
Cap Space: $-7,157,919
Current Roster: Buddy Boeheim, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Tosan Evbuomwa, Quentin Grimes, Jaden Ivey, Marcus Sasser, Isaiah Stewart II, Ausar Thompson
Key Free Agents: Troy Brown Jr. (Unrestricted-Team Option), Malachi Flynn (Restricted), Simone Fontecchio (Restricted), James Wiseman (Restricted)
Single Word Description: Uninspired
Biggest Positive: Cade Cunningham. After struggling early in the season, particularly in terms of efficiency—through Detroit’s first 20 games, Cade averaged 22.4 points but shot just 41.6% from the floor and 35% from distance while hemorrhaging the ball at 4.4 turnovers per contest—Cunningham was subjected to the typically hyperbolic takes, far too quick to judge that perhaps he wasn’t the player many thought after being the first overall selection in the 2021 draft. What was so galling about the rush to write him off was that for all intents and purposes the ’24 season was his sophomore campaign after missing all but 12 games last year following an early season-ending shin injury. In addition to the continued learning curve, this Detroit roster was terribly composed if the purpose was to optimize the skillset of their budding star. Cunningham is not an explosive athlete, but once he gets downhill, he is elite as a decision-maker at full speed. That means that when he turns the corner, he needs shooters who can convert his kick-outs on drives. Bojan Bogdanović (who was eventually traded to the Knicks) and Joe Harris (who seems about as cooked as a Midwestern steak) were expected to fill the shooter roles, but injuries to both players left Cade without a competent shooter on the floor for most of the season. Without outlets and struggling through an offensive system that left him having to do way too much work with the ball in his hand—Cade led all starters in the league in pick and roll frequency at 45.3%—Cunningham struggled. Yes, Cade is most often the point guard (though he is really more of a combo), but his elite processing as a secondary playmaker—he was fifth amongst all guards in scoring frequency from the handoff—should have fostered more actions with Cade off the ball. Though, once Jaden Ivey became a starter, there was thankfully a visible uptick in these actions.
Despite the rocky start, over his last 40 games, Cade began to look every bit the part of a budding superstar, averaging 23 points, 7.6 assists, and 4.6 rebounds, while shooting 46.6% from the field and 36.3% from distance. For the season, Cade’s 7.5 assists were good for 8th in the league, while his 35.9% assist percentage was 5th. As encouraging as those distribution numbers already are, they are sure to take a significant leap if/when Troy Weaver surrounds Cunningham with better shooting—Detroit’s 906 total threes made on the year were good for 29th in the league (Orlando - 903), and only Simone Fontecchio (42.6%) finished the year shooting above 40% from distance. Separate from all the statistical minutiae, what felt most important was the way in which Cunningham admirably endured a woeful season without so much as a peep of derision. Detroit set a franchise nadir for wins in a season (14) and the league record for losses in a row (28). Despite that, Cade stoically endured, came to play every night he was available, and showed poise beyond his years.
Biggest Negative: Coaching/Management. Let me preface this by saying I like Monty Williams. I even think in the right situation, with a veteran team that doesn’t require a heavy amount of guidance strategically, Williams is a good coach. That situation is not Detroit. In fairness to him, he continuously told the franchise that he wasn’t interested in the job as they continued to make offer after offer last summer until they added enough commas to the deal where he likely felt as though he could not conscionably continue to say no. But between the weird benching of Jaden Ivey to begin the season, the player rotations that he seemed to be selecting by rolling a 12-sided die, and setting the record for the longest losing streak in NBA history, Monty had one of the worst first years for a coach in recent memory. To his credit, the team continued to compete, and I don’t think he lost the group, but with a roster this young, there has to be an intense focus on consistency for the sake of not destroying fragile egos. There is also a level of ingenuity in adapting schemes and styles to the development of that youth that Williams just seemed to completely lack. Now, I am a staunch believer in continuity breeding success as I think too often coaches aren’t given enough runway to adapt and grow. So, hopefully with a full offseason to prepare and strategize, Monty can change my mind.
GM Troy Weaver has to shoulder some of the blame here as well, as Detroit is a putrid 74-244 (30.3% win percentage) in the four years that he has been in charge. Weaver’s habit of taking teams' cast-off players has not proven to be additive on the floor or in terms of asset acquisition, and he is the same GM that made Monty the highest-paid coach (at the time) in NBA history by signing him to a six-year, $78.5 million contract that handcuffs the franchise to Williams for the foreseeable future. It’s a fair assumption that this is a make-or-break offseason for Weaver in Detroit, particularly with the Pistons in the process of finding a new president of basketball operations who may decide that they want their own hire making the decisions as GM.
What’s Next: The Pistons currently have only eight players under contract, and a ton of cap space, so there are some decisions to be made in terms of identifying the players that best fit the process going forward. Simone Fontecchio played well for Detroit after coming over in a trade with Utah, but with his combination of size, shooting and defense, he may be offered a bag from someone looking to add a final piece for a playoff run. Hopefully, the talk of a reunion with Tobias Harris has disappeared as quickly as Harris did during the playoffs. While Malachi Flynn, who became the new answer for “who was the least likely player to ever drop 50 in a game?”, James Wiseman, and Troy Brown Jr. can move on without it really meaning much to Detroit outside of their efforts to hit the roster minimum. It would be smart to play it more conservatively this offseason in terms of throwing money around. At the very least, should the Pistons sign any players who may charge a destination tax, they should do so with contracts that allow for flexibility that doesn’t lock the team in for too long, as no player available this offseason is likely to be a panacea for what ails this franchise.
What They Shouldn’t Do: The same thing they have done every offseason: signing fatally flawed players and being a dumping ground for other teams' bad contracts. Between James Wiseman, Joe Harris, Marvin Bagley III, Deandre Jordan, Miles Plumlee, and even Jerami Grant, Weaver has made a myriad of suspect decisions that have ultimately amounted to no growth or improvement for the franchise. In fairness to Weaver, he has made enough shrewd countermoves to position the Pistons to be at an ideal point of flexibility this offseason, but he has to change his process if he hopes to see the results that have been lacking so far in his stint. Either way, it’ll be a tough summer for Weaver to show a level of discretion that we haven’t seen to this point, as he’s likely fighting for his job, and the team has the cap space and available roster slots to do something splashy. But Detroit is not a prime free agent destination, which means he has to overpay for players not at the top of the heap. It would be prudent to identify veterans that won’t compromise the growth of an exciting young core and ensure that whatever the asking price—whether via contract or trade—is minimal enough to not hurt the team’s long-term plans. This may be tough, given that Weaver himself may not be included in those plans.
Is There Hope?: For a franchise that has averaged a depressing 19 wins per season over the last five years, just flirting with some semblance of competence is aspirational. With Cade, Ivey, Jalen Duren, and my favorite human pogo stick, Ausar Thompson, the Pistons have a foundation that should be able to get to that point. However, with a core this young, Detroit cannot expect to make a massive jump just by adding players to this roster. Give this group another year to coalesce and grow, and I think you have what can become an OKC or Orlando-type grouping of young studs. But if they continue to try to shortcut the process, they’re back to another depressing season next year.
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