Pistons roundtable: Grading Detroit’s 2012-13 season

The (somewhat) annual Pistons roundtable has returned. Each day this week, our panel of Pistons writers will answer a question about the Pistons – all in one place. Please add your answers in the comments.

Was this season a success of failure for the Pistons?

Drew Sharp, Detroit Free Press

It was a success in that the franchise discovered the centerpiece around which all others players will orbit. Andre Drummond was much better than anyone foresaw as the ninth overall pick. There was actually interest in watching Drummond and Greg Monroe start together and then Drummond went down with the back injury. That killed whatever limited buzz there was for this team.

Mike Payne, Detroit Bad Boys

In a vacuum, this season was a failure by record alone. Yet unlike the last few seasons, it’s hard not to feel a sense of optimism going into the summer. Despite Detroit’s record, this season was a moral success in that the team finally severed its last remaining connection to the 2004 title team. It’s no longer grasping at the past, it has embraced its own future.

Phil Fattore, Pistons 101

The fact that the Pistons are missing the playoffs doesn’t make this season a failure. It’s the long stretches of uncompetitive play and a sub-30-win record that spells failure. Still, knowing that the Pistons have found their future in rookie Andre Drummond provides somewhat of a “saving grace.”

Daniel Poarch, Life on Dumars

A little bit of both, but I’ll say it was a “success,” based primarily on the play of Andre Drummond. Losing isn’t fun, but this team was not going to contend this season so seeing a top pick play like a future star is certainly encouraging. Now they may be in position to add another in this year’s lottery.

Eric Stafford, Life on Dumars

Would neither be an option? I don’t think you’d call this season a success by any means, but I also don’t think finding yourself a gem in Andre Drummond and a few solid rotational players in a season where expectations weren’t high to begin with would be classified as a failure either.

Thom Powell, Life on Dumars 

It’d be hard to call it anything other than a failure. The Pistons ended up in mid-lottery limbo again and failed to escape sub-mediocrity despite another excellent draft find in Andre Drummond. There were small victories — unloading Tayshaun Prince’s contract arguably chief among them — but this was another depressing season to be a Pistons fan.

Natalie Sitto, Need4Sheed.com

You can’t call a season a success for any team when they hover at the bottom of the standings all season long.  They didn’t make the playoffs and despite  a few good wins against the Heat and the Spurs, on most nights this team was harder to watch than the Dennis Rodman’s pajama party with Kim Jong-un.

Patrick Hayes, PistonPowered

With the emergence of Andre Drummond much quicker than even his most ardent pre-draft supporters predicted, it’s hard to call it anything but a success in the long run. But yeah, the on-court product was a total failure for the fifth season in a row now.

J.M. Poulard, PistonPowered

Failure. In my opinion, the team just wasn’t competitive enough and the time Andre Drummond missed took away some valuable NBA reps from him. When looking at the bigger picture, it’s difficult to see how this season helped the franchise going forward.

Jameson Draper, PistonPowered

The addition of Andre Drummond and the development of Greg Monroe really got me excited about this season and I recall talking about a possible playoff berth back in October. The Pistons got off on the wrong foot, starting the season 0-8, but were right back in contention again by mid-January. Right when the Pistons began to gun for the eight seed with Jose Calderon, Drummond got hurt, killing their playoff hopes. This season was a failure.

Brady Fredericksen, PistonPowered

Failure. The expectation, realistically, probably wasn’t playoffs, but it was for this team to show considerable growth. I don’t think that happened. Is this year’s team better than last year? Probably, but is that enough to warrant anything? Andre Drummond’s emergence late in the season is one of the only positives on court.

Dan Feldman, PistonPowered

Success. This season wasn’t pleasing, but it was necessary. The Pistons unearthed a gem (Andre Drummond), gave plenty of minutes to unproven young players (Brandon Knight, Kyle Singler, Khris Middleton, Kim English) and lost enough to keep their draft pick this season. Just three years ago, I asked panelists of this roundtable, “If you had to build a team around a current Piston besides Rodney Stuckey or Jonas Jerebko, whom would it be and why?” Seriously. I had to exempt Stuckey and Jerebko, because they were far and away Detroit’s most promising young players. This team desperately needed an upgrade in young talent – attained by wise drafting and committed curating – and this season accomplished that. Next season won’t be a success for meeting the same criteria, but standards had sunk so low, this year qualifies – barely – as a success.