Where do the Pistons stand in the Central division?
The Detroit Pistons enjoyed their most successful season for a long time in 2015-16 and seem to be building steadily, however not everyone appears to be optimistic.
A number of analysts have been highly critically in their assessment of where the Pistons stand heading into next season.
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Most recently, Basketball Insiders ranked the Pistons fourth in the Central division, only putting them ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Similarly, they ranked 21st in the league according to ESPN’s Future Rankings, again lower than the Indiana Pacers and the Chicago Bulls who ranked 14th and 16th respectively.
Based on last season and what each team in the Central division has done during the offseason, it’s quite baffling to see the Pistons ranked so lowly in both the entire league and their division.
The Pacers, Pistons and Bulls finished seventh, eighth and ninth in the East, however the Pistons were a completely different team after acquiring Tobias Harris in mid-February.
The Pistons dropped their first two games of the Harris-era, however once he became a starter in his third game the team went 16-9.
Playing with Harris the Pistons were going at a pace that would be good for about 53 wins across an 82 game season.
This pace is also ignoring the fact that this team will have spent another offseason gelling together, as well as the continued growth of young players like Andre Drummond, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson.
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Even more importantly is that Stan Van Gundy has vastly improved the team’s bench during the offseason.
We’ve beaten to death the fact the Pistons’ bench was horrific last season and finished dead last in points, so with the additions of Ish Smith, Jon Leuer, Henry Ellenson, Boban Marjanovic and Ray McCallum this team will have far more depth.
Too many times the Pistons’ weak bench cost them games, so with a competent secondary crew for this season there should be an additional boost to how many games they’ll win.
When looking at the rest of the Central division it’s honestly very hard to see how they are the fourth best team.
Obviously, the Cleveland Cavaliers are unequivocally the best team in both the Central division and the Eastern Conference, however the Pacers and Bulls don’t seem to be better than the Pistons.
You could certainly make a case for the Indiana Pacers, as any team with a star like Paul George is a threat to win a lot of games in a season.
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However, the supporting cast around George is questionable.
Jeff Teague is a good point guard, but we will have to see how well he fits in with the Pacers after coming cross from the Atlanta Hawks, while Al Jefferson could be a nice addition, although his production has been steadily declining recently and injuries have gotten ahold of him.
Outside of these three the Pacers roster doesn’t hold many threatening players.
While the Pacers could be a threat, the Bulls are the complete opposite.
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It seems they have tried to put together the worst possible team for basketball in the year 2016.
By getting rid of Derrick Rose it appeared they were finally handing the keys to the franchise to Jimmy Butler, but for some reason they decided to sign both Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade.
In a time where floor spacing and shooting is the most important thing in the NBA, the Bulls decided assembling the worst shooting backcourt in the league would be the perfect thing to do.
Wade is a career 28 percent three-point shooter, while Rondo shoots a slightly better 29 percent from behind the arc.
In fact, the only competent three-point shooter on their entire roster is Doug McDermott, who shoots 41 percent, which is red-hot compared to the rest of his teammates.
The way this team has been constructed screams disaster, especially when you try to comprehend the three egos of Wade, Rondo and Butler trying to co-exist.
It’s actually a great disrespect to the Milwaukee Bucks to rank them lower than the Bulls, as they’ve quietly assembled some very talented young players.
The Pistons are light years ahead of the Bulls and should realistically finish ahead of the Pacers come the end of the season.
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Players like Marcus Morris and Stanley Johnson already play with a chip on their shoulder, so these rankings will likely fuel the fire and motivate the team further as it heads into season 2016-17.