The Detroit Pistons may be one of the best of the vanquished

The Cleveland Cavaliers have ripped through the Eastern Conference Playoffs, but nobody has played them tougher than the Detroit Pistons did in their first round sweep at the hands of the defending Eastern Conference champs.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have shown themselves to be the class of the Eastern Conference so far this season and playoffs, a tier of excellence all to themselves. Nobody is surprised at the dominance that they’ve shown since the playoffs began, but what might have caught some fans and observers off guard is the fact that the toughest competition the Cavs have faced so far this postseason came all the way back in the first round against the Detroit Pistons.

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The Pistons kept three of the four games close, and had a missed last-second three-point attempt from Reggie Jackson to stave off the sweep in game four at home. The Pistons were outscored by 8.4 points per 100 possessions, but a significant portion of that gap–especially in games one, three and four–came in the clutch, as the Pistons were just not able to hang late in tight games with the more experienced and talented Cavaliers.

The Pistons were outscored by a fairly significant 25.6 points per 100 possessions in those three games that were close to the end, which means that the Pistons battled to the end in three of four games against a team that has scorched the earth against their next two opponents, the Atlanta Hawks and the Toronto Raptors.

The Cavaliers outscored the Hawks by 12.4 points per 100 possessions in the conference semifinals, posting a staggering offensive rating of 118.2 against what was the second best defense in the NBA in the regular season. The Hawks did keep one game close, losing by just a point in game four.

In the conference finals, now ongoing against the Toronto Raptors, the Cavaliers have finally dropped a game after winning their first ten playoff games, but even with that defeat the Cavs are still outscoring the Raptors by 11.7 points per 100 possessions.

It’s disingenuous to suggest that simply because the Pistons didn’t get blown out as much or as often as the Hawks and the Raptors that they might be the most likely team to make a leap into the next tier behind the mighty Cavs, but there are some things to point towards that may signal the Pistons are in fact one of the teams most likely to make a leap next season.

One of the biggest indicators of this is the Pistons’ extreme lack of depth at the point guard position in relief of Reggie Jackson.

Whether it be through the draft or through free agency, the Pistons will be able to upgrade at point guard simply by putting an NBA-level player at that position. There are a number of veteran point guards coming onto the market, including former Pistons Brandon Jennings and D.J. Augustin, and other affordable possibilities include Randy Foye, Raymond Felton and Ty Lawson.

None of these players move the excitement needle and Ty Lawson is possibly a terrifying prospect, but each would be an upgrade over the Steve Blake/Spencer Dinwiddie combination of sadness. Another option is to draft a point guard, but picking 18th in the draft makes it less likely that the Pistons will be able to plug a rookie into the backup spot and expect consistent production right off the bat.

Another indicator that the Pistons may be a team better suited for the upper echelons of the Eastern Conference than fighting it out for the eighth seed is the fact that they were no mere also-ran after acquiring Tobias Harris at the trade deadline.

In spite of the fact that the Pistons were down their only playable reserve point guard and a power forward in Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova, both of whom were sent to Orlando in exchange for Harris, and they battled injuries to Anthony Tolliver, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson over the course of the final third of the season, they still managed to go 17-9 down the stretch.

That is a winning percentage of 65.3 percent, which over the course of an 82 game schedule would translate to the third-best record in the East at 53-29, behind only the Cavs and Raptors. That’s a nine-game improvement over the 44-38 record the Pistons posted this season.

Time will tell if the Pistons can properly capitalize on the momentum they exited this season with, but the path to bolster the roster and improve is straightforward.

Next: Piston Powered NBA mock draft 1.0

With playoff teams like the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers looking at potential times of turmoil going forward, the Pistons may find themselves moving up the ranks much sooner than expected under the leadership of head coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy.

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