Just how good were the 2003-04 NBA champion Detroit Pistons?

The 2003-04 Detroit Pistons were recently ranked last among the last 16 NBA champions by CBS Sports. Just how fair is that label?

The 2004 NBA champion Detroit Pistons don’t tend to get a lot of respect. The last champion to not have a true superstar or Hall of Fame lock, the Pistons are often considered to be an excellent veteran team that got hot at just the right time and were fortunate to catch the Los Angeles Lakers in the midst of dynasty-ending feuds.

There’s some truth here. Shaquille O’Neal was about to take his leave and there was discontent in the Lakers ranks. And the Pistons were a fairly pedestrian 34-24 in late February with the ninth-best net rating of +2.9 points per 100 possessions, just slightly behind the eighth-place Lakers at +3. That surely lends some credence to the idea they simply got hot at the right time, but there’s way more to the story.

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It’s not some secret element by now, but the addition of Rasheed Wallace was the missing piece to take a very good veteran squad and turn them into an Eastern Conference dynasty. As of the 2004 trade deadline, the Pistons had just snapped a six-game losing streak, then lost the next two games after acquiring Wallace (he played just 12 minutes in the first game, a one-point loss to the MInnesota Timberwolves).

It wasn’t evident at the time (aside from the outstanding defense, allowing just  87 and 88 points in Sheed’s first two games), but the ball was already rolling towards the first Pistons championship in a decade and a half. From the trade deadline to the end of the regular season, the Pistons went 20-6, with three of those losses being by just one point.

The 2004 Pistons obliterated everything in their path with a +14.7 net rating over the final 26 games. To give some context to this number, the mighty Golden State Warriors had a +12.1 net rating this season.

The Pistons also had a defensive rating that will boggle the mind for generations to come. After adding Sheed, they only allowed 86.5 points per 100 possessions. There’s no modern comparison, and that’s not hyperbole.

Over the final two months of the regular season, the Pistons had the best net rating by 4.5 points over the second-place San Antonio Spurs, and by 8.9 points over the seventh-place Los Angeles Lakers. By the end of the season, the Pistons had the third-best net rating over the course of the 2003-04 campaign at +6.6 and the Lakers checked in at seventh with a net rating of +4.

Net rating is often considered to be a better indicator of team quality over the course of a season than mere wins and losses. A very small sample example of this is the fact that the Pistons went 0-3 in one-point games over the last two months, a rate that’s going to be below expectation. The Pistons had an expected win-loss record based on their net rating (per Basketball Reference) of 59-23, second best in the league behind the San Antonio Spurs and well ahead of the Lakers who had an expected win-loss of 52-30.

Next: Breaking down the Pistons salary cap situation

This week on Zach Lowe’s podcast, the Lowe Post, Jeff Van Gundy described the Pistons’ resounding victory over the Lakers as the biggest Finals upset in the modern era. Matt Moore of CBS Sports ranked the 2004 Pistons 16th in his field of 16 when he bracketed the last 16 champions.

14 years later, it’s time to reassess that Pistons squad as a crew of plucky upstarts who got lucky to get hot against a failing giant.