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The future of the Detroit Pistons isn’t as dim as it seems

By Brandon Marlow

DETROIT, MI - APRIL 9: The Detroit Pistons honor the National Anthem before the game against the Toronto Raptors on April 9, 2018 at Little Caesars Arena, Michigan. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - APRIL 9: The Detroit Pistons honor the National Anthem before the game against the Toronto Raptors on April 9, 2018 at Little Caesars Arena, Michigan. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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With another season of missing the playoffs in the books and now no head coach it’s not hard to be pessimistic about the Detroit Pistons.

Having made the playoffs just twice in the past 10 seasons, you’d be forgiven for not having complete faith in the Detroit Pistons as a franchise.

It’s clear a lot of fans are fed up with the way things have been handled. Attendance this past season was way down despite moving the team back downtown .

While it seems like the Pistons are in complete disarray after parting ways with Stan Van Gundy, there are still a number of reasons why the future of the team isn’t as dark as you’d think.

One of the biggest reasons for optimism stems from the fact that Van Gundy will no longer be at the helm.

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He was great at developing players. Just look at the way Andre Drummond improved his game each year.

The same can’t be said of his in-game coaching.

To be blunt, Van Gundy’s rotations were a mess. His stubbornness would often cost the team greatly and his bizarre attitudes towards certain players were often baffling.

Arguably the perfect representation of these issues was his refusal to play Langston Galloway despite hard-capping the team for him as soon as free agency opened.

You could also see it in his refusal to give Luke Kennard an increase in minutes even when his shooting was red-hot or shooting guards ahead of him on the depth chart were injured.

Hiring a new coach is always a risk.

The influx of new philosophies and a fresh face around the team could reinvigorate spirits and address some of the major pain points that floated around the team for the past four seasons.

A guy like Stanley Johnson, who seemed to have issues with Van Gundy, has the potential to take his game to another level with a new coach in charge.

Many people are down on the Pistons’ core three players; Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin.

Jackson the missing piece

People have soured on this trio thanks to a lackluster end of year result. However, signs are pointing to this group having a lot of potential with everybody healthy.

Despite missing almost half the season, Jackson returned for the final 12 games.

While the Pistons were out of playoff contention by this stage, we finally got a glimpse of what Jackson, Drummond and Griffin playing together looked like. The team looked a million times better with a proper starting point guard at the helm.

They went 8-4 over this stretch. Over an 82-game season that would work out to around 54 wins.

Obviously, that doesn’t mean they automatically become a 54-win time if Jackson is healthy. It’s a very positive sign still.

Prior to Jackson succumbing to injury, the Pistons were 19-14 without Blake Griffin on the roster.  In his 45 games for the season he led the team to a 27-18 record. That again works out to roughly 54 wins over an 82-game season.

It’s clear that this team is so much better with Jackson running the point. Being able to stay healthy is a huge question that looms over the team. If they can get a decent chunk of games out of him this is no doubt a playoff team.

With Griffin’s play now thrown into the mix and Drummond’s continued development (he’s starting to work on a jump shot now), it’s not unrealistic to think this team will be even better next season in a weak Eastern Conference.

Detroit Pistons shooting well from deep

The Pistons improving their outside shooting radically is partly what lends some credibility to them being a team on the rise next season.

They finished the season shooting 37.3 percent from the three-point line, placing them fifth in the entire league.

For context, they were around one percent off the Golden State Warriors who we all know have three historically incredible shooters in their lineup.

The Pistons’ ridiculous shooting was led by Reggie Bullock (44.5 percent) who was the second-best shooter in the league. Anthony Tolliver (43.6 percent) finished sixth and Luke Kennard (41.5 percent) finished 18th in the league.

Tolliver looks set to leave the Pistons and will leave a decent sized hole. However, having two top 20 shooters on your roster is still extremely rare. Only the Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards and Minnesota Timberwolves had multiple players inside the top 20.

Having Reggie Jackson running the point guard instead of Ish Smith also improves the team’s spacing and shooting considerably.

A lot of this positivity does hinge on Jackson managing to stay healthy.

However, the notion that Jackson is injury-plagued is a little misguided.

It’s true that the past two seasons he’s had awful luck, but have more been freak accidents rather than compounding issues.

He’d been injury-free the last two seasons. He played in 79 of 82 games in his first complete season as a Piston and 77 the year before.

As we’ve seen with Reggie Bullock, luck can eventually swing back around and there’s no reason to believe this can’t happen for Jackson too.

There are many reasons to have no faith in the Detroit Pistons as they move into the future. They have no cap space and there’s a slim chance of them having a first-round draft pick this year. There are still glimmers of light and hope poking through those giant storm clouds.

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