2016 doomed the Detroit Pistons for a generation

The Detroit Pistons came into the 2016 offseason with a 44-38 record , and a first round exit. The team had an awful offseason, and that’s not even the end of it.

Going into the 2016-17 season things looked good for the Detroit Pistons, in fact better than they ever were with the Tom Gores ownership.

Stan Van Gundy led a young team to the playoffs and the biggest issue the team had was their lack of depth. For information about the free agency check out my article on how the free agency killed the Pistons.

This article is about more than a free agency, it’s about a false hope that the Pistons believed in.

You see, the Pistons for years never got a record that was .500. The team failed over and over again.

A bad Allen Iverson trade, bad Ben Gordon signing – and trade -, Josh Smith, and a failure of draft picks. All are representative of how the Pistons front office failed time in and time out.

The 2016 season was the best chance of hope the Pistons got since Billups and his gang. You had a center who was dominating the boards and the paint in Andre Drummond, a point guard who could drive into the lane and be a great pick and roll player in Reggie Jackson, and then much more.

The team wasn’t as good as teams with playoff experience or star power. They had good players, but the NBA was moving towards star power and hero ball, and yes that can be debated. Whether or not the NBA could see another 04′ Pistons, a team who had no superstar but was able to win a championship.

I do not think we can see another one of those teams for a while. The Pistons and their squad could definitely not break the same things their predecessors did.

But, Gores and Van Gundy thought it would be a definite shot to shoot for it. There was no way the team could make it to the conference finals with that core.

The team decided to build on depth before they could find a feasible star to win. It wasn’t a bad idea, but yet again, who would win without a star?

That plan failed, those contracts failed, Jackson and Drummond failed, and Van Gundy failed.

But yet again in 2018, the Pistons set out to still see if the two will work.

Well, at the start it worked, the Pistons were 19-14 by December 27th. Only issue was, Reggie Jackson went down with an injury that caused Detroit to go on an 8 game losing streak only a little bit later.

But still, even with that team, many people knew that the team wouldn’t go too far in the playoffs. Definitely not a third round trip, and most likely not a second round trip.

To wrap it up, the Detroit Pistons never in a million years should’ve believed that Andre Drummond and Jackson could lead them to a championship, or hard playoff pushes. The team traded for Blake Griffin and made moves just to have a core still involving Drummond and Jackson.

When is it that the Detroit Pistons will decide, that they actually need to move on from the two? With Van Gundy we’ve heard rumors of the two being moved on and off again, but never did it actually happen.

Recently there have been rumors of Drummond being traded to the Hornets; maybe listening to some trade offers for him wouldn’t hurt.

Now with Jackson, frankly who would want him? He’s an inefficient point guard who can’t play defense or move the ball. So moving him seems unlikely unless the Pistons give up another asset.

We relied on the two way too long, and now it’s time to give up on them and move on. Building around Blake and getting young assets seem like the best move. The only question is, with the trade deadline coming up, will the Detroit Pistons front office actually make a move before the deadline, or will they stay pat?

Overall, the sense of false hope that the 2016 Detroit Pistons roster could carry victories killed the organization for years to come.