The Detroit Pistons: The Exit Report

The Detroit Pistons took all of us for a roller coaster ride this season. Let’s look back one more time at the Pistons story this season.

The final page has turned on the 2018-2019 season for the Detroit Pistons. Now whether you’re a Piston’s skeptic or a Piston’s enthusiast, I think we can find some middle ground in saying one thing: This season was a rollercoaster, and I think it’s a story that can be told in a few chapters.

Chapter One: Blake Griffin’s Heroics

While admittedly this is something that could be classified as the main theme of the season, it was on full display with the season’s tip-off.

The Pistons raced off the starting line to an immediate 4-0 start. Including a 50 point outing from Blake Griffin on October 23rd against the (Ben Simmons-less) Philadelphia 76ers. Blake had begun to instill within all of us what we hoped he may; these guys are for real.

Nobody could defend him.

Every trip down the floor was an easy paint trip, or with the recent transcendence of his perimeter shot, a spot up three. We were beginning to see the rise of a player who many had started to write off.

Chapter Two: The Ish Smith Injury

Out of all the conceivable things you could list that contributed to the Pistons cold stretches this season, far and away one of the biggest was Ish Smith’s injury on Dec. 5th.

Suffering a right abductor tear in Milwaukee.

While dealing with other injuries, this one hurt the Pistons the most. They struggled to create offense with the second unit and proceeded to put up an 8-18 record until he was finally able to return in January.

This is when the aforementioned ‘Pistons troglodytes’ really started to pour in, and admittedly there was certainly some credence to their concerns.

Chapter Three: The Trade Deadline

Not the first month of the season.

Not the December-January woes, and not the final stretch of the playoff push, but unsurprisingly the trade deadline was seemingly the most chaotic part of the Pistons season.

What were we going to do? Is anyone safe? This moment will tell us what direction Stefanski, Rose & co. are heading. But, if we’re being completely honest, when the day finally arrived, and our anxiety was at its highest, nothing dramatic happened.

You saw a swap of Stanley Johnson for Thon Maker (the former ending up in New Orleans.) and Reggie Bullock for Svi Mykhailiuk. Svi was a gunner out of Kansas who knew how to shoot the ball but at the end of the day, he wasn’t getting minutes in Los Angeles so, sure? Why not take a chance and dump an expiring deal.

I think most people understood the move.

But where the division was, was parting with Johnson.

A player who seemed to finally find his role on the bench, something that SVG could never seem to figure out. Sure he was inconsistent as always, but he was the Detroit Pistons best on-ball defender, and for some, it hurt.

*Editors note: It broke my heart*

You’re bringing in a disgruntled player from Milwaukee that has similar issues, but as a big man, spaces the floor in a way that we desperately need so again, sure?

I guess that’s cool.

At the end of the day, fifteen minutes before the deadline, Memphis officially took Mike Conley off the table, and Detroit Pistons fans everywhere were left wondering what could have been.

Chapter Four: The Best Team In Basketball

Were they actually?

No. But it sure felt like it. It felt like every single time that team hit the hardwood, we were watching a contending team.

From February 2nd-March 10th the Detroit Pistons were 12-2 and had the #1 rated offense in terms of scoring efficiency.

We were hitting more threes than Golden State and Houston. We were rebounding at the highest level on both ends of the floor. The Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson doubters were quiet, as they were playing far and away their best stretches of basketball they’ve had in Detroit.

Through all of this, the biggest thing we were seeing was the emergence of Luke Kennard. From February 4th-March 3rd Luke Kennard had the HIGHEST True Shooting percentage among shooting guards (playing min. 25 minutes). Everything that we wanted him to be was happening in front of our eyes.

Donovan Mitchell who?

Chapter Five: The Curious Case of the Pistons Wings

Shortly after that outlandish and almost unrecognizable stretch from the Detroit Pistons, everything just…

Stopped.

Langston had gone nuclear in Miami, including going 12-12 from deep over a three-game span, which was one shy of tying the NBA record.

He just seemed to fade out.

Wayne Ellington, whose explicit job very quickly became; “Show out for free agency this summer and hit as many three’s as possible.” But, even he wasn’t hitting on a consistent basis so, what do we do?

The Final Chapter: The Return of the Playoffs 

The final stretch of the season was not kind to the Detroit Pistons.

Putting up a 4-7 record in their final 11 games to just barely back into the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

It wasn’t pretty, and Griffin was dealing with another knee injury, so all he could do is watch. Fortunately, the likes of Drummond and Jackson willed us to our final two wins of the season, locking us a spot in the playoffs.

Closing Ceremony:

Look, you and I both know how the Milwaukee series went.

Andre Drummond getting ejected on a questionable flagrant 2 in game one, and subsequently blowing a kiss to the crowd. It really wasn’t a great look, but emotions were high, and they got the best of him.

We were always going to lose that series. Any game we may have come away with was always going to be a steal, and unfortunately, it just didn’t happen. But let me tell you, something folks, I wouldn’t trade this season for the world.

I found myself screaming a lot.

The Kings game, the Cavs game down the stretch that Blake sat out, the Clippers loss where we blew a 25 point lead. I mean, truly there are more instances than I can count.

But through all that, I found myself instilling a lot of optimism in what coach Casey is trying to implement on the floor. Optimism in Stefanski and Rose in our front office, even in Tom Gores.

Did this season go the way we had planned?

That’s relative.

Seemingly everyone had different visions. But, if you ask me, although the ideal draw was never Milwaukee, yes. We made the playoffs.

This is what I had anticipated, and if anything, I remain hopeful that this was just the beginning, that THIS season…

Was just the foundation for seasons to come.