Detroit Pistons: State of the Union

The Detroit Pistons look to better their 2019 campaign. How will they do that with little cap space to work with? Simple answer: hard work.

As my colleagues predict and analyze potential off-season signings for the Detroit Pistons, it’s important to reflect on how the team got to the position it’s in now. Somewhat bordering between mediocrity and achievement.

It’s been a decade and a half since the Goin’ To Work Pistons broke up Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and won a world title plus five straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances (until a man named LeBron James had to interrupt the fun). Since the 2009 season, the Pistons have gone 333-471 over the last 10 years and making the playoffs twice, to get swept in both appearances.

Now, the Pistons, much like the city of Detroit, never had much handed to them. In many ways, the Pistons embody a lot of the same elements as the city. Though it’s worth mentioning that they spent almost 30-seasons playing in Auburn Hills instead of Detroit.

Regardless, that doesn’t change the fact that the team works hard for its success. They aren’t a big free agent destination. They don’t get meetings with the Kevin Durant‘s and the Kawhi Leonard‘s. They could land a meeting with a George Hill or an Ed Davis.

Detroit isn’t necessarily anyone’s ideal landing place. It doesn’t have the glamour of Hollywood or the city that never sleeps vibe like New York, but it does have a hard-working mentality.

If big-name free agents don’t want to sign here, just force their hand and trade for them. It happened with Rasheed Wallace and again with Blake Griffin. In a column by ESPN’s Marc Spears, Griffin said this in 2018 regarding his trade to Detroit.

"“I was born in ’89; I wasn’t really watching the true ‘Bad Boy’ era,” Griffin said. “But the [2000s Pistons] was right in my prime of falling in love with the game of basketball and watching everything. I definitely remember all of those teams. But the thing that I really like about Detroit is this city embraces the hard-nosed, gritty, hardworking teams and hardworking players.“Not a lot of cities embrace that type of mentality. That is exciting to me.”"

And Griffin has shown to be a hard worker. He entered the league as a highlight reel slam-dunker as part of the Los Angeles Clippers’ Lob City roster. He’s expanded his game in ways that weren’t really expected. In his rookie season, 98 percent of his shots were two-point attempts. In 2019, 61 percent of his shots were from inside the arc.

Below you can find just how Griffin’s offensive style has changed from 2011 to 2019. As a guy that would dunk over cars to averaging 24.5/7/5.4 and taking seven three-point shots a game.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/29/2019.

I should probably get back on topic.

The current Detroit Pistons are trapped in a cap space whirlpool, which can be faulted to some really bad contracts over the last seven years. It should be pointed out that the team is still paying Josh Smith $5 million this season.  Smith hasn’t played for the Pistons since 2014.

Jon Leuer was signed for four years at a whopping $42 million contract by Stan Van Gundy in 2016. Leuer averaged 8.5 points a game in 2016 so what Van Gundy saw as worth $42 million is not known.

Leuer was traded this offseason for Tony Snell, who is a better all-around player but also slightly more expensive and is on the books for one more year than Leuer was. Snell, however, gives the Pistons a reliable wing defender and someone that hasn’t struggled shooting the three, albeit not a high-volume shooter as he averages about 6 points-per-game.

Since the team can’t really sign anyone outside of the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions, broken down a lot better than I would ever be able to do, in this article by my colleague Richard Davisson. And they don’t really have much to work with at the moment in regards to moving around contracts like Langston Galloway and Reggie Jackson, where do they go?

Both fortunately and unfortunately, the team is going to have to resort to what the franchise has always done: Go To Work. The resiliency of the city in the last few years, as I said at the beginning of the article, can be paralleled to the success of the Detroit Pistons. 2010-2015 was abysmal for the franchise and the city was still rebuilding and rebranding.

2016-present, the Pistons have added a superstar in Blake Griffin, have made the playoffs twice, and signed former Coach of the Year Dwane Casey. And here is a cool Detroit Economic Growth Corporation pamphlet on how awesome the city of Detroit has become over the last decade.

That all being said, if I could just throw out some predictions for the upcoming Pistons season:

40-42 overall record.

Blake Griffin Third-Team All NBA.

Reggie Jackson scores 52 points in one game.

Andre Drummond records a 30-30 game.

Sekou Doumbouya plays some games, some good and some bad. He might hit a buzzer beater, who’s to say?