Ten Years of Detroit Pistons Basketball Reviewed
Record: 32-50 (12th in Eastern Conference)
Head Coach: Stan Van Gundy
Offensive Rating: 105.3 (15th in NBA)
Defensive Rating: 106.4 (19th in NBA)
Draft Additions:
Spencer Dinwiddie (2nd round, 38th pick)
Free Agent/Trade Additions:
DJ Augustin
Depth Chart:
Point Guard: Reggie Jackson, Brandon Jennings, DJ Augustin, Spencer Dinwiddie, John Lucas III
Shooting Guard: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jodie Meeks
Small Forward: Caron Butler, Kyle Singler, Tayshaun Prince, Cartier Martin, Shawne Williams, Luigi Datome
Power Forward: Greg Monroe, Anthony Tolliver, Josh Smith, Jonas Jerebko, Quincy Miller
Center: Andre Drummond, Joel Anthony
Best Players: Brandon Jennings, Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond
This was a season of great change. After the previous season ended the Pistons elected to not make interim head coach John Loyer the full-time coach. Instead, they signed former Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy to a dual coaching/front office position.
With the transition in the front office came a major roster overhaul starting with the draft. With the first draft selection of the Stan Van Gundy era, the Detroit Pistons selected the future breakout point guard Spencer Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie would not get much playing time with the team which is unfortunate because as we now know he eventually pans out to be a great NBA starting point guard which tortures the Pistons to this day.
This season brought hope for the franchise. After 2 short seasons, the Pistons decided to move on from Josh Smith. Instead of waiting for his contract to expire or trading him to another team. The front office decided that we had seen enough of Smith and simply waived him and stretched his contract over numerous years to lessen the blow to the salary cap. This is an incredibly infamous decision that cripples the Pistons to this day as we are paying Smith until the end of the 2019-2020 season.
The releasing of Josh Smith ended up being great for the Pistons as they went on a quick seven-game win streak and caught the eye of the NBA while doing so. This was largely due to Brandon Jennings who was playing the best basketball of his career (15.4 points, 6.6 assists per game) and was leading the Detroit Pistons in the post-Josh Smith era.
This would all come crashing down when on January 24th Brandon Jennings would tear his Achilles in a game against the Milwaukee Bucks. This was a devastating blow for the Pistons however the silver lining in the situation is that it motivated us to acquire our current franchise point guard in Reggie Jackson.
Jackson finished out the season very promising for the Pistons and showed chemistry with Drummond right from the beginning. The Pistons would finish out this season 32-50. This placed them 12th in the eastern conference and was the sixth straight season that the Pistons had missed the playoffs. The Pistons entered the offseason with questions surrounding what they planned to do with the injured Jennings now that the move to acquire Jackson was made.