Detroit Pistons Stock Exchange: recapping the season’s second week

Following the second full week of basketball played by the Detroit Pistons, we’ll provide you with the players who are trending up, as well as the ones who are trending down.

The Detroit Pistons concluded an emotional up and down week that vacillated between “we should blow this thing up!” to “the future is now, and his name is Bruce Brown!” No one represents the Pistons’ polarizing week more than Brown, who had people calling for his benching at the beginning of the week and is now apparently the point guard of the future.

This week illustrated why it’s hard to judge a team or individual player over any five-game stretch, and that developing talent takes time and is filled with ups and downs.

Detroit started the week by beating Indiana on Monday and then lost two ugly games in a row to the Raptors and Bulls, which had fans wondering if the Pacers were the only team the Pistons could beat. The loss to the Bulls was particularly troubling and exposed some of the Pistons’ early season weaknesses, which are turnovers, three-point shooting and defense.

The Pistons ended the week with the 24th ranked defense in the NBA and 26th in points allowed off turnovers  which are two stats they have to improve if they want to stay afloat in the East without Blake Griffin and Reggie Jackson.

The week was looking grim and the loss to the Bulls sent Pistons’ Twitter into an emotional tailspin with the hot takes flying freely. This all changed last night, when a banged up Pistons’ squad showed a lot of heart in an unlikely victory over Brooklyn with Griffin, Jackson, Derrick Rose and Tim Frazier looking on from the bench.

It was a game the Pistons weren’t supposed to win and it was ugly at times, but for my money it was the most entertaining game of the season and one that showed a lot about this team and their coach.

The week was up and down but ended on a hopeful note that the Pistons should be able to build on. Here are the trends after a wild week 2.