The Top 10 Most Important Detroit Pistons Moments of the Decade
6. Brandon Jennings Ruptures His Achilles and The Pistons trade for Reggie Jackson
The first half of the 2014 – 2015 Pistons season was a tale of two seasons, the first a Josh Smith led comedy and the second a Brandon Jennings tragedy. After the 5 – 23 start that was mercifully ended by waiving Josh Smith, the Pistons managed to win 12 of the next 15 games.
The Pistons’ rejuvenation would last for only a brief moment, like a shooting star over a garbage dump. On January 24th, 2015, Brandon Jennings ruptured his Achilles Tendon. Remember the optimism I mentioned coming into the first SVG season? Yeah, that was gone.
A reasonable franchise would’ve taken a look at their 5 – 23 start, their starting point guard missing a functional Achilles tendon, and said, “Ya know what? It’s just not our year. We’re not going to make any noise in the playoffs anyway, let’s see what we have with our young guys, grab a solid draft pick and come back next year.”
The Pistons are not most franchises. The Pistons, as has been made clear throughout this piece, do not think long-term. When your Head Coach is also your President of Basketball Operations, as was the case with Stan Van Gundy, you will not think long term.
Also. Pistons Assistant GM comments on future. light
A whole piece could be written on how bad of an idea the Head Coach/President dual role is, but to put it simply the two jobs are in conflict. The Head Coach’s job is to win basketball games on any given night with a given roster, the GM’s job is to build a team that can eventually contend for a championship.
When the head coach can sacrifice long-term flexibility because they feel the pressure to win tonight, they will.
The decision to trade for Reggie Jackson, in a vacuum, was a home run. The team only had to give up Kyle Singler, D.J. Augustin, and a 2019 2nd Round Pick for a point guard with a ton of upside. You make that trade 100 times out of 100.
Unfortunately, the decision to trade for Reggie Jackson, philosophically, was very similar to the moves that had led the franchise to a decade of mediocrity. Do whatever it takes to win now, even if our roster tops out at the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.
Imagine if the Pistons had decided to stand pat in Stan Van Gundy’s first year. The Pistons may have explored their young point guards and discovered Spencer Dinwiddie’s potential. Sure that means a worse win-loss record but it improves their chances of drafting a franchise player like Kristaps Porzingis, Karl-Anthony Towns, or D’Angelo Russell instead of Stanley Johnson.
Sure, the Pistons could’ve just as easily drafted Emmanuel Mudiay if they ended up with a higher draft pick but examining these other possibilities illustrates the flawed team-building philosophy the Pistons have deployed for years. They’ve been chasing the 8th seed for so long, they forgot to build a team that can progress past that arbitrary benchmark.
The Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond core would go on to define the remainder of the decade for the Detroit Pistons, resulting in the Pistons finally achieving their goal of making the Eastern Conference Playoffs, twice. Each time resulting in a sweep.