The Detroit Pistons have played just over half of their schedule this year, so it’s time to start handing out some awards!
A little over halfway through the NBA season, the Detroit Pistons are currently sitting in tenth place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 15-27. They are still in playoff contention while being 12 games below .500.
I repeat, the Detroit Pistons, without Blake Griffin for most of the season, Luke Kennard being out since December 21st and potentially through the All-Star Break, and Reggie Jackson playing in all of two games.
Three of their five best players have missed a significant amount of time. Three games out of the eighth seed, likely for another sweep.
In a season that has not been the most fun to watch, and has been agonizing at times, there have been some real bright spots. In the Western Conference, you have Luka Doncic playing lights out while LeBron James leads the league in assists. The Oklahoma City Thunder look like a fantastic team behind Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
In the East, it’s no surprise that Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are dominating the league. The Miami Heat are vying for the second seed as the NBA’s leading candidate for Two-Face as they are 18-1 at home and 10-11 on the road.
There’s a six-game drop off from the sixth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers and the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic.
And then you have the Pistons. A team in the bottom half of the league in points per game, yet have a top-five team three-point percentage. A bottom-four team in field goal attempts per game, with the fifth-worst free-throw percentage, they allow opponents to shoot at a clip of 47.5 percent, fourth-best in the NBA.
Yet, still somehow possibly playing themselves into the playoffs yet again. It’s unfortunate because a healthy Pistons team would be fun to watch (but that’s what happens when key players are known to be injury-prone), but a healthy Pistons team might not have allowed for young talent to see the court.
At the midway point in the NBA season, let’s take a second to dish out some fictional awards.