The Detroit Pistons have been scuffling and bare staying afloat amid injury after injury. It’s time to turn the page and prepare for the future.
It’s time.
It’s time for the Detroit Pistons to start the youth movement. It’s time to admit that this team is going nowhere and the only way to salvage the season is to get the young players some reps.
The Pistons lost five in a row — and looked terrible doing it — before Sunday’s win. Injuries, trade rumors, inconsistent minutes and just plain bad play have taken their toll, which is evident in the body language, whether it is Andre Drummond going through the motions and checking out mentally or rookie Sekou Doumbouya sulking on the bench.
Detroit now sits four games back from the eight seed, which is not insurmountable, but the teams in front of them are playing better, are healthier and just seem to want it more than Detroit. It’s likely the East will send two teams with losing records to the playoffs, so catching the Nets or Magic doesn’t mean much anyway. Realistically, the Pistons are 14.5 games away from being relevant in the East.
Currently they are one of the most confusing teams in the league, as they are not intentionally tanking, but aren’t winning anyway, they are infusing some youth, but the veterans are still getting most of the shots and minutes. The Pistons don’t seem to know what they want to be and are stuck in 10-seed purgatory between the playoff hope and lottery reality.
It’s possible that Detroit is still just trying to showcase their veterans as trade bait and will change direction after the trade deadline, but for now they continue to run their veterans into the ground for no reason. The Pistons have not shown any indication that they are headed in the right direction, so it’s time to kickstart the youth movement in Detroit.
Here are three reasons why.