ESPN’s The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz spent part of their show on Tuesday ripping the Detroit Pistons and their abysmal game against the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night.
The Charlotte Hornets beat the Detroit Pistons 87-76 on Monday and that caught the attention of ESPN’s Dan Le Batard.
In the middle of a segment talking about how few Marvin Williams moments anyone remembers, Le Batard then asked producer Mike Ryan to look up the score of the Hornets and Pistons game the night before because of how jarring it was to him.
Once given the score by producer Mike Ryan, Le Batard said “I didn’t even know that was possible in the modern NBA”. Le Batard then continued and made the (correct) assessment that the final score looks like “a Knicks-Heat score from the 90’s”.
What followed was a few more seconds of dialogue that punctuated their sponsored “Straight Talk” segment;
"Mike Ryan: “Look at this Pistons lineup.” Stugotz: “Have you seen their starting five? Thon Maker’s in it.” Mike Ryan: “Wow.” (Entire shipping container starts laughing)."
This season has been an unmitigated disaster in many ways, and the incompetence currently on display is even noticeable nationally, where the Pistons have been wholly irrelevant recently with exception for the Blake Griffin trade and their lack of a haul for Andre Drummond at this year’s deadline.
There’s an argument to be made that the Pistons are in the discussion for most destitute franchise in the NBA right now, along with the last two teams they’ve played and lost to, the Hornets and the New York Knicks.
This team is full of low spades; players like Bruce Brown, Svi Mykhailiuk, and Luke Kennard are nice players, but not guys you expect can be a first scoring option on a playoff contending team anytime in the near future.
As a fan base, we should all hope Sekou Doumbouya can be that building block of the future, but as many jaded Pistons fans will tell you, this organization cannot be counted just by reputation alone to develop their young talent.
In the case of Drummond, the team developed him and got next to nothing for him. The trade does clear up significant cap space for this summer.
Assuming Tony Snell and Markieff Morris opting in and Svi has his team option exercised, Detroit will have about $31 million in space to either sign free agents or absorb contracts via trade.
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There’s been speculation that Drummond is going to opt-in to his contract this summer with Cleveland, so trading him at the very least lets you start fresh instead of holding off another year.
It doesn’t feel good to be a fan of a team so easily mock-able on national television. Being a Detroit sports fan the last few years has been especially tough, with Detroit having the most losses in one calendar year for a city with four major pro teams ever in 2019.
The Pistons after moving into the new Little Caesars Arena two seasons ago haven’t been able to draw fans. They’re currently 28th in attendance per game this season and have only been in the top twenty in attendance twice (2010-11, 2017-18) in the last ten seasons.
This team has been sorely missing an identity since the crumbling of the Goin’ to Work Era and the fanbase has responded with mostly apathy. There needs to be something for this community to care about if people are going to start showing up in droves.
At one point, the Pistons led the entire NBA in average attendance for six out of seven years from 2002-03 through 2008-09, and the one year they weren’t number one they were second (2006-07).
In other words, “If you build it, they will come.”