The future of the Detroit Pistons, much like the NBA, is in limbo

Not just fans of the Detroit Pistons but basketball fans all over the globe are anxiously waiting for the potential return of the NBA.

As the NBA inches it’s way back towards play it’s becoming more apparent that the NBA is a league in limbo – eager to resume games but unsure of how to actually go about it in the age of Covid-19. The uncertainty in the league only adds to the uncertainty surrounding the direction of the Detroit Pistons franchise.

The Pistons are caught in limbo too, teetering between a Blake Griffin-led team and a complete tear down and rebuild around a young and unproven nucleus in Luke Kennard, Sekou Doumbouya, Bruce Brown, Svi Mykhailiuk and (hopefully) Christian Wood.

While the Pistons General Manager Ed Stefanski and Head Coach Dwane Casey have publicly acknowledged that they are rebuilding, much like the NBA – they’re unsure of how to move forward.

“It’s just gonna take patience, coaching, teaching … and our fans to stay behind us, which is hard to ask after you’ve had a tough year like this,” Casey told the Detroit News.

But Pistons fans are weary. It’s been more than a tough year. It’s been a tough decade. Detroit’s seen just one season over .500 since 2008. You could be a 12-year-old kid, old enough to ride a bike, play 2K, and argue about LeBron’s hairline and have witnessed only one winning Pistons season.

The attendance numbers show it too. Detroit was tied for 2nd to last in attendance this year. 24th out of 30 teams in 2018. Gores and Detroit would like the days of 259 game sellout streaks to return.

The front office has plenty to consider. Griffin’s health, Wood’s impending free agency, lower revenue and cap space, this year’s draft – that’s a lot of moving parts to fit around the long-term strategy of your franchise.

Not to mention that Detroit is one of the few teams with sizeable cap-space heading into a confusing free-agency.

“But how do we use it wisely?” Stefanski said to the Detroit News in early March, “Do you use it on players? Do you use it for collecting assets while getting players in trades? There are different avenues. Having the flexibility, the obvious answer is that it’s great to have it, but now let’s make the right choices.”

Make the right choices – sounds easy enough. Of course, as the Pistons teeter towards a rebuild, there’s a $38 million sized player sitting on the other side of the see-saw making the right choice a bit more complicated.

Blake Griffin is picking up his $38 million player option in 2021 – I have no doubt. That’s just an absurd amount of money to turn down and Blake seems like a practical guy. I googled “things you could do with $38 million” and one of the answers was BUY THE MOON. $38 million is worth at least 1,000,000 acres of lunar property. Blake could just quit the NBA and form his own Moon League.

A contract that large is going to be difficult to trade under normal circumstances, with the COVID – 19 economic fallout drawing NBA purse strings even tighter, it’ll be even tougher to move.

Outside of finding a trade partner, there are the ramifications of moving a fan favorite and the most talented Piston since Grant Hill wore the teal pony. Sure, Blake’s injury prone but when he’s healthy he’s a Top 20 player in the NBA – when’s the next time they’ll roster a player of his caliber?

So, the Pistons have to find a balance, as the see-saw tips back and forth, and acknowledge the fact that they’ll likely be rostering an oft-injured 31-year-old All-NBA talent for the next 2 years while also developing the large majority of the roster.

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And that may be the smart decision Stefanski is searching for – balance. 2 years would be an incredibly short time-frame for a rebuild anyways and with the NBA’s more evenly distributed lottery chances – bottoming out completely isn’t as rewarding as it once was.

And developing the young nucleus around 2 NBA superstars who have achieved levels of enviable success in Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin, might be the best way to maximize potential. Plus, a starting 5 of Kennard, Brown, Svi, Wood, and Griffin with D-Rose off the bench actually sounds like a lot of fun.

The next 2 years could be a stepping stone towards a competent franchise.

We rarely see the perennially great franchises completely bottom out: Danny Ainge’s Celtics bridged the gap from it’s Big 3 era to today with only 2 seasons under .500. R.C. Buford’s Spurs were constantly retooling into contenders, never showing signs of slippage until they were recently handed off to General Manager Brian Wright.

Pat Riley’s Heat have never completely bottomed out and the same goes for Don Nelson’s Dallas Mavericks, Neil Oshey’s Portland TrailBlazers, and Daryl Morey’s Houston Rockets. All of these franchises only had brief moments of 30 or fewer wins before turning back into franchises that matter.

The smart GMs figure it out – without tanking. They make smart decisions that add more and more value to their franchise until they can leverage that value into a star. I believe that Ed Stefanski and the Detroit Pistons can join those franchises and find the balance to eventually return the Detroit Pistons to respectability.

If not, they can always join Blake Griffin’s Moon League.