Detroit Pistons: 3 things we learned from the loss to the Mavericks
The Detroit Pistons came out firing against the Dallas Mavericks, but then Jerami Grant got into foul trouble and it was pretty much over for Detroit.
The Pistons were fresh off one of their better wins of the season against the Cavaliers, a game where their rookies and young players carried the team.
That was short-lived, as Dwane Casey went back to his veterans for big minutes on the first night of a back-to-back against quality teams from the Western Conference.
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I was hoping to see Killian Hayes go up against Luka Doncic but he was held out as the Pistons try to ease him back from the hip injury that forced him to miss most of the season.
While most tanking teams pull their veterans in an effort to lose games, the Pistons play theirs, as right now, the rookies are playing better and give them a better chance to win the game.
The loss wasn’t surprising, as the Mavericks are very good, but we were able to learn some things about the Detroit Pistons.
Detroit Pistons: The Pistons have a long way to go
Fans have rightfully been excited about the Pistons’ future. They have four rookies contributing and a chance at another top-five pick, so the Pistons’ rebuild is going very well.
Troy Weaver has been outstanding in his first season as GM, completely rebuilding the roster after being handed a team with little talent or assets.
But the Pistons are still a ways from actually being good. At the beginning of the season, the Pistons were only beating the NBA’s best teams, which was predictably an anomaly, but since then? It’s gotten rough.
The Pistons have not beaten a team with a winning record since they beat the Boston Celtics on February 12th. All of their wins since then have come against the bottom feeders.
Detroit has proven themselves to be one of the better “bad” teams this season, but they are still a few guys away from being an actual good team.
They are on their way but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. (I’m mostly talking to myself here, as I am the biggest homer of them all.)