Last season, the Atlanta Hawks won 20 games and were one of the worst teams in the NBA. This season, they won 41 games and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, a leap the Detroit Pistons would love to make as a franchise.
Detroit won just 20 games this season but did it competitively behind rookies Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart and a huge breakout season from Jerami Grant.
Their masterclass in tanking was rewarded with the number one overall pick, which the Pistons will likely use to select Cade Cunningham, who many feel will be the next superstar of the NBA.
So will Cunningham’s addition be enough to propel the Detroit Pistons to another level? Can they be the Atlanta Hawks? I think the Pistons will absolutely make a leap, but it might be too soon to pencil them into playoff contention just yet.
Detroit Pistons: First step to becoming Atlanta is to get an elite scorer
The Atlanta Hawks were able to ride point guard Trae Young to the Eastern Conference Finals as he has evolved into one of the top scoring guards in the NBA.
If the Pistons want to make a similar leap, they need an elite scorer of their own, and they hope to get one in Cade Cunningham, who has the skillset to be that guy.
Like Trae Young, Cunningham can either get his own shot or set up teammates, which is something the Pistons lacked this season, as Jerami Grant isn’t really a number one scoring option and would be better as the second guy.
Even though I think Cunningham is going to be a star, it would be stretch to say he’ll be as good as Young in his first season, so when it comes to having an elite scorer, the Pistons might still be a year or two away, even after drafting Cunningham.
The Detroit Pistons already have the complementary players to go with a star
You obviously need more than one star to win in the NBA but luckily the Detroit Pistons already have the complementary players assembled.
If you look at Atlanta’s roster, only John Collins would be comparable to Jerami Grant, and I’d still say that Grant is the superior overall player even though he is older.
The Pistons also have Saddiq Bey and Isaiah Stewart, who will both improve in year two, as will Killian Hayes, who has the chance to be another playmaker on the perimeter.
The Pistons are probably ahead of where the Hawks were a year ago, as they lacked the complementary players to go with Trae Young, something they remedied in the offseason.
This is one reason I think the Detroit Pistons absolutely could make a leap next season, as they already have a pretty good cast that has now played together for a season and should be more comfortable.
The roster will be mostly the same but with the addition of Cade Cunningham, so there should be more continuity and chemistry than there was this season.
If Cunningham has a huge rookie season, the Detroit Pistons have the role players to make some noise in the Eastern Conference. Again, I think it would be a stretch to say this group can make the East Finals but they have the complementary players mostly in place.
They just need one more ingredient.
Detroit Pistons: The final step to becoming the Atlanta Hawks
The Detroit Pistons have the complementary players and secondary star, and will soon hopefully have their superstar, but they are still missing one of the elements that helped the Hawks make a leap.
Atlanta went out and got Danilo Gallinari, Bogdan Bogdanovic to add to Kevin Huerter, giving them a trio of shooters who offer a variety of looks to defenders.
Gallinari is a stretch-four who is brilliant in the pick-and-roll, Bogdanovic is more of a spot-up shooter and Huerter showed that he can score from all over. Having three players who can stretch the floor is important when you have a point guard with a high usage rate like Trae Young, as they opened up space for him to operate and made the Hawks very difficult to defend.
There are some good shooters in the draft, but they are unlikely to make the type of impact that veterans like Gallinari and Bogdanovic made for the Hawks.
I think this is the big thing that will hold the Detroit Pistons back from making a leap this season, as they just don’t have the cap space to go out and land a veteran shooter and right now they don’t have one on the roster.
I think the Detroit Pistons are one more season away from really making noise in the Eastern Conference, as they just won’t have the wiggle room to add the type of veterans they need to complete their roster.
But the Pistons are getting close, and the addition of Cade Cunningham will put them one step nearer their ultimate goal, which is to be in contention for titles consistently.