Detroit Pistons: 3 biggest strengths of the Pistons roster

Detroit Pistons: Building around the defense

Historically, when the Detroit Pistons have been good, they were built around defense. It started with the Bad Boys and carried over to the Goin’ to Work era, which might have been the best defense ever assembled in the NBA.

The 2004 Pistons were the perfect defensive team with switchable players who were committed and talented on that end and really didn’t have a weakness.

Last year’s Pistons were nowhere near that, but they were 10th in the NBA in points allowed, which might surprise some people since they only won 20 games.

It really shows you just how bad their offense was, as the Pistons were pretty good at holding opponents down but it doesn’t much matter when you can’t score.

The Pistons should be building around this strength primarily, as they are already good and will add a full season of Cunningham, Killian Hayes and Hamidou Diallo.

I also think we’ll see defensive improvements from Stewart (who needs to foul less) and Saddiq Bey, who were both already very good.

This is my biggest argument for going after Ben Simmons, as the Pistons could have an elite defense to build around, which is how we’ve always done it in Detroit.

Troy Weaver clearly has a vision of position-less basketball manned by athletic guys who can defend multiple spots and he could have the Pistons in the top-five defensively soon.