The Detroit Pistons won 20 games last season and finished dead last in the Eastern Conference.
Detroit has added number one pick Cade Cunningham, who will hopefully blossom into a superstar. They also added Kelly Olynyk and Trey Lyles, but will that be enough to get them out of the cellar?
I do think Kelly Olynyk has been overlooked, as he is a better fit than Mason Plumlee and could speed up the development of the Pistons’ young guards Cunningham and Killian Hayes.
But the Pistons are still a very young team with a lot of question marks and are realistically a few years away from serious contention for a playoff spot.
That doesn’t mean they will finish with the worst record in the conference again and I predict there will be at least three teams that the Pistons overtake in the Eastern Conference power rankings.
The Detroit Pistons will finish higher than the Orlando Magic
The Magic already had their big teardown at last season’s trade deadline, so they will be heading into next season with a very young team.
They did add Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner and Robin Lopez who help their overall talent level and depth. The Magic are hoping that Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac can come back from injuries, but even if they do, this will be a very young and inexperienced team.
Like the Detroit Pistons, the Magic will be relying heavily on recent draft picks, which is never a recipe for winning many games. I think the combination of improved chemistry and continuity on the Pistons, as well as more veteran depth, will catapult Detroit past Orlando next season.
The Detroit Pistons will be better than the Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers have a lot of interesting pieces after shipping out Larry Nance Jr. and Taurean Prince in favor of Evan Mobley, Ricky Rubio, Lauri Markkanen.
I like a lot of these players, but I am just not sure how they all fit, particularly in the front court, where the Cavs have a logjam with Mobley, Markkanen, Jarrett Allen and Kevin Love.
Love already said he is not taking a buyout, so if the Cavs want to run with their youngsters, they are going to have to trade Love (good luck) or bring him off the bench as a very expensive role player.
The Cavs also have talent at guard with Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio but Sexton is unhappy and may be even more so in this new rotation.
I think the Cavs have as much talent as the Detroit Pistons, but the pieces don’t necessarily fit and they have at least two guys (Sexton, Love) who could be traded at some point in the season.
This seems like a recipe for tanking and if the Cavs get out to a slow start you can bet they’ll be looking to jettison Love and Sexton for draft assets to add even more young talent to their roster.
I think the Detroit Pistons are done tanking, but the Cavaliers may not be.
The Detroit Pistons will overtake the Toronto Raptors
The Raptors are another team at a crossroads, as they finally let Kyle Lowry go and will be a lot younger than they have been in recent years.
The Raptors did add Scottie Barnes, Goran Dragic and Precious Achiuwa, who should all contribute but the Raptors just don’t have the elite talent they once did and could decide to blow it up.
There is also the injury to Siakam that could force him to miss the beginning of the season and the Raptors could be in a big hole by the time he returns.
If the Raptors want to rebuild on the fly, their best move might be to trade Siakam, tank, grab another high draft pick and go from there.
Siakam would get a big haul in a trade and Masai Ujiri is one of the best in the business at identifying talent, so they could be right back in the mix soon.
A lot of things would have to go right for them to be good and I think Uijiri is anxious to stir things up, so this could lead to a big step back for the Raptors.
It would be a surprise if the Detroit Pistons overtook them, but I do think there are scenarios where Toronto is one of the bottom three in the East.