The 2010s were a decade of basketball that most Detroit Pistons fans would like to forget. Between the 2010-11 and 2019-20 seasons, the Pistons had an overall record of 326-462. The franchise only finished with 41 or more wins in a season twice. Their highest win total was 44 wins in the 2015-16 season.
Detroit also went through six head coaches during this span. John Kuester had his final season as the Pistons coach during the 2010-11 season. For the next two seasons, Lawrence Frank led the team to two sub 30 win seasons. Maurice Cheeks would only make it 50 games through the 2013-14 season before he was replaced by John Loyer for the rest of the season.
Detroit Pistons: New coach, same mediocrity
Then came the Stan Van Gundy era. Van Gundy’s tenure saw Detroit’s first playoff appearance of the decade, but his roster would be swept by the eventual NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round. Ultimately, Van Gundy’s teams would be mired in mediocrity and the coach would be let go after four seasons.
Dwane Casey would be hired to replace Van Gundy as the Pistons head coach. The former NBA Coach of the Year would make a playoff appearance in his first season in Detroit, a feat he would not repeat during the 2019-20 season.
The 2010s were a painful decade for Pistons fans. The team was trapped between terrible and mediocre. They never finished above the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and were swept in both of their playoff appearances.
There were not many bright spots for the Pistons during the past decade. The team is better remembered for its lowlights than its few successes. But despite all of the team’s failures and disappointments, every now and then, players were able to have strong individual seasons.
Those strong seasons were not a common occurrence in Detroit during the 2010s, but here are the five best single-season performances of the 2010s.
Detroit Pistons best single-season performance of the 2010s #5
2016-17 Tobias Harris
Heading into the 2016-17 season, expectations were high for the Detroit Pistons. The team was coming off of the its first playoff appearance of the decade. Most expected Detroit to build off of the previous season’s success, but the Pistons would ultimately fall short of a repeat post-season appearance.
Detroit finished in 10th place in the Eastern Conference in 2016-17. Their win total fell to 37-45. The season was not quite the improvement most people expected from the team.
Most of Detroit’s returning roster took a step back from the previous season. Reggie Jackson battled injuries and was limited to just 52 games. Andre Drummond saw his stats fall across the board.
One of the few bright spots for the Pistons that season was Tobias Harris.
The then 24-year-old Harris was the leading scorer for Detroit during the 2016-17 season. Harris finished the season averaging 16.1 points per game. The power forward scored 20 points or more 22 times that season as well.
Harris was often one of the few sources of offense for Detroit during the season. He was the only player on the 2016-17 Pistons team who played in all 82 games during the season. He was also third on the team in minutes per game (31.3), while only starting in 48 of his 82 games played.
Detroit did not accomplish much during the 2016-17 season. Despite Harris putting on strong performances all year, the team would fail to finish as a playoff team. The next season, Harris would continue to improve upon his strong play. The prospect of the power forward receiving a lucrative contract extension appeared to be an inevitability. But Van Gundy would include Harris in a trade package that brought Blake Griffin to Detroit midway through the 2017-18 season.
Detroit Pistons best single-season performance of the 2010s #4
2017-18 Andre Drummond
The 2017-18 season was not much better for the Pistons than the previous season. 2017-18 was the final year of the Van Gundy era in Detroit. There is no better way to exemplify this than by the team’s mediocre 39-43 record and a ninth-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
The season included a midseason trade by Van Gundy as a desperation heave to save his job.
This was also one of only three seasons in the 2010s in which a Piston was named to the All-Star team. That All-Star being Andre Drummond.
Drummond’s 2017-18 All-Star campaign came through dominance on the boards. The big man led the league in rebounds with 1,247 total rebounds and 16 rebounds per game. Drummond had 17 games with 20 or more rebounds and 53 games with 15 or more rebounds.
The big man averaged 15 points per game, three assists per game, and 1.6 blocks per game. It was this season that saw Van Gundy begin to utilize Drummond as a facilitator. His three assists per game are his career-high.
The 2017-18 season also happens to be Drummonds best season from the charity stripe. Before the this season, Drummond was a career 38.1 percent shooter from the free-throw line. In his second All-Star season, Drummond shot 60.5 percent from the charity stripe.
Detroit had yet another year of mediocrity in the 2017-18 season. Despite Drummond’s All-Star season and the arrival of Blake Griffin via trade, Detroit fell short of a playoff season, and Van Gundy would be fired after the season’s end.
Detroit Pistons best single-season performance of the 2010s #3
2015-16 Reggie Jackson
The 2015-16 season saw Detroit finish with their best record of the 2010s. The team led by Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson finished with a record of 44-38.
This was also Jackson’s best season of his career.
The point guard finished the season scoring 18.8 points per game, dishing out 6.2 assists per game, and playing in 30.7 minutes per game, all career highs. Jackson started in all 79 of his games played that season as well.
Jackson was also in the conversation for an All-Star selection during the season as well. He would ultimately fall short of an All-Star appearance, but the young point guard appeared to be carving a place for himself as one of the league’s up-and-coming point guards.
In the playoffs against the Cavaliers, Jackson would turn into more of a facilitator in the team’s four-game series. The point guard averaged 9.3 assists through four games against Cleveland and he would finish games three and four with 12 assists in each game. Jackson had a poor shooting series against the Cavaliers. His poor three-point shooting was punctuated by a zero for six shooting performance in game four.
Injuries would ultimately derail Jackson’s career and the point guard’s play would decline over the next few seasons. But that 2015-16 campaign gave Detroit a brief glimpse of hope for the future, even if it was short-lived.
Detroit Pistons best single-season performance of the 2010s #2
2015-16 Andre Drummond
If Reggie Jackson’s 2015-16 season looked to set his career on the trajectory of a perenial All-Star. Andre Drummond’s 2015-16 season looked to set the big man up to be a future superstar.
Drummond had his first All-Star appearance this season. He led the league in rebounds with 14.8 per game. He would also finish the season with 16.2 points per game.
While in 2017-18 Drummond was able to have his strongest performance from the free-throw line, 2015-16 was his worst. The big man shot 35.5 percent from the charity stripe. His poor free-throw shooting was highlighted by a game against Houston in which Drummond was sent to the free-throw line 36 times and sinking just 13 of them.
Detroit would go on to win that game, but the season was filled with opposing teams empoying the hack-a-dre strategy.
Despite his woes from the charity stripe, Drummond still had a stellar 2015-16 campaign. The big man was even named to the All-NBA Third Team as a result of his efforts.
While Drummond never became the elite center some expected him to be, the big man still provided exciting, yet also frustrating, play thorughout his tenure in Detroit. Pistons fans may ultimately find Drummond to have been a frustrating and occasionally disappointing player to watch, but they will always have Drummond’s 2015-16 campaign to fondly look back on.
Detroit Pistons best single-season performance of the 2010s #1
2018-19 Blake Griffin
The 2018-19 season saw the beginning of a new, yet short lived, era in Detroit. Dwane Casey was hired to be the team’s new head coach and Blake Griffin would begin his first full season in Detroit.
Unlike the other good single-season performances of the 2010s, Griffin carried the entire team on his back for the 2018-19 season. Griffin led the team in scoring with 24.5 points per game, assists with 5.4 points per game, and minutes with 35 minutes per game. The All-NBA forward also played in 75 games in this season.
Griffin’s 2018-19 season was also the third and final time a Piston made an All-Star appearance in the 2010s. The power forward was further rewarded for his superb play by being named to the All-NBA Third Team.
The big man would carry Detroit into the playoffs. The Pistons finished with a record of 41-41, good enough for the Eastern Conference’s eigth seed. The team would matchup agaisnt the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.
Griffin’s efforts would come at a cost however. The big man would suffer a knee injury towards the end of the season. His injury would cause him to miss the first two games of Detroit’s playoff series against the Bucks.
While he was far from recovered from his knee injury, Griffin would return for Detroit’s final two games of the series. The All-Star forward admirably scored 24.5 points per game with 6 assists per game and 6 rebounds per game as well.
Despite Griffin’s admirable performances, Detroit would ultimately be swept in the first round by Milwaukee. The All-NBA power forward would not be able to repeat his All-NBA type season again for Detroit.
Griffin’s tenure in Detroit was not long lived. The power forward would only spend two full seasons in Detroit, and only one of those was a full 82 game season. In the 2020-21 season, Griffin was bought-out and would go on to sign with the Brooklyn Nets.
He did not have the longest Pistons career and he may not have had the most gracious exit from Detroit, but Griffin’s contributions to the 2018-19 season should not go forgotten. At the end of the day, Griffin’s 2018-19 season was not just the greatest single-season performance of the 2010s. It is also one of the greatest Pistons single-season performances of all time.