The tank is finally over. After spending all of last season losing for the number one pick, the Detroit Pistons are finally ready to win some games.
Of course, they are still a very young rebuilding team, so making the playoffs would be a huge surprise, as the Eastern Conference has improved and will be competitive.
Yesterday, we looked at individual goals for each player, but the Detroit Pistons should also have some team goals.
It’s easy to say things like “Win the title!” or even “Make the playoffs!” but those probably aren’t realistic at this stage in the rebuild.
So let’s look at some team goals that are actually possible for next season.
Detroit Pistons: Beat the over/under
Predicting how many games the Detroit Pistons will win isn’t easy, so I’ll rely on the sports books for guidance.
Using the average of several sites, the over/under for Pistons’ wins next season is 25.5 games which seems reasonable.
The Pistons only won 20 games last season, and I don’t think it is unrealistic to think that they can win five more. With the additions of Cade Cunningham and Kelly Olynyk, plus internal development from their second-year players, the Pistons should definitely improve.
In fact, I am hoping that they are closer to 30 wins next season, which would at least put them within shouting distance of the play-in tournament.
When you are looking at the Pistons timeline for contention, the next step is incremental improvement. No one expects a young team to suddenly win 50 games but if they can develop individually and take the next step, I will be happy.