Detroit Pistons: The disconnect between players, fans and the tank

It’s that time of year again! The magical weeks of the NBA season when fans of the Detroit Pistons start cheering for their team to lose.

It’s been a time-honored tradition for the last three seasons in Detroit, as the team is rebuilding and hopes to keep adding top draft picks to create something sustainable for the future.

The Pistons are teetering on the brink of slightly worse lottery odds, as they are just a game behind the 4th-worst OKC Thunder, which would change their chances for a top-4 pick by roughly four percent and lower their chances at #1 by a measly 1.5 percent.

Of course, it could also mean dropping as far of 8th instead of 7th, but count me as someone who thinks there is zero difference between the two in this draft.

My mentions are currently hammered with angry fans mansplaining the benefits of tanking to me (Thanks, fellas!) and how the Detroit Pistons are endangering their entire future by winning a few games.

I get it. Losing sucks and the only benefit to it is the chance to get a top draft pick so that you can stop losing.

But if you think players on the Detroit Pistons are sitting around looking at Tankathon and calculating their lottery odds, you are mistaken.

Detroit Pistons: You can’t tell your players to tank

While fans care about lottery odds, dream scenarios and fantasy teams, players are worried about their jobs.

This is the time of year when fringe players get more run, when late call-ups and signings (like Carsen Edwards) get a chance to try out for a future role.

These guys are not only competitors who are not going to lay down, but many of them have huge money at stake.

While players like Cade Cunningham and Saddiq Bey have security and can think about the big picture, guys like Edwards, Braxton Key and Killian Hayes are playing for their next contracts and aren’t trying to hear anything about lottery odds.

And why would they? No player worth having is going to stink intentionally so that his team can dump him and potentially draft his replacement. And would you really want guys on your team who would?

Teams tank, players don’t, so while the Detroit Pistons franchise will do most everything in their power to lose these last three games (sitting every veteran should help), the players are out there trying to play well and win because that is their job.

If the Pistons were trotting out their best lineups every night, I would get the anger, but they are not, so you can’t get mad at players for being competitive and wanting to win, especially when one of them is trying to win Rookie of the Year.

I am not sure what these fans want the team to do. Outside of forfeiting outright, you can’t do much more than run out all of your rookies, second-year players and guys who the team just signed a few days ago.

The Pistons are doing all they can to tank, but if their young stars and fringe rotation players happen to play well enough to win, you just have to live with the slight change in odds and be glad that you have competitors on your team who aren’t happy with losing.