Detroit Pistons: The strangest era in franchise history

The Detroit Pistons are one of the most storied franchises in the NBA, so they have several great eras to look back upon fondly.

They won back-to-back titles with the Bad Boys group that featured several Hall-of-Famers and one of the best point guards of all time in Isiah Thomas.

The mid-to-late 2000’s were another title era and the most sustained success the Pistons have ever had, as they were a mainstay in the Eastern Conference Finals and came very close to going back-to-back again. The 2005-2006 team lead the league in wins, so the Goin’ to Work era really was a special one for the Detroit Pistons.

Since then it has been a whole lot of mediocrity and flat-out bad teams, which led to the complete overhaul of the team, and a rebuild that will hopefully kick off another era of sustained success for the Pistons.

There was one short era in between that was really the strangest for the Pistons for several reasons, and that was the ill-fated Blake Griffin era.

Detroit Pistons: The Blake Griffin era was a weird one

The Pistons acquired an aging and oft-injured Blake Griffin in a trade with the Los Angles Clippers that sent them a largess that helped rebuild their franchise into the consistent winner they’ve been since Griffin left.

Griffin had arguably the worst contract in the NBA at the time, so it was a bit of a shocker when the Pistons traded for him, as he was undoubtedly the most high-profile player they have ever gotten via trade.

The Bad Boys era was mostly built through the draft, and the Goin’ to Work squad was really serendipity, as Joe Dumars found the right collection of players that had mostly been overlooked or given up on, which was the case with Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups.

The Pistons went all-in for a “star,” which was nuts considering they didn’t have a good team and weren’t just one player away from being relevant. Blake only played 25 games for the Pistons that season after the trade, but showed enough that we looked forward to seeing what he could do in a full season, and kind of/sort of thought they might have a chance to compete in the Eastern Conference.

Blake Griffin delivered the next season with one of his best overall years in the NBA. He played 75 games and dragged a mediocre team of role players to the playoffs with a starting lineup that featured guys like  Andre Drummond, Reggie Bullock, Reggie Jackson and Bruce Brown.

The Pistons were ultimately swept in the first round while Blake valiantly played on one leg, pretty much ending his career in the process, a series that earned him a lot of respect in the eyes of Pistons’ fans.

But that goodwill was short lived, as Blake never really recovered, played just 18 games the next season (the Pistons won 20 games) and 20 for the Pistons the year after that before being bought-out and scurrying off to Brooklyn to try and win a ring.

Griffin immediately turned into enemy number one in Detroit, just a season removed from single-handedly carrying the team to a playoff berth.

What made the era so strange was how it started, as it is very un-Pistons-like to make a trade like that for a past-his-prime superstar. It was also strange for its roller coaster of emotions, as we went from “WHAT?!? to Ok? to This guy has destroyed the franchise” in less than two seasons.

Griffin really was the end of an era, as the Pistons went away from the failed strategy of trying to patch glaring holes to make the 8th seed to a full tear down and rebuild from the ground up.

It was an ugly ending that didn’t win Blake Griffin many fans in Detroit, but it was also the last time the team made the playoffs and that one season from Blake really was something special.

It was short lived and weird, but the Blake Griffin era of Detroit basketball was definitely memorable if only because it was so strange.