Detroit Pistons: Dwane Casey has a tough job next season

Detroit Pistons: Dwane Casey needs to win! (But not too much)

If you are like me, then you are sick of watching this team lose. The Detroit Pistons aren’t going to skip steps and rush their rebuild, and I mostly agree with this approach, but that doesn’t change the fact that constant losing weighs on the players, coaching staff and especially the fans.

We want to see some sign that there is light at the end of this dark tunnel of losing, so Casey will be under some amount of pressure to increase the team’s win total. It won’t take 50 wins for this season to be considered a success, but fans are looking for some improvement in the win column.

That’s not to mention young players like Cade Cunningham, who are not used to losing. Like I said, they don’t need to win the Eastern Conference, but some positive steps would be good for the team, fans and the young guys.

We want them to win…but not too much!

Of course it would be great for the Pistons to surprise everyone and make the playoffs next season, but since that is extremely unlikely, there is no point in winning too many games, as Detroit would like to put themselves into the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes if they are not going to make the playoffs anyway.

So Coach Casey needs to win enough to show improvement, but not so much that Detroit ends up with the 9th or 10th pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

This will likely be out of his control, as the Pistons could trade (or sit) all of the veterans, leaving him with the youngest team in the league. If that happens, the team could actually be worse than last season, and people will point the finger at Casey even though he has no control over the roster.

We’ll hear a lot of “Casey’s rotations suck!” when the truth is he was never given the tools to win, and it’s not clear if the team even wants him to. His main job is to develop young talent, and even that is no easy task.