Detroit Pistons: Please, god, no more tanking
For those of us who grew up when Detroit was actually good, all of this recent losing is depressing. The Pistons have fallen from the elite of the NBA to perpetual loser, though the last few seasons have been by design.
Giving up on another season before it even starts doesn’t further the rebuild, it prolongs it, as the Pistons already have plenty of cap space to add free agents next summer and can make a move to actually be competitive.
They will be more enticing to these free agents if they are on the cusp of winning so getting near or in the play-in puts them at the forefront of the bad teams with promising futures.
Another 20-win season and we are right back here again next season, wondering if this team is ever actually going to try to win games. And what does that do for the development of the young players?
Putting Russell Westbrook in the lineup with Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. I think there are plenty of things Ivey can learn from Westbrook (from afar) but putting them on the same team is just going to take minutes and shots away from a developing young player, prolonging the rebuild even more.
And what does this say to Cade Cunningham? Does he really want to spend most of his rookie contract racking up losses and sitting at the end of the season to improve lottery odds? The Pistons aren’t a title team regardless but with a decent cast of veterans they can make incremental improvement and then go for it next offseason.
Adding a draft pick that won’t even convey for five years (the Lakers could be good again by then) isn’t worth torturing fans for another season, nor the potential player development issues it might cause.