The Detroit Pistons have started the season 2-7 after dropping two in a row to the Bucks.
They haven’t been done any favors by the schedule, as they have already played three back-to-backs in the early season, which is tough when you are a young team trying to get healthy and build chemistry.
But the truth is that up until the last three games, the Pistons had played one of the easiest schedules in the NBA, so things are going to get worse before they get better.
According to Tankathon, the Pistons have the 5th most difficult remaining schedule in the NBA, which doesn’t bode well for their chances of climbing out of this early hole.
And when you look at the next 20 games, there is a pretty good chance this hole just keeps getting deeper.
Detroit Pistons schedule: Next 20 games are brutal
The next 20 games on the schedule could get ugly for the Detroit Pistons. Here is what they are up against:
- vs. Cavaliers
- vs. Thunder
- @Boston
- @New York
- vs. Celtics
- vs. Raptors
- @LA Clippers
- @LA Lakers
- @Sacramento
- @Denver
- @Utah
- @Phoenix
- vs. Cavaliers
- vs. Knicks
- vs. Mavericks
- vs. Grizzlies
- @Miami
- @New Orleans
- @Memphis
- vs. Lakers
As you can see, 11 of the next 20 games will be on the road, including a six game west coast road trip. It’s likely that the Pistons will only be favored in one of the next 20 games, the home matchup against the Thunder, and will be underdogs in the rest.
That doesn’t mean they won’t win of course, and they could get lucky to catch teams like the Clippers, Heat and Lakers when they are not playing well. But all but two of the teams (Thunder, Kings) hope to make the playoffs (for now), so this 20-game stretch could bury the Pistons.
If they only manage to win one or two games in this stretch, they could be the worst team in the NBA after 30 games and one of the frontrunners in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes.
The NBA likes to front load the schedules of bad teams so that they can play other bad teams late in the season in an effort to keep fans interested.
This early schedule has been tough for the young Pistons and will likely have them in a hole that they won’t be able to climb out of before the season is even half over.