The exciting and the scary lurking in the Detroit Pistons’ future

Detroit Pistons: The terrifying short-term future

The schedule

The bad news is that things are likely to get worse before they get better in the short term, as the Pistons’ upcoming schedule is brutal. Over the next 20 games, they play 11 on the road, including a six-game West Coast road trip.

There is a good chance that they will not be favored in any of these 20 games. That doesn’t mean they won’t win of course, but in that time they will play the Knicks (x2), Celtics, Raptors, Clippers, Nuggets, Jazz, Suns, Cavaliers, Mavericks, Grizzlies (x2), Heat and Pelicans. I didn’t even include multiple games against the Lakers and one against the Nets since they are both playing poorly, but that could change.

I don’t think Detroit will lose 20 in a row by any means, but they might only win 3-4 of these games, so don’t expect that run to the play-in to happen anytime soon.

The defense

The Pistons have arguably had the worst defense in the NBA this season and there are no short-term solutions coming. Detroit is 30th in defensive efficiency right now and 27th in points allowed per game.

The Pistons have been especially bad on the road (where they are still winless), letting up over 121 points per game.

While I do think Burks and Bagley III will help the bench, it’s not like the Pistons are getting two all-world defenders back, so I don’t see them making a big difference in the defense. The team will likely improve defensively, as they have young guys who are going to get better as the season goes on, but I don’t know if we can even expect them to jump into the top half of the league, which puts any short-term success in jeopardy.

But what about the concerns about the long-term future?