Detroit Pistons: The 3 big questions that have to be asked

After 15 games the Detroit Pistons are 3-12 and sit alone at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

They are a young team that has been battling injuries, but as the lopsided losses start to mount up, some people (including some of the players) are getting tired of hearing the excuses.

All but the most delusional knew that the Detroit Pistons were not going to be title contenders this season, but so far, it’s hard to call this season anything other than a disaster, even given the modest expectations coming in.

The season is still young, and Detroit has time to get healthy, build chemistry, string together some wins and turn this season into a positive, but they are getting ready to head off on a six-game road trip, so things are likely to get worse before they get better.

Yes, it’s early, but after just 15 games there are already some questions hanging over this team that need to be asked. There will hopefully be a point when these questions just look like fan panic over a young and bad team, but they are ones that the Detroit Pistons need to answer at some point this season.

What is the Detroit Pistons’ path to actually being good?

This season was never going to be measured in wins and losses, and I can envision a scenario where I would be happy with the Pistons only having three wins. If they were competitive in every game, playing hard, improving, but still losing, I don’t think anyone would care about the wins.

But that’s not happening currently, as the Pistons have a “Process”-like scoring margin and have pretty much gotten worse at everything, even compared to last season when they only won 23 games.

So my question is: What is the plan here?

Are the Detroit Pistons tanking in order to grab another pick? Hoarding top-5 picks has never been a proven method to win a title, and even adding Victor Wembanyama isn’t going to make the Pistons good right away. Even though the Pistons have the second-worst record in the league, they still have twice the chance of getting the 5th pick as the 1st one, so this is hardly a reliable strategy.

Spending in free agency? The Pistons will have a lot of money, but not a lot to spend it on, especially when it comes to guys who fill their most pressing needs. They can’t count on the 2023 free-agent class to save them.

Making trades? This is probably their best route, but what will they trade? The Pistons can’t trade a first-round draft pick until they convey the one they owe as part of the Stewart trade and other than their untouchable players (Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren) have really only Bojan Bogdanovic as a guy who might fetch a reasonable return.

The answer is internal development, as the Pistons do have a promising young core, but so does every other bad team in the league not named the Lakers, so even when their young guys inevitably get better, that may not be enough, and by that point, salaries will have risen.

Please tell me, as an exasperated fan, how this team is good next season. How about the year after that? I need a clearer plan than “we’ll just grab high-ceiling busts off the scrap heap and hope  one of them is good.”

Without big leaps from their own guys (which may very well come soon), it’s hard to see a path for the Detroit Pistons to be good in the near future. You can count on player development, but eventually these guys aren’t going to be young and some of them are going to be getting paid.

Which brings me to the next question.