The Detroit Pistons lost their 5th in a row last night and slumped to 3-13 on the season, tied for the worst record in the NBA.
It was an ugly loss against the Clippers in which the Pistons made just 37.5 percent of their shots without Cade Cunningham in the lineup for the third straight night.
It wasn’t all bad, as rookie Jalen Duren continued to show that he is ahead of schedule as a rim protector and rebounder and Bojan Bogdanovic kept up his red-hot shooting that has made him the target of early trade talk.
The Pistons did put up their best defensive effort of the season, but complemented it with their worst offensive output to balance it out. Coach Dwane Casey is trying to stay positive and had this to say after another frustrating loss for his young team:
"“We’re not as far away as our records looks…I’ve been through this before. … It’s going to come together. It will.”"
Unfortunately, we’ve all seen this before too, so while there were some positives from the game and from the season so far overall, I’m not sure I can share coach Casey’s optimism that it is going to “come together” anytime soon.
Detroit Pistons: Is it going to “come together?”
I do agree that the Pistons have not played their best basketball of the season, partly because they’ve yet to have their full complement of players.
Cade Cunningham is going to be out at least one more game, and Isaiah Stewart will be shelved for several weeks, so that is not likely to change anytime soon.
Detroit is currently dead last in offensive efficiency and 29th in defensive efficiency, so while Coach Casey may see some “little things” that are going well, the big things are not.
After a brief spurt, Killian Hayes went back to his norm last night, and Saddiq Bey hasn’t been able to make a 3-point shot this season, which has put their future roles with this team in question.
This is all in the middle of a brutal stretch of the schedule that could have the Pistons buried before December even gets here.
If Detroit can ever get healthy for a long stretch, I do think we’ll start to see things “come together” but until then I think this is wishful thinking on coach Casey’s part, as there has been no indication that is happening.