The holiday season is upon us and the Detroit Pistons have the worst record in the NBA. Bah humbug.
Detroit has lost five games in a row and looked awful doing it, as their defense has been horrendous and their offense has ground to a halt in the second half of most of these recent losses.
In my personal experience, I have not seen the fanbase this apathetic and discouraged in awhile, as we are not getting the competitive basketball we were promised, but instead have a team full of disjointed parts that has not gelled as a unit.
So when making your holiday wish list, it would be easy to ask for more wins in the New Year, or more monumental luck in the NBA Draft Lottery. You can beg Santa for Victor Wembanyama or a quality wing defender, for a new shin for Cade Cunningham or a 3-point shot for Saddiq Bey.
But my wish this holiday season is simple: I want to see some Detroit basketball.
May the New Year bring the return of Detroit Pistons basketball
The idea of “Detroit” basketball is something all fans are familiar with, and it has become the rallying cry at home games, even though lately we haven’t seen much of it.
But what does this nebulous term actually mean? It means playing tough, smart, selfless basketball. It means diving on the floor, making the extra pass, being in position on defense, picking up your teammates and sacrificing individual stats for the betterment of the team.
It’s the kind of basketball that all of the Detroit Pistons’ success over the years has been built on, and it’s just not something we’ve been seeing much of lately.
No one expected this team to be great this season, and most predicted they would only win around 25-30 games (I went with 28 games), but it’s the way they are losing right now that is so discouraging. I want to see a team that busts their butts on defense. I want to see a team that makes unselfish plays and doesn’t play hero ball. I want to see a team play high I.Q. basketball.
I could live with the losses right now, as the Detroit Pistons are missing their best player, have a young roster and are still learning on the fly. But what is tough to stomach is the complete lack of defense, the failure to adjust, the lack of effort and the general malaise around this team that is getting all too used to getting handed lopsided losses with little resistance.
The franchise has paid a lot of lip service to playing “Detroit Basketball” during the “rebuild” but so far we’ve seen little evidence of it on the court. So my holiday wish for the Pistons is for them to regroup, to come together and start playing some hard-nosed, team basketball, otherwise the New Year is just going to be more of the same, talking about the draft and dreaming of the future.