Is this the most unwatchable Detroit Pistons team?

As the bad losses continue to mount for the Detroit Pistons, fans are rightfully getting frustrated with the lack of progress.

Most fans of the team understand the mission this season, which is to develop young players, continue to acquire talent and hope to pivot to a more competitive squad. That mission was somewhat derailed by the season-ending injury to Cade Cunningham, especially the part about being competitive.

This frustration reached a crescendo after the embarrassing loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in which the Pistons went down by 25 in the first quarter (not easy) and ended up allowing 150 points. I wrote about whose fault this mess is, and there is plenty of blame to go around.

I received a lot of disheartened comments from fans who have reached their limit, with some of them saying they can’t watch anymore and others saying this is the worst team they can remember in their lifetime.

https://twitter.com/nickwash/status/1617866957654753281

This was a pretty common theme amongst fans after the Milwaukee debacle:

I saw the word “unwatchable” bandied about quite a bit, and I have to agree, as this team has been a tough watch at times, especially on the defensive end, where they are headed for the worst mark in team history for the second year in a row.

They don’t always hustle, the passing has been atrocious, and the team often plays selfish basketball that is far from beautiful. The coach is not inspiring confidence and there are questions about whether this team has any type of identity or chemistry.

Playing for losses is not fun, and waiting out another losing season just for a 14 percent chance at a miracle is no way to be a fan.

I agree with the Tweets above in spirit, but this is far from the most unwatchable team the Detroit Pistons have had, even in recent memory.

Detroit Pistons: The sort of watchables

I would agree that this year’s Pistons’ team has been tough to watch, even worse than last season, as at least we had Cade Cunningham’s Rookie of the Year campaign to get excited about.

The team also played much more competitively last season, at one point covering the spread for more than 20 games in a row.

This season has been tough to digest mostly because many of us thought they would be better. Not good necessarily, but better. I predicted they would win 28 games, a marginal improvement from last season. I doubt they will sniff that, as they’d have to go nearly .500 to do it.

But as bad as it has been, there are still reasons to be excited and to watch, especially in comparison to years past.

The Detroit Pistons have two rookies with a shot at the first-team All-Rookie squad, and while both still need major improvements, they are reason for hope. Jaden Ivey is leading or top-5 in several rookie categories, and Jalen Duren has a chance to break the Pistons’ rookie record for double-doubles held by Greg Monroe.

Killian Hayes has improved and has a chance to cement himself as part of the future core, at least as a backup point guard. Isaiah Stewart has made progress as a stretch four and has opened up some exciting possibilities for himself.

It really just comes down to one word: Hope.

As in they have some, even though this season has been brutal to watch at times. Better days are coming, the Detroit Pistons have as much young talent as they’ve had in years, there’s probably a new coach on the way and there is a chance they’ll add another exciting draft pick.

The Detroit Pistons also have copious amounts of cap space to add talent in the offseason, so there is some reason to believe the leap they failed to make this season is coming soon.

That can’t be said about about the stretch that was really the most unwatchable.

Detroit Pistons: The real unwatchables

The Detroit Pistons are tanking this season whether they want to admit it or not. It’s not a great place to be, but at least they are doing it on purpose, as the worst thing to be is a team that is tanking while trying to win, which was the case for the Pistons between 2009-2015, a six-year span in which they won a total of 172 games.

They only topped 30 wins once in that stretch, went through four coaches and had some of the most depressing rosters in the league.

The Pistons tried to cling to relevance with the ghosts of the Goin’ to Work era, continually trying to patch Titanic sized holes with band aids like Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. They missed continually in the draft and had Greg Monroe and Rodney Stuckey as their best young players to go along with veterans near the end of their careers.

They traded away Chauncey Billups and started the disastrous decision to try to and build around Andre Drummond, a talented rebounder who should have never been a franchise player. They traded away young talent like Spencer Dinwiddie and Khris Middleton for nothing and made some of the worst free agent signings in team history.

They were actually trying to win with those rosters and didn’t have much more to show for it than this season, a rebuilding year which turned to tanking as soon as Cade went out.

I agree that this current team is not always fun to watch, but at least we have a #1 pick on the roster, a couple of exciting rookies and aren’t hampered by some of the worst contracts in the league. Those teams from 2009-2015 were not only unwatchable, but didn’t even offer hope.

There is no guarantee this will turn out any better, but at least there is hope, which makes this far from the most unwatchable Pistons’ team.