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10 best duos in Detroit Pistons’ franchise history

By Tim Galbraith

Cade Cunningham #2 and Jaden Ivey #23 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)
Cade Cunningham #2 and Jaden Ivey #23 of the Detroit Pistons (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) /
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Detroit Pistons Grant Hill (R) hugs Jerry Stackhouse JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images) /

10 best duos in Detroit Pistons’ history

#8a: Grant Hill & Allan Houston

Oh, what could have been. Grant Hill played his best basketball as a Detroit Piston, but he was on the verge of taking over the NBA in Orlando with Tracy McGrady. We all know the story; injuries derailed the bonafide superstar and robbed him of his prime. Hill may very well have won an MVP, a scoring title, and an NBA championship. His departure ultimately did facilitate a championship – and for the Detroit Pistons at that – as his sign-and-trade agreement brought Ben Wallace to The D. But just for a minute, imagine if Hill, and sharpshooter Allan Houston who also left for perceived greener pastures, had stayed. That means no Ben Wallace. It means a nearly unimaginable alternative timeline, and my grasp of science fiction is weak. Still, I can picture Hill and Houston leading the Pistons to the promise land. If not, and chances are that even if they had stayed they would have fallen short of Larry O’Brien-esque glory, they would have surely been a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference.

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#8b: Grant Hill & Jerry Stackhouse

Grant Hill, perhaps ironically, is the only player that is on this list twice – sort of. I’m not going to break him out of this one spot fully, but I will make him the focal point of two separate duos. Having established the potential of the Hill/Houston 1-2, let’s take a minute to look at the Hill/Stackhouse dynamic. Now we’ve covered Hill, but Stackhouse was another superb athlete. There was a bit of concern that they were too similar but the reality was different. During the 1999-2000 season, Hill averaged 25.8 points per game, and Stack, 23.6. Had they stayed together, going deeper into their primes side by side, had better coaching, and a better roster around them, the sky would have been the limit. A piece of me wants to believe that there is a parallel universe in which they 3-peat as Pistons, and climb to the top of this list. As it is, they’re still on it together. And they’re, for me, the hardest duo to rank. A case can be made they deserve to be much higher – but then, that’s the fun of these lists, right? We all have our own.