NBA Finals show a path for the Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons need look no further than this year’s NBA Finals for a blueprint for small market teams.

The Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in five games to win their first NBA championship. Of the best players on the court in any of those games, only Jamal Murray, 7th overall, was drafted in the top ten.

Nikola Jokic, the best player in the series and perhaps the world (at the moment), was drafted 41st during a Taco Bell commercial. The Heat fielded a team of overlooked talent including Jimmy Butler (30th), Bam Adebayo (14th), and undrafted players Caleb Martin, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, and Udonis Haslem’s 29.8 seconds.

These Finals showed that teams that maintain their culture and develop their players can find the sustained success that has eluded Detroit recently. Troy Weaver has done an excellent job shaping the franchise in this direction. However, as he said in his year-end press conference, there’s more to do.

Detroit Pistons: Setting the tone

Players who exceed expectations put in the work, focus on details, and maximize their physical attributes while finding ways to compensate for limitations, which everyone has, even a Giannis or a Lebron, though their limitations are harder to see through the camouflage of overwhelming skill.

In order to develop players so that they exceed expectations, the Detroit Pistons will need to cultivate a culture like the Heat and Nuggets have.

In the late nineties, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway set the tone for Heat culture, and later Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem filled that role. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray set the tone five years ago for Denver, and over the years veterans like Jeff Green, Monte Morris, Mason Plumlee, and Paul Millsap echoed Mike Malone in the locker room and mentored the team’s younger players on the court.

We hope all or some combination of Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart, Jaden Ivey, and Jalen Duren set the tone, and veterans like Bojan Bogdanovic, Alec Burks, and a couple of free agents serve as mentors in Detroit. So far in his tenure, Troy Weaver has drafted not only for talent but also for character. High-character, hardworking guys who bring focus and discipline shape a locker room and practice sessions.

The next step will be attention to detail.

As the Pistons’ young core gain experience, their ability to read the game will improve. They’ll take what defenses give them rather than force shots, and they’ll learn to change the pace of the game through defense rather than scrambling to interpret what opponents are trying to do. As these changes materialize, the organization will be better able to find contributors late in or outside the draft that fit into the system they’ve developed. Build a culture and system and then find the players to fit, it’s that simple.

Players thrive in a developed system alongside effective talent. The Heat and Nuggets gave Pistons fans a glimpse of what’s possible. In a few years, I believe, we’ll see a similar culture in Detroit.