The Detroit Pistons were dead last in the NBA last season so they were obviously at the bottom of the Central Division.
In fact, the Indiana Pacers, who were the closest team to Detroit, doubled the Pistons’ win total with 35 victories last season.
Turning things around next season starts in the Central Division, and the Pistons have plenty of work to do, as they will once again be picked to finish last amongst the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls.
Fans shouldn’t expect the Pistons to start regularly beating the Bucks and Cavaliers, who are contenders next season, but player development and some new additions could give Monty Williams at least one advantage over every team in the Central Division.
1 Advantage the Pistons have over every Central Division team
Indiana Pacers: Athleticism
On paper, the Pacers look better than the Pistons for next season, as Tyrese Haliburton has already estalblished himself as a star and they have a nice mix of young players and veterans around him.
But they are one of the teams the Pistons could conceivably leapfrog, especially if Cade Cunningham comes back stronger, as is expected. A healthy Cade could surpass Haliburton in production, in which case these two teams are pretty even.
One area where Detroit should be well ahead of the Pacers is athleticism. While Cunningham and Haliburton are similar in that regard, Detroit is quicker and more athletic pretty much everywhere else, especially when Ausar Thompson is on the floor.
Detroit should be able to get out and run on Indiana with the combination of Jaden Ivey, Thompson and Duren, who can run circles around Buddy Hield, Bruce Brown and Myles Turner.
Will it be enough to get Detroit over the hump vs. Indiana? The Pistons were 2-2 against the Pacers last season and may be able to steal the season series next year.
1 Advantage the Pistons have over every Central Division team
Chicago Bulls: 3-point shooting
The Detroit Pistons haven’t beaten the Bulls since the 2019-20 season, so this is a team they need to start beating if they want to turn the corner.
It’s not like Chicago has been a juggarnaut in that time, but they still have a team built around Zach LaVine and a bunch of gritty veterans like Alex Caruso, Jevon Carter, Torrey Craig and our old friend Andre Drummond.
It’s almost laughable to say that the Detroit Pistons will be better at shooting than just about anyone considering they had the worst FG percentage in the league last year, but they weren’t awful from behind the arc and should be even better next season.
With Bojan Bogdanovic, Alec Burks, Joe Harris and Monte Morris, the Pistons have four veterans who can shoot the lights out on a given night, which should help them spread the floor against the Bulls’ tough perimeter defense.
The Bulls aren’t a terrible shooting team, but Patrick Williams actually led them in 3-point percentage last season and he’s not a player who is going to make defenses close out hard, at least yet.
If Detroit can spread it around and undermine the Bulls’ defense with their long-range shooting, they might finally be able to get a win against Chicago that has been a long time coming.
1 Advantage the Pistons have over every Central Division team
Cleveland Cavaliers: The bench
The Pistons lost all four games to the Cavaliers last season and Cleveland will once again be favored next season.
The Cavaliers’ starting five is as good as just about anyone in the Eastern Conference, so Monty Williams can’t let his team fall behind big early.
But the bench matchups could favor Detroit once the starters hit the bench, as the Cavaliers’ second unit is short on star power and shooting with backups Ricky Rubio, Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro, Georges Niang and Damian Jones.
That squad lacks shooting, so Detroit can assign Ausar Thompson to lock down LeVert and dare the others to beat them. Monte Morris should be able to cancel out Rubio, and I love the matchups between Alec Burks and Okoro, as well as the Pistons’ bigs over Niang and Jones.
This could be the opponent for James Wiseman and/or Marvin Bagley to have big games as Detroit will likely lean heavily on their bench.
1 Advantage the Pistons have over every Central Division team
Milwaukee Bucks: Team speed
The Bucks are not only the favorite to win the Central Division but will undoubtedly be one of the contenders for the NBA Championship next season behind perennial MVP candidate, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Pistons lost all four games to the Bucks last season and have been thoroughly dominated for some time. The Bucks are a veteran team with a lot of skill, but they are not quick footed, so Detroit will have to try and use their speed advantage against them.
The Pistons should have a speed advantage at nearly every position including point guard, shooting guard, small forward (when Bojan is on the bench) and center.
They need to make Brook Lopez labor up and down the floor and try to keep up with Jalen Duren, who has to be the rim runner in this one.
Jaden Ivey needs to blow the doors off Grayson Allen and the same with Ausar Thompson, who can fly around Khris Middleton.
If these matchups end up as grind-it-out half court affairs, then Milwaukee has the advantage, but if Detroit can speed up the pace, make the Bucks play fast and chaotic, they have a shot at finally toppling the kings of the Central.