The Detroit Pistons are in the midst of one of the biggest turnarounds in NBA history, and unlike most of the other teams on that list, they did it without adding a superstar.
Trajan Langdon instead filled out the roster with complementary veterans, which was the biggest failture of the previous front office. To his credit, Troy Weaver drafted the core that is currently leading the Pistons (thanks for that) but never did much else to help them develop.
But no one saw this coming, as the Pistons are riding an 8-game winning streak, just blew out the defending champions and are currently tied with the Bucks in the win column for the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference, just a game behind the Pacers for the 4th spot.
We’ve gone from “it would be great if the Pistons won 30 games,” to “they might make the play-in!,” to “oh my god, this is a playof team!,” so talking about seeding just seems greedy at this point, as this season has already been a rousing success that has re-ignited the city of Detroit.
The Pistons still have the tough part of their schedule left, with a difficult west-coast road trip, two games against OKC, one against Cleveland and two against the Bucks to finish the season that could end up being epic.
With the standings so bunched together from 4-6, it’s never too early to start thinking about tiebreakers, which aren’t going to work out in the Pistons’ favor.
Detroit Pistons: Tiebreakers against the Bucks and Pacers
The standings could look at lot different in a few weeks, but as of right now, the 4-6 seeds in the East are all within a game of each other, so it’s not unthinkable that there might be a tie between one or more of them.
This could be one of those seasons that comes down to the final couple of games.
If there are ties, they won’t break for the Pistons, as they are decided by head-to-head records.
Detroit is 0-2 against the Bucks and Milwaukee is 6-5 in the division, while Detroit is just 4-9. So even if the Pistons were to beat the Bucks in the final two games to even the season series, the Bucks would likely win by a superior division record.
The Pistons are just 1-3 against the Pacers, who have a 6-4 division record, so they’ve already won the tiebreaker against Detroit.
Their Central Division rivals are the biggest things standing in their way right now, so at least the problem is a familiar one.
Of couse, the best way to avoid this issue is by just beating both of them outright in the standings, so Detroit just has to worry about themselves, take care of business and everything else will work itself out.