No one believes in the Detroit Pistons as a threat in the playoffs, which is just fine with them.
It seems like pundits have been waiting all season to doubt the Pistons, as most of what we hear about the team is how they are fun but not good enough.
Despite being in first place for the entire season in the Eastern Conference and having the 2nd-best defense and net rating, despite the fact they keep winning even without Cade Cunningham, Detroit is still the trendy pick for an early exit from the playoffs.
Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe are the latest disbelievers, as they had the Pistons ranked 11th in their “Scary Playoff Team Draft,” some of which felt like a direct troll of Pistons fans. In their draft, they assume everyone is healthy.
I don’t think there is anyone out there who would rank the Pistons as the most likely team to win a title but putting them 11th is just disrespectful and ignores what they've done all season.
The Pistons are not scary? Ok.
Most fans would accept teams like Boston, New York and Cleveland ahead of the Pistons just because they are more experienced and I could understand that, though I don’t agree, especially with the Knicks, who have won exactly jack squat and have lost to the Pistons by a combined 9000 points this season.
Cleveland hasn’t been out of the second round with this group, so why are they so scary again? At least Boston has championship chops, but the other two are highly debatable.
No one would argue the Pistons are better than OKC or San Antonio and you can maybe throw the Nuggets and Timberwolves in there, but the Lakers? The Pistons just beat them without Cade Cunningham.
The worst one has to be Philly, the All-Time “if they are healthy” team because they never are, but even at full strength, they are basically three guys and a lot of question marks.
I’m not sure what the Pistons have to do to convince people they are actually good, but they have a 13-game lead on the 76ers, who are a play-in team, so what are we doing here?
I can’t remember a #1 seed that people believed in less, which is just fine by the Pistons.
The Pistons have faced this disrespect all season
Detroit has thrived on people not believing in them all season and seem to step up every time people start to write them off. Take the recent win against the Lakers. The Pistons had to listen to how their season was over because Cade was out and promptly went out and beat LA without him or Isaiah Stewart.
Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson, Kevin Huerter and Daniss Jenkins have all stepped up in Cade’s absence, and it’s possible that this collapsed lung, while unfortunate, may actually help build confidence for the playoffs.
No one is going to believe in Detroit until they win a playoff series or two, but I hope they are listening, as the talking heads are providing plenty of bulletin board material.