Case against JB Bickerstaff re-writes history to screw him over

JB Bickerstaff should probably win Coach of the Year for what the Detroit Pistons have done this season, but voters seem to be talking themselves out of it for all of the wrong reasons. 

The Pistons are cruising towards 60 wins, something that not one person predicted, not even me, Homer #1, who had them finishing 4th in the Eastern Conference before the season, so even the most biased, optimistic opinion (mine) was way off. 

Many predicted a regression for the Pistons, in fact, ESPN predicted Detroit to win 42 games this season and finish 8th in the Eastern Conference. Other sites like Bleacher Report had them at 45 wins and had to adjust for a hot start no one saw coming. In case you were wondering, ESPN had Boston finishing 5th in the East with three more predicted wins than Detroit.

Bickerstaff’s biggest competition comes from Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics, who led his team to a #2 seed without Jayson Tatum for most of the season. 

While this has been impressive, fans and pundits are ignoring their own words. 

Can we give JB Bickerstaff a little credit? 

What the Celtics did without Jayson Tatum was impressive, and Mazzulla deserves a lot of credit, especially since they have had myriad injuries aside from Tatum. 

But they also had another superstar to fall back on in Jaylen Brown, who has put the team on his back, and a better-than-advertised supporting cast. All that said, it’s impressive that Boston could finish ahead of New York when the Knicks have been relatively healthy by comparison. 

But all of these same things could be said about the Pistons (who are ahead of both of them), except they didn’t have a second superstar to fall back on. All we’ve heard all season is how the Pistons don’t have a second star, how they need more shooting, how it’s just Cade and a bunch of try-hards, yet the Pistons keep winning without him. 

Detroit has is now 11-4 without Cunningham this season and has been better in certain categories without him. 

They’ve also been without Isaiah Stewart for extended periods, and everyone now magically forgets that they’ve had a rotating cast of injuries all season, so much that Daniss Jenkins was thrust into a huge role. 

They had the Ivey saga to deal with, which in retrospect looks like a great bit of locker room management by Bickerstaff, who never let any of it be a distraction. 

Everyone is now acting like the Pistons were expected to be where they are, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only did all of the major publications pick them to barely make the playoffs, but none of them would have dreamed the Pistons would be where they are had they known about the extensive injuries. 

JB Bickerstaff deserves a ton of credit for this, as he has not only held this team together, but has them thriving through adversity and winning without their best player. The Pistons have outperformed every prediction and have done it shorthanded for most of the season.