Pistons have to adjust to the alien reality of the Western Conference

Regardless of what happens this season, it’s clear that if the Detroit Pistons ever want to win a title, they will have to be able to beat the OKC Thunder or San Antonio Spurs, so they should adjust accordingly. 

While the Eastern Conference has good teams, they aren’t as daunting as OKC or San Antonio. The Pistons nearly beat the Knicks last year and took the Cavaliers to game seven in this one, so they’ve at least shown they can hang with the current elite of the East. 

And unlike the Thunder and Spurs, the Knicks, Cavs and Celtics aren’t super young. OKC and San Antonio have very young rosters and are playing rookies in key games of the playoffs, so they aren’t going away anytime soon, while you can at least see windows starting to close for the best teams in the East. 

The Thunder and Spurs also feature relentless depth, size and an alien in Victor Wembanyama who every team is going to have to figure out how to beat if they want to win a title. 

The Pistons need more size and depth 

The Thunder have two very good defensive bigs in Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein and are still having all types of problems with Wembanyama, which shows the gap between the Frenchman and everyone else right now. 

If Wemby stays healthy, he’s going to wrap up several MVP awards and probably titles unless someone can figure out the recipe to beat him. 

It might just be surrounding him with size, playing physical and having as many fouls at your disposal as possible, though he shoots over 82 percent from the line, so you’re not getting much value there. 

Being able to show him different looks by dragging him away from the hoop and also trying to bang him around in the post might be the best strategy, but you need the players to do it and right now the Pistons don’t have those guys. 

Wemby’s only real weakness is that he can’t always play big minutes, so the best bet is to just keep coming at him in new ways with as many bodies as you can find. 

Even though Detroit had three capable centers on the roster, one of them is undersized in Isaiah Stewart, and they didn’t have much size anywhere else. Detroit doesn’t even have a backup power forward, so could use more size on their frontline even if they are able to retain all of their current centers. 

They also need bigs who can shoot and make Wemby and Chet chase them around the floor to mitigate their elite rim protection. 

All of this is easier said than done, but it’s clear that if the Pistons ever want to seriously challenge either of the heavyweights in the West, they are going to need more size and talent. 

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