Head coach JB Bickerstaff is a big reason the Detroit Pistons climbed out of the cellar last season, going from 14 wins to 44 in one of the biggest turnarounds in league history.
Monty Williams was a trainwreck, so it was a low bar for Bickerstaff to clear, but he didn’t just clear his predecessor, he flew over him in a 747.
The Pistons jumped into the top 10 in defense under Bickerstaff and into the top half of the league in offense, numbers they hadn’t sniffed since the Obama administration.
He energized a group that had done nothing but lose and put each player in a defined role, something that the Pistons hadn’t done in previous years.
Now the pressure will be on for him to improve upon his first season, which won’t be easy. The baseline for these young Pistons is now 44 wins and anything short of that will be seen as a disappointment, which may not be fair to coach Bickerstaff, but success brings expectations.
Detroit wants sustained success, sustained playoff appearances and eventually sustained shots at titles. In other words, they want to be the Anti-Bulls.
The Detroit Pistons need to avoid becoming the Bulls
The Chicago Bulls have become the symbol of mediocrity in the NBA after finishing with 39 wins two years in a row.
Unfortunately for Bulls fans, the goal of the worst ownership group in the NBA seems to be to make the 10th seed as cheaply as possible, fill the United Center with tourists every night to sell overpriced beer, rinse and repeat.
The Bulls did nothing to improve this offseason, and even though coach Billy Donovan has been entirely mediocre in his tenure with the Bulls (not really his fault), Chicago rewarded him with a contract extension.
Donovan has a 195-205 record as head coach of the Bulls and has only made the playoffs once in five years, but the Bulls extended him anyway.
This is the kind of thing the Pistons have to avoid. They don’t want to be content with being a nice story or barely making the playoffs every year. They want to see progress, not wheels spinning in the mud, and even if Bickerstaff has another good season, it’s entirely fine to let him continue on his five-year deal without jumping the gun and giving him an extension.
Coach Bickerstaff has the reputation of a guy who can make a bad team good but then can’t get them over the hump, which is what eventually cost him his job in Cleveland. He’s taken the Pistons from bad to the playoffs, but now he has to prove he can keep them there and continue to progress.
The Bulls have given the Pistons a blueprint of what not to do: Don’t give out fat extensions to players who haven’t proven anything (I’m looking at you, Patrick Williams) and don’t extend coaches just because you like them.
Don’t be complacent with mediocrity. Don't' be the Bulls.