The young Detroit Pistons surprised everyone by making the playoffs this season, and now that they have taken that step, the hard part begins, which is staying there for the long term.
This was a magical season that felt as if the Pistons were playing with house money, as no one expected them to be a playoff team, and most fans were just happy to see competitive basketball.
Success brings expectations, so the kumbaya around the campfire vibe isn’t going to last long if the Pistons don’t sustain it.
They’ll be tempted to try and recreate the magic and chemistry of this season by bringing back their own free agents for another run and/or making a big splash in the offseason.
But the Pistons have to be careful, as going from good to great is not easy and is a road fraught with peril. Ask the Atlanta Hawks.
The Atlanta Hawks bet big on their own guys and lost
The Hawks made their own magical and unexpected run to the playoffs in 2020-21, when they came out of nowhere to make the Eastern Conference Finals with a young team that looked poised for long-term success.
They had a young superstar and a nice cast of role players around him. But Atlanta hasn’t tasted that kind of success since, flaming out in the first round in the next two seasons and then failing to make the playoffs in the two after that.
The Hawks are now stuck where no team wants to be, in NBA purgatory, not good enough to be a threat, but not bad enough to get a top draft pick. The Pistons know this region well, as they inhabited if for most of the Andre Drummond era.
So how do the Pistons avoid this fate?
The Pistons can’t overpay the wrong guys
The Hawks’ lack of success since their ECF run largely comes down to the fact that they gave almost all of those players huge raises after that season.
Trae Young got a max extension, fine. But the Hawks also gave out big deals to John Collins, Clint Capela, De’Andre Hunter and Kevin Huerter.
They never found a second star to put with Young, instead overpaying role players and burning all of their financial flexibility in the process.
All of the players I listed above are good players, but they are role players and that kind of production can be had for less money than the Hawks gave any of them, which is why they ended up giving away most of these guys for practically nothing.
The Pistons cannot make the same mistake with players like Jalen Duren, Malik Beasley, Dennis Schroder and Tim Hardaway Jr., as overpaying role players is the fast track to mediocrity in the NBA, and under the new CBA, it’s a death sentence.
We know the Pistons and Beasley want to reunite, but Detroit has to set a limit on how much they are willing to pay for it.
When you are coming off a season like the Pistons just had, it’s easy to get sentimental and want to chase that feeling again, but you don’t want to put a ceiling on your team by overpaying role players.
Ask the Hawks, who are now asking if they need to blow up their roster just a few seasons removed from nearly making the Finals.