At this time last season, fans of the Detroit Pistons were already deep into Mock Draft season, dreaming of a day when we wouldn’t be the worst team in the NBA.
It’s been a complete shift this season. No one cares about the draft, as the Pistons don’t even have a first-round pick, and instead the focus is on a first-round playoff series with the Knicks.
Prior to this season, “stable” was not a word you would have used to describe the Pistons, as they had a rotating cast of front office personnel, coaches and players that never allowed them to form a real identity.
Such is life in the modern NBA, where patience is razor thin and coaches and GM’s (especially coaches) don’t get much time to prove themselves. This is especially true of any team that fancies itself a contender, as we’ve seen in recent weeks.
The Kings, Grizzlies and Nuggets all fired their coaches during the season, something you usually don’t see from teams headed to the playoffs and especially not from teams like Denver, who have been the model of stability in the NBA for years.
Yesterday, the Pelicans fired team president David Griffin and it’s likely their new decision maker will also send coach Willie Green packing.
And the Phoenix Suns fired head coach Mike Budenholzer (that's all the Mikes fired) after just one underperforming season, which means they are now paying three coaches not to work. I am currently trying to get a job with the Suns, as it seems like the best deal going.
We could see further shuffling with teams like the Bucks, 76ers and Mavericks depending on what happens in the postseason, which leaves the Pistons as a part of an ever-shrinking group of teams.
The Detroit Pistons are stable
It’s wild to say after the previous six seasons of turmoil, but the Pistons now look like one of the more stable teams in the NBA.
Most of their roster is locked up for the foreseeable future and they are all young.
They have a coach they love in JB Bickerstaff, who looks like he’ll be here for a few years, though you can never count on that with coaches. On a side note: I don’t think we are far from coaches getting larger one-year contracts, as these five-year deals are just money wasters since few coaches actually make it through the entirety of their contract.
There are currently only three coaches (Pop, Kerr and Spoelstra) who are coaching the same team they were during the COVID shutdown. Some of these guys have passed through a couple of teams since then.
The Pistons’ front office led by Trajan Langdon has hit nothing but home runs so far, making what look to be solid draft picks and adding the right veterans without giving up any of the young core.
The Pistons are also in the first season of their renaissance, so the real pressure won’t start until next season when they are expected to win and will have a different type of pressure applied by fans and media. But they will still be afforded patience, as everyone realizes this is just the beginning of a process.
No one is truly safe in the NBA, but as of right now, the Pistons are one of a small number of teams who have a stable front office, coaching and roster situation, which is not something I expected to be able to write this season.