It’s aways interesting to look back on the season and identify things that might have gone differently and there were some key moments for the Detroit Pistons that were largely out of their control.
The Pistons came up just short in the second round of the playoffs after an amazing season that saw them stake a surprise claim to the number one seed.
The perpetually online weirdos aren’t happy with that, and I’ve seen some wild takes saying Trajan Langdon should be fired (WHAT?!?) for his trade deadline inaction because he didn’t get Coby freaking White or some other mediocrity that wasn’t going to move the needle at all. Wise up.
They can point to every mistake Langdon and JB Bickerstaff made but rarely bring up the bad breaks that were outside their control and might have made a difference.
Again, these aren’t excuses, but “what-ifs” that we can look back upon now that the season is over.
What if Malik Beasley were available?
The Pistons’ offseason started with a thud last year when the 3 year/$42 million deal they had with Malik Beasley fell through after he was put under investigation for gambling.
The Pistons had to scramble at the last minute and pivot to Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert instead. The Pistons may have made a play for Robinson anyway, as they had a lot of shooting to replace with Tim Hardaway Jr., Dennis Schoder and Beasley all potentially leaving.
But they wouldn’t have likely had to go after LeVert, which turned out to be a mistake, as he had the worst season of his career and waited until the playoffs to even have a good game.
If the Pistons had Beasley and Robinson instead of Robinson and LeVert, would that have been enough shooting to get them past Cleveland? Maybe.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Beasley, as he has still not been cleared to play, and the last I heard he was playing in Bad Bunny’s league in Puerto Rico. The Pistons still need shooting, so who knows...
The Jaden Ivey saga set the Pistons back
The Pistons went into this season hoping Jaden Ivey would be the number two scorer they needed or at least play well enough to be a juicy trade asset at the deadline that they could build a substantial package around for an impact upgrade.
Neither of those happened after Ivey suffered a preseason injury that kept him out and wasn’t any good once he returned.
The Pistons didn’t get the second scorer and ball handler they needed, and Ivey’s devolution tanked his trade value so that the Pistons could only get Kevin Huerter and a better 1st-round pick.
After how it went for Ivey in Chicago, the Pistons were lucky to get that much, but if Ivey had been what they hoped or at least helped them net a quality bench player, this season might have turned out differently.
Every team in the league has these kinds of what-ifs, so these aren’t excuses, but they were two factors out of the Pistons’ control that could have changed the outcome, at least against the Cavaliers.
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