It seems like some fans and pundits have been waiting all season for the Detroit Pistons to expose themselves as a fluke, and that is not going to change until they win in the playoffs.
Whether you like them or not, the Pistons are one of the most compelling stories in basketball, as they’ve gone from the worst team in the league to the best (so far in the regular season) in the span of just two years.
They tripled their win total last season and are on their way to something special in this one, but none of that matters yet because they haven’t won a playoff series, in fact, this group hasn’t even won a home playoff game.
Even though we see them atop some power rankings, there is still an air of doubt around the Pistons, and there is only one way they can get rid of it, and that is to win in the playoffs.
We’ve seen it with the interminably annoying Knicks fans, who desperately hold last year’s playoff win against the Pistons over our heads even after Detroit has battered them three times this season.
And in our ring obsessed culture, that is fair, and it’s something we’ve seen time and time again.
The Detroit Pistons are going through the process
I’ve seen this cycle many times before in the NBA, where no one believes a team can do a thing until they see them do that thing.
Ask the Pistons, who first had to vanquish Larry Bird and the Celtics to get to their first titles, and until they did, no one thought that they would.
No one thought the Goin’ to Work group could win a title, not against the mighty Lakers with a prime Shaq and Kobe. Right up until they did and suddenly everyone was on board.
The cycle seems to have been sped up of late, as OKC only had to endure one tough playoff loss before breaking through and winning a title with a young team, which may be the new norm in the NBA.
As good as the Pistons have been this season, they are still in the “nobody believes in us” stage of the cycle, and until they win a playoff series or two, that’s not going to change.
This is a good thing for the Pistons, as it will be the last time this group is underestimated, and after this season, the expectations for them next year will be much different, and the microscope will be a lot larger.
Even if they have the best record in the league, the Pistons won’t be legitimized by the press until they win in the playoffs, and they are ready to prove that what we are witnessing is not a fluke.