The Detroit Pistons clinched a playoff spot this season, which no one expected after last year’s disaster.
That was especially true after new team president Trajan Langdon didn’t make sweeping changes or blockbuster additions to the roster in his first offseason, as it’s not like anyone thought Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. were huge additions that were going to carry Detroit to the postseason one year removed from winning 14 games.
These were three players no one else really wanted, and aside from them, Detroit mostly ran it back with the same roster.
Obviously, a big part of Detroit’s turnaround is the emergence of Cade Cunningham as an All-Star, but Cade was pretty good last year too, so his improvement alone does not account for Detroit’s renaissance.
We have also seen improvement from Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, but again, not enough to completely account for this miraculous change, especially considering Ivey has been out since January.
That leaves just coaching, and the Pistons upgraded big time when they fired Monty Williams and hired JB Bickerstaff, which may be the single biggest factor in Detroit’s improvement.
What do you do when your coach doesn’t care? Ask last year’s Detroit Pistons
Do you know how bad you have to be to be able to TRIPLE your win total from the previous season? For most bad teams, it wouldn’t even be possible, as there aren’t enough games, so you have to be epically bad for it to happen, which is why it never has before this season.
We’ve talked plenty about Monty Williams, but it’s worth revisiting just how bad he was now that the Pistons are in the playoffs.
We know Wiliams can coach, as he’s won Coach of the Year and led teams deep into the playoffs, so it wasn’t like he suddenly forgot, it’s just that he never showed up in the first place.
This is a guy who did not get to know his players at all, which is how he ended up making so many baffling rotation choices.
Unlike JB Bickerstaff, Monty rarely stuck up for or even engaged with his team, missed chances to call timeouts, never challenged plays and looked like he was just riding out the clock even though he had signed a record deal that could have lasted for seven years.
It’s still inexplicable how bad he was, and this year proves it, as the Pistons have more than tripled their win total with mostly the same team.