The Detroit Pistons came out of nowhere this season to win 44 games after suffering through the worst year in franchise history.
Breaking through to the playoffs is the easy part when no one sees you coming and now the Pistons are burdened with the expectations of staying there, which is far more difficult, especially since they won't be sneaking up on anyone.
Fans often assume linear progression with teams, but we know that is not the case. We also know that the Pistons are very young, had fair injury luck and got big years from veterans that will be difficult to repeat if those guys are even on the roster.
Taking a team from terrible to respectable is the easy part, but the real challenge is staying there and improving.
What does success look like for the Detroit Pistons next season?
If you asked most fans this question, a lot of them would say 50+ wins, a top four seed and a deeper run in the playoffs, but that is a tall task.
Going from a 40+ win team to a 50+ win team is often the most difficult stretch in team building, ask JB Bickerstaff, who was essentially fired because he couldn’t get his team in Cleveland to make that leap. He did get to 51 wins with the Cavs, but immediately slid back to 48, which shows just how hard it is to maintain even when you have a good team. Injuries happen. Other teams improve. You can't assume anything.
I do think the Pistons should expect improvement, but that won’t necessarily push them into the 50-win tier, nor should wins necessarily be the mark for success.
If the Pistons were to win 44 games again next season with their young players making the leaps they need them to make, that should be viewed as a successful season, as they will have established a baseline of wins.
That same number of wins may not be enough for the 6th seed next season, so the Pistons could potentially regress in the standings while still progressing as a team. They skipped a big step going from 14 wins to 44, but progress will be more deliberate moving forward.
If absolutely everything goes right for the Pistons next season, anything can happen in the Eastern Conference, as it is wide open and doesn’t have a clear favorite at this point.
But fans shouldn’t put a “win now” label on a team that is still in its developmental nascency and should be looking for sustained growth and postseason appearances, not a move that will make them immediate title contenders, if such a move even exists.
We should have expectations and standards of course, but the Pistons still have to play by their own timeline, evaluate their players and get more development before they are one move away from title contention.
This is the hard work of growing as a team, which can happen without them making a dramatic surge in the win column.