2 Spots for 7 teams, including the Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons have modest hopes and expectations for the 2024-25 season. 

I wrote about what the “dream” season might look like (along with the more likely reality) and that included making the play-in tournament or at least getting close so that the young players would finally participate in meaningful games at the end of the season. 

The Pistons have a couple of things working in their favor when it comes to this goal. They improved their roster by adding actual NBA rotation players (novel idea) who can shoot. 

The Eastern Conference as a whole didn’t improve much, and there could be some new teams joining the bottom feeders where the Pistons have been a mainstay. 

Most of the improvement came at the top, which may give the Pistons a chance to emerge from the the bottom.

Likely playoff teams in the Eastern Conference 

You can argue about which team improved the most or the order of the standings, but the top-8 teams in the Eastern Conference haven’t changed. 

It’s likely we’ll see the Celtics, Knicks, Bucks, 76ers, Cavaliers, Magic, Pacers and Heat in some order, though a surprise team could certainly sneak in there and bounce one of them. 

That leaves just the final two play-in spots for seven teams to fight for and the Pistons have as good a chance as anyone when you look at the remaining teams.