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.
The teetering on mediocrity teams
-Chicago Bulls
-Atlanta Hawks
-Toronto Raptors
-Charlotte Hornets
All of these teams had losing records last season but are midway between being competitive and tanking.
The Bulls figure to take the biggest step back after trading DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso, but they still have Zach LaVine, Coby White and Josh Giddey, so who knows with them.
Same with the Hawks, who have been stuck in no-man’s land forever and feel on the precipice of some big changes, so they could go either way.
The Raptors have a new look built around Scottie Barnes but will they realistically win more than the 25 games they won last season?
The Hornets will be relying on the health of LaMelo Ball. They do have some talent but if he gets hurt again it won’t matter.
With the Bulls and Hawks possibly taking steps back, the Raptors and Hornets seem the most likely of this group to claim one or both of the two remaining play-in spots.
Can the Detroit Pistons claim one of the final two spots?
-Detroit Pistons
-Washington Wizards
-Brooklyn Nets
The Pistons are arguably the best of the worst three teams, which isn’t saying much, as the Wizards are a mess and the Nets are fully committed to tanking.
I’d bet on the Nets being the worst team in the Eastern Conference next season with the Wizards not far behind. Washington had a confusing offseason where they traded young players away and signed weird veterans like Jonas Valanciunas. Did they improve? Maybe if Coulibaly and Sarr are better than expected.
The Pistons improved the most of these three teams on paper, probably enough to put themselves in the conversation to be in the first group, but they still have a lot of question marks around how the roster will work and whether their young players have another level.
When you look at the bottom half of the East, there is no reason the Pistons can’t at least be competitive for one of the final play-in spots, as none of these teams did much to improve this offseason and they weren’t good to begin with.
Could this finally be the year the Pistons are actually trying to win games at the end of the season instead of running out a pathetic G-League roster to jockey for lottery position?