The goodwill around the new-look Detroit Pistons didn't last long, as they were hammered by the Los Angeles Lakers in a game that was never close.
You can blame tired road-trip legs or the lack of chemistry between the core and five new players, but it was a disappointing effort by the Pistons, who allowed 71 first-half points to LA.
No one expected the Pistons to go on a huge win streak after the trade deadline, but we did expect to finally see big minutes for the Core Four along with the guys who will be around them next season, including Simone Fontecchio and possibly veteran Mike Muscala.
Monty Williams acknowledged the difficulty of this task prior to the game when he once again talked about shortening his rotation just before not shortening his rotation:
Monty on finding opportunities for all of the new players: “It’s too many, you’re talking about playing 11-12 guys. I can’t unless it’s a special situation. We’ll see how it goes tonight.” Said they had a good practice yesterday to help players get acclimated.
— Omari Sankofa II (@omarisankofa) February 14, 2024
I wrote about how some of the roles could shift with so many new players on board, as the Pistons do want to see what they have in these guys, including James Wiseman, whose contract expires at the end of the season.
But this looked more like a preseason game than one Monty Williams was trying to win, continuing his baffling coaching choices this season.
The Detroit Pistons rotation is out of control
Ok, I get that it was a blowout.
I get that they have new players they want to try and that guys like Mike Muscala are known commodities at this point.
I get that Marcus Sasser had a poor shooting night (right after I wrote about how great his shooting has been of course).
But please tell me why Evan Fournier, who will not be on the team next season, played the most bench minutes. Please tell me why Muscala, who has given the team a lift, played five minutes.
Please tell me why Monty emptied his bench using TEN players in the 1st quarter before the game was out of hand, or why he didn't bring his starters back late into the game. James Wiseman did some nice things last night (also plenty of Wiseman things) but is he going to be on the team next season? How far is this experiment going to go?
Monty Williams used 12 players after saying "I can't," which has happened roughly 800 times this season. Why even say it if you aren't going to follow through? Win or lose, fans want to see the five who started play max minutes together to see what they have in Fontecchio with their core guys.
We are now 53 games into the season and still don't have defined roles for the bench players and still don't know who will be playing from night to night while other teams have long honed their rotations into 9-10 guys who know what they are going to do every night and who with.
It's frustrating, to say the least.
If you read this space enough, you know I don't often go in on the coaches, as they know more than me, have access to the players and may be under some directives from the front office that we are not aware of, but Monty Williams has been a complete enigma this season and I sometimes wonder if he's even trying to win.
The one good thing we saw last night was that the Pistons again scored a lot of fast break points, racking up 22 after getting 28 in their first game after the trade deadline.
They are playing faster, which is a good thing and it only took coach Williams more than half the season to figure out that a young, athletic team should play an up-tempo style.
The Pistons play again tonight and I half expect Monty Williams to pull a few people out of the crowd to throw into the rotation.