The Detroit Pistons were eviscerated by a glorified G-League team in San Antonio for a fitting end to the worst season the team has ever had.
The Spurs were missing most of the top scorers, but still managed to shoot 62 percent on a Pistons team that put up little resistance.
This game couldn't have been much more meaningless, but it was disappointing to see the guys who were in there lay down without a fight, especially considering most of them are playing for future roles or jobs. The Pistons were down 63-40 at half to a team missing even more players than they were.
But they were just the sacrificial lambs in a season that has been over since way back in 2023.
Now the team will turn to identifying if there is anything from this mess worth salvaging and will start the challenging work of fixing a franchise in disarray.
Were the Detroit Pistons laying foundations or digging graves?
After the game, head coach Monty Williams, who has taken plenty of blame for the season, had this to say about his struggling team:
“In my opinion, we have dug the trenches for the foundation,” Detroit coach Monty Williams said. “This summer, we’ve got to pour the cement and see whose fingerprints are going to be in it.”
Uh, ok. Clumsy metaphors aside, what exactly did the Pistons accomplish this season? Also, what?
So in this construction metaphor, the Pistons haven’t even poured the foundation for the building? Actually, that sounds about right.
Let’s just stay with this metaphor, shall we? If you were four years into building a house and your contractor said, “yep, almost have the trenches dug for the foundation.” Your response would be, “it took you four years to dig a hole?”
But that’s where the Pistons are, as they only have a couple of pieces, a bunch of question marks, no roles or continuity and at least half a roster that will be turned over this summer. Are we sure those were trenches and not graves?
“Sweeping change” coming for the Detroit Pistons
James Edwards III of The Athletic (Subscription) recently wrote about the “sweeping changes” that Tom Gores is considering. First off, if you’re not subscribing to James, you should. Contrary to what some people believe, the Pistons have great beat writers who did an excellent job navigating a tough season.
The changes he mentioned included potentially hiring a head of basketball operations who would have the final say on everything and the ability to hire and fire as they saw fit.
I’ll have more to say about this as details emerge, but my initial reaction is that this is Tom Gores trying to fire people without actually having to fire them. My second reaction is that the last thing this team needs is another cook in the kitchen, as part of the problem in this organization is that there is no clear hierarchy with a lot of voices and opinions chiming in. Adding another layer of bureaucracy is not going to help this issue and just adds another middleman between the front office and the ultimate decision maker, which is Tom Gores.
This doesn’t sound like the kind of sweeping changes fans are hoping for and could just complicate a disorderly front office even more.