Pistons, Spurs top hopeful but questionable rankings

The Detroit Pistons have been rebuilding for half a decade and if you asked fans how it was going, you’d likely get mixed reviews. 

After finishing with the worst record in team history last season, it would appear the rebuild is not going well, but you can blame some of that on injuries and that Troy Weaver never bothered to try and put an actual team around his young core. 

The Pistons undoubtedly have some promising talent in Cade Cunnigham, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland II, but all of them are unproven question marks that this point. 

Cunningham is Detroit’s safest bet for stardom, but I’m not buying it until I see him play a full season on a competitive team. The rest of those guys have shown flashes but their linear development toward stardom is not a given. 

That’s why it was surprising to see where Detroit landed in Bleacher Report’s recent rankings of the NBA rebuilds. 

Detroit Pistons: Top-2 among the rebuilds 

The list started with the honorable mention teams, aka the “no man’s land” squads who are somewhere between competing and bottoming out. I wouldn’t even agree that all of these teams are rebuilds, but B/R named the Jazz, Bulls, Raptors and Hornets in their honorable mention category. 

No one knows what the Bulls, Jazz and Raptors are doing, as all three have just enough talent not to be tankers but not enough to compete for the playoffs. 

The Hornets are pretty much in the same spot as the Pistons with a bunch of young, injury-prone talent that has yet to prove itself. 

I would also argue with some of the teams in the top-5: 

5. Brooklyn Nets 

4. Washington Wizards 

3. Portland Trail Blazers 

2. Detroit Pistons 

1. San Antonio Spurs 

The only team that is definitely in the proper spot is the San Antonio Spurs, who would be there on Victor Wembanyama alone. But he’s not alone, as they also have Stephon Castle, Jeremy Sochan and Malaki Branham on rookie deals with younger veterans like Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson and Zach Collins locked into reasonable contracts. 

They also have a ton of future draft picks, so the Spurs are set up to be a powerhouse in the next few seasons. 

The rest of the list is suspect, as the Wizards absolutely stink and had arguably the most confusing offseason of any team in the NBA. Aside from boom/bust prospects Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly and Bub Carrington, the Wizards don’t have much to be excited about. 

Their roster is still populated mostly by mediocre to bad veterans like Jordan Poole, Richaun Holmes and Marvin Bagley III. They also traded Deni Avdija and signed Jonas Valanciunas for some reason. You’d need the guy from A Beautiful Mind to figure out what this team is doing. 

The Nets will be bad but that is the point. I’d put them ahead of the Wizards, as at least they seem to have some kind of plan. 

The Trail Blazers also have unproven young talent and their rebuild will depend on whether Scoot Henderson turns out to be good. Donovan Clingan seems like a can’t-miss prospect but the rest of their young talent is suspect. 

The same exact things could be said about the Pistons, though Cade Cunningham has at least proven he can put up numbers. He looks the part of a star, unlike anyone on the Trail Blazers, but the rest of the Pistons’ cast would fall into that “unproven hope” category. 

It’s surprising to see the Pistons finally get some kind of love, but four out of the five teams on this list are operating on a hope and a prayer that their young players eventually turn into stars.