How did the Pistons get here? And where do they go next? (2024)

To explain how the Detroit Pistons got to this point — an NBA-record-tying 28 straight losses — fingers can be pointed in every direction, starting now and going back 15 years. Figuring out where Detroit goes next? Well, that’s a little bit harder to pinpoint.

The Pistons still have Cade Cunningham, who has really started to show star-level potential over the back half of this all-time skid. Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson and Jaden Ivey still have high upside. Detroit has flexibility with its finances going forward.

It feels, right now, like there’s nowhere for the Pistons to go. But in theory, there’s a way to get out of this mess.

To get a different view on the Pistons, I’ve brought in my colleague Sam Vecenie to offer a big-picture/prospect perspective on why the Pistons got to where they are, how the future is perceived and what should happen next.

Enjoy.

From your point of view, what is the biggest reason the Pistons are so bad? Also, rank the blame: players, coaching and management.

Vecenie: There are too many reasons to count, but mostly, I blame mismanagement by the front office and coaching staff. I’d rank front office as clearly most at fault, coaching in second, then the players.

General manager Troy Weaver has not made any moves I would consider truly catastrophic, but he hasn’t made many positive ones. Cunningham was the easy pick at No. 1 in 2021. Beyond that, it’s hard to say much has gone particularly positively. The Duren pick looks solid, and I’m still a believer in Ivey, but anything outside of the draft has been a calamity, and the draft hasn’t been perfect, either.

It’s a death-by-a-thousand-papercuts situation. Trading a highly protected first-round pick for Isaiah Stewart isn’t a horrendous deal value-wise, but it’s crippled the team’s long-term trade flexibility for a guy I think is best suited on a good team to be a great third big man. Trading Saddiq Bey for James Wiseman isn’t going to crush the franchise, but it’s illogically moving a legitimate NBA rotation player for a non-rotation player with the same amount of term on his contract. Using cap space on Joe Harris’ expiring deal and only getting two second-rounders (ones who are four years away from transferring and more than likely to be picks in the 40s or 50s) isn’t a disaster, but it’s not great management.

The end result this season is a roster that just doesn’t have enough legitimate NBA rotation players who can make a positive impact. You can certainly point out that the Pistons have been unlucky with injuries to Bojan Bogdanović and Monté Morris, and even the Alec Burks injury seems to have taken a toll given his performance since he returned. But every team has injury issues. The Chicago Bulls are missing Zach LaVine and have figured it out. Lauri Markkanen has missed 10 games, and the Utah Jazz have figured it out. Those teams are just run-of-the-mill bad because they have enough NBA-caliber players to make up for it. The Pistons did not build that depth, and they’re exceptionally young because of it.

In today’s NBA, which is deeper than ever, it’s extremely difficult to field a roster of mostly kids and expect success. Even teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder have veteran starter-quality guys (or better) like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort and Kenrich Williams. The Pistons have Bogdanović — and that’s it among its older group who can play at that level.

But let’s not absolve Monty Williams and company. The team’s lineup decisions and rotational alignments have been staggeringly poor. Williams has persisted with surrounding Cunningham with the worst offensive starting lineup I’ve seen in a long time. Playing Cunningham, a pick-and-roll maestro who is elite at finding kick-outs to open 3s, next to Killian Hayes, Thompson, Stewart and a non-shooting big is malpractice. Hayes and Thompson do not get guarded beyond the 3-point line, and the center position has given the Pistons no shooting. And while Stewart’s continued improvement as a shooter is commendable, he’s also not someone opposing teams are worried about out there. Opponents are happy to let him shoot, and he doesn’t have the ball skills or passing ability to hurt teams in another way off potential drives.

Williams’ rotations also are wild. He consistently utilizes all-bench units when, again, the Pistons are a team that does not have an immense amount of depth. It’s bonkers. The Pistons get run off the floor when these units enter the game. They can’t score because they don’t have consistent shot creators beyond Cunningham, Bogdanović and, at times, Ivey. They also can’t get stops when Wiseman is in, and he’s played an average of 18 minutes per game while appearing in nine of the team’s last 10 games entering Thursday.

I get that Williams is playing with a tough deck of cards, but I don’t think I’ve seen a coach more actively harmful to his team’s win-loss record so far this season. It’s catastrophic.

If you notice, I didn’t really place much blame at the feet of the players, and that’s because I don’t really see a ton to go there. Those guys are going out and trying to compete. They just aren’t being equipped in today’s NBA with much of a chance.

Maybe I’m too close to the situation, but I think Detroit is just a few NBA-level role players away from winning more often than once every two months? Am I crazy?

I think they’d definitely win more games with some veteran NBA-level role players. The Pistons particularly need more size.

The center position is a significant issue on defense. Duren has been in and out of the lineup, but he still has a ways to go on that end in terms of his positioning in ball screens. There has been improvement, which is a great sign long-term, but he’s still 20 years old and learning on the fly. It’s going to take time. The minutes with the 6-foot-8 Stewart at the five have not gone well, as teams have shot extremely well in the paint due to his lack of size.

Marvin Bagley III has given effort and had his moments, but he’s not an impediment at the rim. Behind Bagley, Wiseman is unplayable on defense. His positioning is incredibly poor, and he consistently gets caught in no-man’s land on ball screens. On top of it, he’ll chase blocks unnecessarily in situations that don’t require help and give up offensive rebounds. The team gives up more than 127 points per 100 possessions when either Wiseman or Bagley are on the court at the five as the lone big, per PBPStats, a seemingly high number that somehow exists over nearly 500 minutes of Pistons basketball this season.

I know the Stewart minutes haven’t been great as the backup five on defense, but he gives the backups way more juice there than Bagley and Wiseman. If I were Williams, I’d stagger minutes so that one of Duren or Stewart is on the court for nearly every second of the game.

Beyond that, finding a modern two-way, hybrid three/four wing would really help. Forget the names like OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam and Tobias Harris that Shams Charania brought up on Wednesday; even someone like Torrey Craig, who can take tough perimeter matchups and hit open 3s, would be really useful off the bench. I agree with what is seemingly the team’s strategy moving forward — that this is the spot of emphasis. At some point, Duren will fill the center role. That’s fine. But I don’t see a great answer for this two-way wing role on the roster.

You (and I) were both big Cade Cunningham fans during the draft process, and I still believe he has All-NBA upside. Has your view/outlook changed on him at all?

I see no reason to be worried about Cunningham. The people who are melting down about him are only looking at the stats from the early portion of the season, when Williams was running out lineups that would look more applicable in the 1990s, when basketball was essentially played in a phone booth.

Since Bogdanović returned and the Pistons have been able to put out a semblance of a real starting lineup with actual space around Cunningham, he’s been unbelievable. In those 11 games entering Thursday, Cunningham averaged 24.3 points, 7.0 assists and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field, 31 percent from 3 and 85 percent from the line. He’s getting to the foul line more often because driving lanes are wider, allowing him to get better penetration. Over his last 16 games entering Thursday, he had a 58.6 true shooting percentage, which would be slightly above league average. And on top of that, the turnovers are down, with Cunningham averaging just 2.9 turnovers in those 11 games with Bogdanović, a marked improvement.

Because ballhandlers aren’t quite as able to crowd the ball and try to strip him, Cunningham has been able to utilize his patience and poise in the midrange more effectively. In addition to shooting, he’s getting all the way to the rim more often. Eventually, I think the 3-point shot will come around, and he’ll be a consistent three-level scorer who is also dictating plays as a passer and playmaker. And again, this is just by allowing him to play more minutes with Ivey instead of Hayes and inserting one real shooter into the lineup in Bogdanović. Imagine if you actually put two shooters whom teams worried about next to Cunningham. Or maybe even — and I know this is crazy — three.

I’m with you and still believe Cunningham has All-NBA upside. I don’t think it’s a certainty, and it’s possible he might end up more in that top-25 player mold instead. But I feel good about him being a legitimate long-term All-Star as long as he stays healthy. The only thing that has made me question that this season has been his defense. He’s been a real part of Detroit’s issues on that end, struggling to contain and fight through screens. I think it’s reasonable to blame part of this on his offensive role, which is enormous and effort-taxing. But for Cunningham to be what we think he will be long-term, real defensive improvement is needed.

Lastly, are you as intrigued by the Pistons’ future as you once were? The core young pieces are Cunningham, Duren, Thompson and Ivey. They project to have a significant amount of cap space next summer. They don’t really have any assets to trade, though, and everything I’ve heard and continue to hear is that there are no plans to trade Bogdanović unless Detroit gets an offer it can’t refuse. The Pistons want to be good and don’t want to trade good players, even if Bogdanović’s role is reduced to a bench scorer next season.

I think I’ve always had more questions than you have about how this core fits. When the team selected Thompson, I wrote this: “I am worried the three most important players the Pistons have surrounded Cunningham with — Ivey, Thompson and Jalen Duren — aren’t exactly shooters. Ivey … showcased improvement this past season but still isn’t a player opposing teams will close out on heavily. Thompson … still has a long way to go. Duren is a non-shooter. … The best way to get the most out of Cunningham is to surround him with shooters. The picks of Ivey and Thompson are big bets in the team’s developmental staff.”

I like all of these players individually in some way. Duren works as a big next to Cunningham who can be a lob threat and offensive rebounder as long as the screening comes along and gets better. That should happen, and he should be able to continue to add to some of the passing ability we have seen at times. But I didn’t love the Thompson pick, and I think I’ve been a bit less impressed with his rookie season than most. He’s been a significant hindrance on offense because he’s both turnover prone and a complete non-shooter. I think the road toward him being an average shooter for a wing in today’s NBA is going to be pretty tough. He brings enough other skills to the table to where he can still be a positive, impactful player. But does that player type fit with Cunningham? I’m not sure.

The Ivey fit is fascinating because I love him as a player and think he’s improved this season despite his playing time being yanked around by Williams. Even with some shooting struggles from distance, he’s been way more efficient because he’s been able to slow down and continue to not operate at a million miles per hour as he did in the first half of his rookie season. He’s a menace in transition and has shown some impressive moments isolating and scoring on defenders. But the Cunningham-Ivey combination in the backcourt has been an issue on defense. They just give up a ton of penetration and aren’t awesome at getting around ball screens in recovery.

If Ivey and Cunningham are going to play together long-term, Ivey needs to prove he can consistently shoot, and they both need to improve on defense. I think they both have the capacity to do those things, but it’s going to take work and effort.

In terms of being sellers at the Feb. 8 trade deadline, I think the Pistons should survey the market and see what’s available. Bogdanović projects to be one of the more valuable players who could be available because of his capability as a scorer and his contract. He is guaranteed for this season, then has a small partial guarantee for next season at an eminently reasonable cost. I think the way you said it is right: I wouldn’t give away Bogdanović. Forget being good; that’s out the window this season. The important thing is that Bogdanović’s presence helps to facilitate the growth of the younger guys on the team. Having a legitimate offensive threat and an elite shooter makes everyone better out there, even if the wins and losses don’t show it.

That’s ultimately what you’re weighing here. Bogdanović turns 35 in April and isn’t going to be on the next Pistons contender. I don’t know that he’d quite get two legitimate firsts, but I think he’d get a first and something in a deal. However, he might help develop the guys who could be on the next contender.

If you’re moving Bogdanović, it either needs to be for an enormous haul, or you need to find someone who can help with development in addition to getting back pick capital. At the end of the day, you still can move him this offseason after making your choices in free agency.

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(Top photo: Cole Burston / Getty Images)