The Pistons Are the NBA’s Slowest Sinking Ship

Detroit is desperately searching for answers amid a demoralizing run.

For a minute there, or a shade under four to be exact, when Isaiah Stewart knocked down an open three and Ausar Thompson slammed home a dunk, the Pistons had life. Then Taurean Prince canned a three that gave the Lakers a lead, Anthony Davis slipped in a couple of layups and Detroit was on its way to finishing on the wrong end of another double-digit laugher.

Need a quick fix? Try Detroit. The Pistons are the NBA’s palate cleanser. Having a tough stretch, like the woebegone Wizards? Play the Pistons. Need a course correction after a 44-point blowout loss, like the Lakers? Play the Pistons. The Washington Generals could bus into Detroit these days and win. A prime Red Klotz could probably drop 30.

The Pistons have lost 15 consecutive games, a franchise record in-season losing streak :: Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports

We don’t write about the Pistons much in this space. For good reason. Detroit has missed the playoffs in each of the last four seasons. They have not advanced past the first round in 15. They are not just bad. They are irrelevant, even in their own market. Before Wednesday’s game against L.A. I popped onto the (digital) sports pages of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, the city’s largest dailies. There’s fine work done there by Mike Curtis and Omari Sankofa. You just can’t find it. The first Pistons story I found in the Free Press—nine stories down—was about how to “watch LeBron James and the Lakers.” The News’ first piece was how Detroit’s most recent defeat impacted in-season tournament scheduling.

But this isn’t just bad. It’s embarrassing. The Pistons went 2–1 to start the season. They are 0–15 since, the longest single-season losing streak in franchise history. They have not won a game since October. In the last five, Detroit has given up an average of 129 points. The Wizards, who entered Monday night’s tankfest with an identical 2–14 record, clobbered Detroit by 19. Afterward coach Monty Williams, stating the obvious, said, “That wasn’t fight on the floor.”

Not much Wednesday, either. The Lakers led by 14 after one quarter, 17 after two and 25 at the end of the third quarter when Darvin Ham stepped off the gas. D’Angelo Russell, a 47% shooter, made 11 of his first 13 shots. “The resistance in the pick-and-roll … just wasn’t there,” said Williams. Anthony Davis had 28 points in 29 minutes. At halftime, James Worthy, amazingly, kept a straight face when he praised the Lakers’ play against “the young and hungry” Detroit. In the third, L.A.’s broadcast team branded the Pistons “the turnover machine that is Detroit” and openly wondered when the Lakers, with a game Thursday in Oklahoma City, would yank the starters out.

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“I think this group struggles with adversity,” said Williams, adding, “Any time we run up against some adversity to start the game, you can just see the countenance, the spirit of the team start to diminish.”

But how? The result of being bad for so many years is supposed to be that you get better. The Pistons, incredibly, are getting worse. Sure there are injuries—Bojan Bogdanović and Monte Morris have yet to play this season—and veterans (hello, Houston) are important. But if you really need Bogdanović and Morris to beat the Blazers, Bulls and Wizards, your problems run deeper.

And Detroit’s do. The Pistons’ draft picks in recent years simply haven’t panned out. Sekou Doumbouya lasted two seasons in Detroit. Killian Hayes’s fourth season with the Pistons will likely be his last. Jaden Ivey looked like a player last season—and still might be—but Ivey has struggled to find a foothold in Williams’s rotation.

Then there is Cade Cunningham. The top pick in 2021, he is a lightning rod for criticism. Cunningham is fine. He’s a decent scorer and an above-average playmaker. But he can’t shoot and doesn’t defend. Redraft that ’21 class today—where would Cunningham go? After Evan Mobley, definitely. Scottie Barnes, Franz Wagner and Alperen Şengün, probably. Throw Jalen Green into that mix.

You can play that game with all of Detroit’s picks. Instead of two years of Doumbouya, how about Matisse Thybulle, Brandon Clarke or Grant Williams? Hayes or Devin Vassell or Tyrese Haliburton? Ivey or Shaedon Sharpe? It’s not exactly that simple. But it kind of is.

Maybe the Pistons will turn it around. Williams, whom ownership lavished a six-year, $78.5 million contract on last summer, is a good coach. Cunningham, Ivey, Stewart and Jalen Duren are good players. Thompson, Detroit’s top pick last June, is already one of the NBA’s better defenders. Maybe Bogdanović’s and Morris’s returns will spark a second-half resurgence.

“We still have belief,” said Stewart. “The belief ain’t go anywhere. It’s still there.”

Could happen. Stranger things have, I guess. But for now the Pistons look like the Titanic, the NBA’s slowest sinking ship. And a spiritless one. On Wednesday, Williams said he feels like he is “coaching guys that are looking for answers they wanted. And it’s my job to help them.” Detroit better find those answers. Quickly. Before this season looks like the last.