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This Pistons are challenging the record for NBA futility.
The Detroit Pistons lost again on Wednesday night, this time by 18 points to the Philadelphia 76ers on a night where Joel Embiid dropped 41. Losing has become all too common for the Pistons, but with each loss they’re mixing the cement to make their case as the worst team in the history of the NBA.
Right now Detroit is 2-22 on the season, on pace for 6.8 wins. There’s a very real chance this Pistons group could become the lowest in the history of the NBA, eclipsing the mediocrity of the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, who finished 7-59 in a lockout-shortened season. The only team to ever win less than 10 games in a full 82-game schedule is the 1973 76ers, who finished with nine wins. The Pistons already have some catching up to do.
At the same point in that abhorrent Bobcats season the team was 3-21, narrowly edging out the 23-24 Pistons — who haven’t managed to win a game since before Halloween on Oct. 28. The next milestone for Detroit could come on Dec. 30 against the Raptors. This is when the Pistons could reach the mark for the longest losing steak in NBA history, currently held by the 14-15 AND 15-16 “Trust the Process” 76ers at 28 games. Right now the Pistons are at 21.
Part of this is due to injuries. Bojan Bogdanović, Joe Harris and Monte Morris — three locker rooms leaders have all missed significant time, but even accounting for their absences this team is a mess. Why are the Pistons team so bad? It’s a confluence of horrific factors.
The team has no shooters
The modern NBA is predicated on the need to have perimeter scoring, and Detroit is beyond awful in this regard. Cade Cunningham has never been a shooter, but that’s especially reared its head this season where he’s 32.4 beyond the arc. Cunningham continues to shoot volume, but without much success to back it up.
A big part of this is the lack of Bojan Bogdanović, who has missed much of the season due to injury. Still, the team is 28th in the NBA in three-point attempts, and 29th in three-point percentage. It’s almost impossible to win that way in the modern NBA.
This team really can’t shoot from, well, anywhere. According to Cleaning The Glass they rank no higher than 20th in any one area, and even their best is mid range jumpers — which is less than ideal.
The team has no perimeter defense
This is the other side of the coin to their lack of shooting. Nobody in the NBA respects the Pistons’ ability to cover outside shooting, with opposing teams being second in the NBA in threes attempted.
Part of this comes back to Cunningham, again. One of the knocks on him as the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft was that he was a strong defender in isolation, but struggled with off-ball movement. The hope was that he’d get better in this regard, but he’s managed to get worse.
As a result the team is now 25th in defensive rating, while also being 29th in the NBA in fouls. They send opponents to the line so much that when paired with their poor offense it’s all a mess. The bright spot here is that Ausar Thompson is shaping up to be an incredible defender, even if his offensive game is still a work in progress.
The team is horribly coached
Monty Williams is coaching like a man who’s just over it all. I mentioned the decision to play Hayes over Ivey, but the issues go deeper than that. Williams has struggled to find a way to piece together his young roster in a way that finds a successful rotation.
Sorry to keep beating this drum, but he’s more or less painted into a corner by Cade Cunningham. A ball-dominant guard who’s near top of the league in 2PA, Cunningham isn’t converting at an efficient rate. Williams can’t afford to change Cunningham’s usage, because the team doesn’t have a better scoring option right now now — and keeping him on the floor is slowly killing the Pistons due to his inefficiency.
As constructed it’s impossible to see how this team can put together a successful roster that can compete in the NBA. The return of Bogdanović helps their spacing, and will make ultimately make them better — but is that enough to become a winner? Probably not.
Will the Pistons finish the worst of all time?
Despite the myriad issues it’s tough to imagine this team is truly the worst team the NBA has ever seen. Those 2011-12 Bobcats were impossibly bad in every phase of the game — while the current Pistons are bad at just most of them.
That said, Detroit isn’t prepared to hang in the modern NBA. They desperately need shooting, and if they want to put a roster together they’ll need to convert some of their young prospective talent into veteran leadership — something lacking right now. There’s nobody to get this team pulling in the same direction, especially with Monty Williams coaching like he’s checked out.
Keep watching though, because in a few months we really could be looking at the worst team ever if nothing changes.
