OT:Don't look now, but the Pistons are HOT
So after spotting the Timberpups a 13-point lead after one tonight, Detroit outscored them by 30 the rest of the way.
They are 9-2, best record in the league the past month. Jettisoning Stanley Johnson and giving Luke Kennard his minutes, along with having TWO healthy point guards , has done wonders for this team's offensive efficiency.
They are now the sixth seed, above .500, and likely facing a very winnable first-round matchup with the Victor Oladipo-less Pacers.
There may yet be some excitement this spring at Dough Louis Arena!
This team is amazingly fun to watch. Most fun ive had watching the Pistons since the early 2000s championship squad
Luke Kennard is my new fetish
No one is hotter right now than Hansel.
You won't believe what Gretel looks like now!
They're definitely fun to watch right now! Realistically they have no shot at a championship with this roster/core, but given what DEEEEEEE-TROIIIIIIIIT BAAAAAAASKET-BAAAAAAAAAL has looked like the past decade I'm fine with this.
They've got too much talent to tank, but not enough to win big (or at least not the right mix of talent positionally). If you view professional sports for what it should be, which is entertainment, there is nothing wrong with being a pretty good team which entertains fans and plays hard.
I agree, and that's all I ask of any of the teams I pay attention to. I'd love it they all won championships every year, but that's not realistic. I want my teams to play hard, be competitive or be working towards it, and do it 'the right way'.
All the Detroit and Michigan teams tend to fulfill those requirements most of the time.
Dough Louis Arena? Not bad. I have been calling it the Dough Joe.
This is great. I've just been calling it The Joe, for the same reason I still call the other places Stadium Arena, Tiger Stadium and the 'Dome, but Dough Joe is too good to pass up.
Can't wait to see The Oven heat up during the playoffs.
Not looking.
The team really took off once we picked up Ellington and Thon Maker, and got rid of Stanley Johnson bum @$$
They're so hot that they need more lubrication. Call in the Houston Oilers.
The Pistons seem to be, ultimately, stuck between a rock and a hard place with their current situation.
They're not good enough and deep enough to make any real playoff noise. Win a first round series? Yeah that's in the cards. But I think that's their ceiling right now. They've got one difference-maker in Griffin, and that's it. He's good enough to win you some games by himself and get you to the playoffs. But he's not carrying you to an NBA Finals by himself. Much less winning one. Not against the Golden State team that will inevitably be there waiting for whoever wins the East. He can't win a title with the supporting cast he currently has, and its my understanding that Detroit is in a really bad money situation right now where almost everything it has is tied up in current contracts, so there's not a lot of room for change on the immediate horizon. That's what I remember some folks saying would be a con for Beilein if he left to take the Pistons job.
On the flip side of the coin, Detroit isn't bad enough to get itself in position where it can draft a real difference-maker like Williamson, Barrett, etc. So they've got to hope that they strike gold with whoever they draft. So Detroit seems like its stuck in NBA purgatory right now.
They're playing really well but is this just going to leave them in the no man's land of the first round/middle NBA draft?
Tanking to get the #1 overall pick in the nba doesn’t necessarily lead to being an NBA champion contenders. In fact it’s quite the opposite. Since 2003 only 3 number 1 overall picks have won a championship.
Okay. I will continue not to look.
I'm very glad for the pistons. Now take those unholy advertisements off the uniforms, you whores who run the NBA.
Unfortunately, you know they're not only here to stay but will get bigger over time.
Thanks to this thread, I'm going to watch the Pistons tonight for the first time since.... not sure. Checked the standings and we are 3.5 games ahead of 9th place Orlando. The Pistons have 19 games left in the regular season (including tonight).