The Detroit Pistons

Well, the NBA playoffs are underway.  Guess who's not there.  Sigh.  It's not always easy being a basketball (or sports in general) fan in Michigan.

Let's go back to last season.  After several years of mediocrity, the Pistons made the playoffs.  They drew the powerful Cleveland Cavaliers in the first rounbd, led by the mighty Lebron James.  While the Pistons had no chance to win, they went down swinging, getting swept in four highly competitive games.  Yes, they lost, but us hungry fans appreciated the effort and proudly called ourselves fans.  We had a team of young up-and-comers, led by a beast of a center in Andre Drummond and an electrifying point guard in Reggie Jackson.

Returning to this season, we were optimistic, even though Jackson was down for roughly twenty to thirty games.  All they had to do was had to do was stay around they .500 mark and they'd have a chance.  And guess what.  Somehow, some way, they did it.  When Jackson came back, the Pistons we're a little over .500, so things could only go up.  Right?

No.  In fact, that when the season started swirling down the toilet.  Yes, fans knew there would be an adjustment period, but things went horrible.  It seemed the season was lost.

Then, out of nowehre, the Pistons got hot started winning games.  The season was saved.  They looked like they would recover and finish as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.  Hooray!  Detroit basketball was back.

But then (you knew it was coming) when the final 15 games of the season rolled around they unexplicably started losing games.  They weren't losing to elite teams either, but to garbage teams such as the Orlanda Magic, the New York Knicks, and the embarassingly bad Brooklyn Nets, among other sad teams.  The season was over for them in those last 15 games.  Even the coach couldn't explain such an epic collapse.  WTF Pistons?

A lot of people have theories as to what went wrong this season.  Maybe the shooting guard shoots to much.  Maybe Jackson wasn't healthy.  Maybe Drummond is an overpaid, heartless pushover.  Maybe the coach doesn't know what he's doing.  All these things and more were tossed around like monkey dung.  The one thing nobody was afraid to say is that the team as a whole is immature, lacks discipline, and (most importantly) just isn't very good.

So how can they right the ship?  This writer is a fan of Drummond, Jackson and various other Piston players that weren't mentioned, but perhaps one of them needs to be traded even though this writer would hate to see them go.  Perhaps Henry Ellenson and Michael Gbinjie (both good players who bring a lot to the table) could play more.  Some have suggested a coaching change.  Whatever they do, this writer will be watching and listening, because even though they are bad, he's still a Piston fan first and foremost.

Unitil next time...