2012-2013 preview: Detroit Pistons

Eastern Conference #11: Detroit Pistons (34-48)

Point Guard: Brandon Knight, Will Bynum.
Shooting Guard: Rodney Stuckey, Kim English.
Small Forward: Tayshaun Prince, Corey Maggette, Austin Daye, Kyle Singler.
Power Forward: Jonas Jerebko, Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiell, Khris Middleton.
Center: Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond, Slava Kravtsov.

Help us Greg Monroe. You are our only hope.

It feels like this Pistons team should get better, but I can't see it happening. Their top three players are Greg Monroe, Tayshaun Prince, and Rodney Stuckey. Monroe is a budding star, and is the shining star on this Pistons team. He averaged 15.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 52% shooting in 31.5 minutes in his sophomore season, and there's no reason to think he won't get better and average a double double this season. Other than him, the Pistons are stuck with a bunch of starters who should really be bench players. Tayshuan Prince, Rodney Stuckey, and Brandon Knight aren't necessarily bad players, but they're not guys who you want to depend on for a good portion of your points every night. Detroit finished 27th last season in points scored, averaging 90.7 points per game and allowed 95.7 points per game.

They've got Andre Drummond joining them, and he should be a good backup for Monroe. He averaged about 10 points and 8 rebounds for Conneticut in college, but doesn't seem like he'll be a star in the league. As long as he can play good defense and score effectively when he needs to, which shouldn't be often, he should be what the Pistons need.
Detroit's problem is that they aren't quite bad enough to get a great lottery pick, but their collective talent is just good enough to finish in the middle of the draft instead of closer to the lottery which is what they need. Having Tayshaun Prince as your second best player will never get you anywhere good, and what Detroit needs to do is rebuild their whole roster instead of getting one or maybe two decent draft picks every year. So what do you do as a GM when you're in that position? Do you continue to let your guys play and hope for the best? Or do you throw away a couple seasons and tank for lottery picks while potentially driving away fans? Or do you try and trade a couple of your starters and draft picks for a big name guy? They can't do the third option unless they want to skyrocket into astronomical luxury tax territory. They're $9 million over the salary cap already (Step 1: Amnesty Corey Maggette!), and won't be able to lose money while gaining a big name. They've been trying with the first option, and it hasn't been working except for getting Monroe. So the big question for Detroit's front office is: Do you continue to roll along at mediocrity, not making the playoffs or getting lottery picks, and hope for a stroke of luck, or do you throw in the towel, aim for the playoffs in five or so years, tank, and rebuild? It's a hard decision and unfortunately fans will likely be disappointed with either decision, except for the few fans who can look at the long-term and see what the plan is.

         Still, I can't help but feel like this Pistons team has the potential to slip into the postseason. I'm not sure why though... they finished 25-41 and 10 games out of the 8th seed. I have them finishing 11th, but they could finish 8th if Milwaukee has problems and Chicago completely falls apart without Rose. If we can agree that Chicago and Orlando won't make the playoffs again, that leaves two playoff spots up to grab. The consensus seems the the Nets will get one, so who gets the other? To me it's a three way fight between Milwaukee, Toronto, and Detroit with Milwaukee as the favorite.



Maybe Drummond will turn out to be a stud and him and Monroe can dominate the post. Maybe Stuckey or Prince will have a career season. Maybe Brandon Knight will show some serious improvement in his sophomore year. Maybe they catch a stroke of luck or two. The playoffs are just out of reach... but so is a great lottery pick.