On Tuesday night, the Detroit Pistons made history as they lost their 27th consecutive game. As they’ve fallen to 2-28 they have built a cushion as potentially the worst team in NBA history.
To put it into context: The 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats won 10.6% of their games, netting out to 7-59 record in a lockout-shortened season. The 1972-73 Philadelphia Sixers won an even 11%, setting the standard over a typical 82-game slate at 9-73. The Pistons, with a 6.6% win rate, are pacing to go 5-77. It remains to be seen if a team in modern history can be that bad for the entirety of a season, the Pistons haven’t given us any chance to believe otherwise.
The Pistons have been bad at every facet of basketball this season. The only positive has been Cade Cunningham and the potential of receiving a top draft pick. Though, they’ve had plenty of those over the years. The decline has been long and slow and even then they aren’t far off from being a marquee team in the 2000s. Cunningham has at least been able to keep the team watchable scoring 23 points and dishing out seven assists a night.
Very little has gone right in the early part of the season for the Pistons. They are 28th of 30 teams in offensive efficiency, scoring 107.8 points per 100 possessions. They are 26th in defense, allowing 119. So while there are worse teams at both, the Pistons aren’t helping themselves by being good at one or the other. The Spurs have been worse than the Pistons this season, but they have also won more games with wunderkind Victor Wembanyama. In a game that has come down to a five-point game in the final minutes, the Pistons are 1-12. That’s the worst mark not only this year but any year in recent history.
Part of the problem for the Pistons has been the amount of time that other marquee players have missed. The 2022 first-round pick Jalen Duren, who has been promising at center has missed half the season due to injury. Bojan Bogdanovic, who leads the team in scoring, has only played in 11 of the 30 games. Both Alec Burks and Joe Harris have missed time as well.
The Pistons are the second-youngest team in the NBA with an average age of 23.4. With a mixture of youth and inexperience with the injuries and bad play in clutch moments, it’s a recipe for disaster. To most fans, Monty Williams may be the cause of the disaster in Detroit. He has not been able to fit the pieces together and reportedly has not gotten along with the talented young Jaden Ivey. After the Pistons gave Williams that big contract this offseason, he was supposed to bring some structure and creativity. Just like Dwane Casey did, Williams has been struggling with the consequences of poor roster-building from the executives.
The head coach, Williams, will likely be given some time to right the wrongs that have happened so far. Of course, anything better than the dreadful start will be a positive.
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