Pistons making Great comeback
The Pistons had one of the best two season comebacks in a while. They were the worst team in the league then became pretty good. But before saying too much let’s see how it started.
2023-2024 Draft/Before Season
Starting with the draft they got the 5th pick. They were supposed to get a higher pick around the top three but they fell to five. Senese they felt they wanted somebody at the forward position. The first pick was Wembanyama to the spurs which was obvious, then Hornets got Brandon Miller at two which is another forward. Scott Henderson got drafted at three to the Trailblazers. So their next pick was the Rockets and the thing about this is both the Rockets and Pistons are projected to get a Thompson twin. So the Rockets got Amen Thompson. So the Pistons get the other Thompson twin, Ausar Thompson. This is a pretty good draft pick for the Pistons, a good forward they can put in the starting lineup and try to improve this team for the better.
2023-2024 Season
The starting lineup into the year was Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart, and Jalen Duran. This was a very young team that can develop to be good. The start of the season was normal or good because they started at 2-1 with only three games played. As the next games go on, I would like to say they won some games. But they went on to tie the most losses in a row record to tie the record with the 76ers. They had 28 losses in a row. Fans wore paper bags at the game and wrote sell the team on it. Fans were devastated and amazed at how bad their team was. Even the star Cade Cunningham said “Where not 2-26 bad where better than this”. Later this season Cade Cunningham got hurt and that made the season even worse. The Pistons couldn’t even win games really, and ended the season 14-68. Not even having 20 plus or even 15 plus wins is outrageous.
2024-2025 Draft/Before Season
In free agency the Pistons got some good key role players. They got a good shooter, Malik Beasley, a great 3 point shooter. They also got another good role player in Tim Hardaway Jr in a trade and he is also a 3 point specialist. They also got a power forward Tobias Harris, interesting but good vet pickup and can still hoop. They also hired a new Head Coach to try to develop the players and team more and make it a good enbirmoent to play in. They got J.B. Bickerstaff which should be a good mentality for the players because people know he really cares about his players.
In the Draft they were projected to get the 1st pick for the lottery because they had the worst record in the league. When the lottery was going on people were thinking are the pistons gonna get bad luck, and go out the top three or are they gonna have good luck and be in the top three. The lottery is going on, and they got bad luck again and got the 5th pick not even in the top 3 is crazy. For having that bad of a record then getting not even a top three pick is pretty bad. They haven’t had the best draft luck in recent years. They needed some defensive help like a forward or back center position. With the 5th pick the Detroit Pistons selected Ron Holland Small/Power Foward position. This draft was interesting because there weren’t clear guys you wanted but still good players. That wraps up the offseason.
The Comeback Season 2024-2025
The NBA Season is about to officially start and the Pistions are ready to try to play Piston Basketball again. New players, new head coach, new everything. The Starting Lineup is Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, and Jalen Duren.
In the first 10 games of the season they started better than last and are 4-6. Still below 500 but better than last season. Another 10 games go by and they are 8-12. So they’re still going at the same pace right now. Every 10 games they have 6 loses and 4 wins. Advancing to the middle of the season the Pistons are 20-21 which is already more wins than last season which is good to see. Being only 1 game from 500 is pretty good. They’re in the play-in and playoffs range right now which is actually good. Going 10 games ahead they are 24-27. But then the next 7 games they win in a row the NBA is shocked how they are doing good. That makes them 31-27 but then they lose to the nuggets to end their streak. But then go on to win 3 games in a row making them 34-28. Pistons are surprising the league with how good they are doing and having an above average record. Fans, Teams, Players, and Analsyt are talking about them. The Pistons actually required Dennis Schroder from trade or got him in free agency and he has been an aggressive defender to this team. Going to the near end of the season the starting shooting guard Jaden Ivey got hurt and is gonna be out for a while. So Malik Beasley is gonna be the starting shooting guard for them. The end of the season their final record was 44-38 which is way better than last season, absolutely insane what they did this season. If you multiply their wins by 3 from last season that number is still below the wins the Pistons had this season.
Pistons are back in the Playoffs
The end of the season is here and the Pistons are back in the playoffs after many years. It’s been since 2019 6 years since they have been in the playoffs. They are finally back in Playoff basketball. The Nickname for this Pistons team this year was Bad Boy Pistons Part 2 which is pretty good because they got in some fights this year but also played super aggressively. The Pistons were the 6th seed so they are going up against the 3rd seed. That 3rd seed is the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks have way more Talent then the Pistons more stars but do they have more heart then the Pistons. Sense Knicks are the higher seed they have the first two games at home. The Knicks Arena Madison Square Garden has some of the most annoying loud fan bases out there so Detroit is gonna have to lock in to try to beat this team.
In Game 1 the whole game was pretty close but in the last 7 minutes of the game the Knicks were just hitting their shots and defending pretty well. The Pistons couldn’t hit a shot in the final minutes of the game at one point during that time they were 0/10 on FG% shots. So the Knicks came up with the win 123-112. The Knicks star Jalen Brunson had 34 points so couldn’t really do anything about that. The Pistons fought hard but couldnt win game 1.
Game 2 Pistons and Knicks were a pretty close game again this game got a bit physical but in the final moments Pistons came away with the win over the Knicks while the Knicks were at home. The score was 100-94 and the star player Cade Cunningham went off. 33 points and 12 rebounds. Even though Jalen Brunson had 37 points still couldn’t beat the Pistons tonight.
Game 3 was wild. The Pistons crowd was hyped but in the middle of the game it got physical again and some jabs were thrown. Nobody got thrown out but some techs. The game was super close at the end again these series are always coming down to the last second especially this game. The Pistons were down 114-108 but then there was a jump ball with 30 seconds left. Cade hit the ball drive for a layup then passed it to Duren for the dunk. Score is now 114-110. Pistons then foul knicks so they get free throws and it is 116-110. Cade hits the ball on a jump ball to Tim Hardaway, Tim shoots it with 8 seconds on the clock, shoots a 3 and he makes it 116-113. 5 seconds are on the clock and they foul the Knicks again they only make 1 free throw. The score is 117-113, they inbound it to Tobias Harris and he makes the 3 making it 117-116 with 1.5 seconds left on the clock. Pistons foul Knicks and Jalen Brunson makes the first free throw but misses second one on purpose and the Knicks won 118-116. KAT (Karl Anthony Towns) had 31 points and Jalen Brunson had 30. Hard to win a game when the other team has two players that scored 61 combined.
It is Game 4 and the Pistons last home game of the series they need to win this game to tie it back up and make it 2-2. And yet another game of the series where it is a close game again this series is filled with close games which is fun and exciting to watch. The score with 48 seconds left in the game is 93-91. The Pistons are winning. But KAT shoots a 3 pointer at 48 seconds and he drains it from 30 feet away. Score is now 94-93. That was actually the last bucket of the game and the Knicks won it 94-93 going up 3-1 in the series. Even though Cade Cunningham had 25/10/10 it wasn’t enough to beat the knicks. It is really hard to come back 3-1 but can the Pistons do it.
Game 5 back in Madison Square Garden in NYC. The New York Knicks have all the momentum in this series. One more win and they go to the next round. The Pistons need to lock in and try to do the impossible and win 3 games in a row to go to the next round of the playoffs. It is another close game. The score with 49 seconds left is 101-97. The Pistons are up. Cade Cunningham is trying to chew clock and with low time on the shot clock passes it to Ausar Thompson and he makes it over KAT for a layup going up 103-97, with 27 seconds left. On the inbound Jalen Brunson passes it to Mikal Bridges and Mikal Bridges on the moving three makes it 103-100 Pistons still winning with 25 seconds on the clock. Knicks struggled fouling the Pistons so Pistons chewed 9 seconds off the clock and Dennis Schroder only made 1 free throw. Making it 104-100. Knicks dribbled it up the court and OG Anouby scored a big 3 making it 104-103 with 5 seconds left in the game. The Knicks had to foul so Cade Cunningham got two free throws, both making those last buckets of the game. The Knicks couldn’t close it out at home. The Pistons needed this win and the series is now 3-2. The Star players for the Pistons in this game were Cade Cunningham which had 24/8/8 and Ausar Thompson had 22 points and 7 rebounds.
Game 6 is in Detroit and their fans are about to go crazy. And if you guessed it or thought of it, it was another close game. Going to the 4th quarter with 3:47 left the Pistons are up 110-105. Fast forwarding to 1:28 Pistons only scored 2 points then and knicks have scored 5 senses then. The Pistons are struggling to score but Jalen Brunson is not. Right now he has 37 points. With 1 minute and 19 seconds left the Pistons fouled KAT on an open drive so he got free throws. KAT made only 1 free throw, rebounded it and then lost it, which makes it 112-111 Pistons winning. The Pistons got it but then two players fell into eachother and the Pistons players lost it out of bounce to Knicks ball. Then with 1:05 on the clock Jalen Brunson tries to shoot a mid range to take the lead but Ausar Thompson playing tuff and physical defense blocks and steals it then Jalen Brunson loses it out of bounce. With 49 seconds on the clock Jalen Duren draws the foul to KAT so KAT is fouled out and out the rest of the game. So Jalen Duren is at the free throw line and misses the first one but makes the other one. Making the score 113-111 Pistons still winning. With 35 seconds left Mikal Bridges made a layup making it 113-113. Cade misses the layup to take the lead. Knicks have the ball with 20 seconds to go. The Knicks will have the last possession of the game or will try to have the last possession of the game. Jalen Brunson has the ball in his hand Ausar Thompson guarding him. Mikal Bridges screens for JB, JB (Jalen Brunson) then crosses up Ausar. Ausar gets lost and Jalen Brunson goes to shoot the 3 Ausar tries to have the best defense he could there but. Jalen Brunson silenced every Pistons fan in the arena because he hit the 3 and the score was 116-113. Pistons have one last chance to make a 3 tie it up and go to overtime, and they hace 4 seconds on the clock. Cade inbounded it to Tim Hardaway, Tim passed it back to Cade. Everybody is thinking Cade gets the last shot but no he passes it to Malik for the last shot and Malik drops it and goes out of bounce and that ends the series just like that. Knicks win and end the Pistons series. Jalen Brunson dropped 40 and beat them to send them home.
Reflecting over the Season and Looking at the Future for the Detroit Pistons
Sad way to end the season but had entertaining good basketball for that young good team’s first playoffs run. Pistons playoff basketball is back but they will get better. Reflecting and comparing the 2023-2024 season to now is crazy. They were the worst team in the league and had the most losses in a row. Now they made the playoffs building this core and making this team good again. Their future is pretty bright with Cade, Ausar, and more. Even having some good role players and vets on the team. This team will make it far in the future but for now showing why they can be in the playoffs and showing their improvement. The biggest takeaway from this year for the Pistons is how good they can play together but also how good the coaching is and the atmosphere. Their locker room atmosphere is great and the love and the connection between the players and coaches is great to see. We will see Pistons playoff basketball again.
