Edwards: After a 20-game skid, Pistons are on the cusp of the wrong side of history

DETROIT – Some faces were defeated, others in shock. Some eyes looked at the floor, others stared into the abyss. The only sound that could be heard was that of players taking off their shoes. The spirit of a young, vibrant Detroit Pistons basketball team that was heard just hours earlier was sucked out of everyone and now lay next to the dirty laundry in the locker room.

It was November 1 and the respectable 2-2 Pistons – who had lost only to last year’s Eastern Conference champions, the Miami Heat, and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the current No. 2 seed in the Western Conference – welcomed the Portland Trailblazers . That night, the Pistons had a commanding 15-point lead in the third quarter. They had dominated in every facet. For another 24 minutes, the Pistons showed they were no longer in the same discussions as the NBA’s bottom players. It seemed like a great response to the loss to the Thunder a few days earlier. Something a good team would do.

Then, in the snap of a finger, Detroit returned to a sunken place. It happened so suddenly. The Pistons turned the ball over ten times in the final 24 minutes of the game. They converted on just two of their 13 three-point attempts, while allowing the Trail Blazers to make every other shot they took. It was almost as if the Pistons had been hypnotized into believing things were better, like waking up from a good dream. Instead, they found themselves right back into the nightmare that had kept them awake for the past year and there was some change.

“There was a shift in energy,” Pistons wing Ausar Thompson said after the game.

At that moment, the newcomer had no way of knowing how powerful those words would be.

Three straight losses became seven. That became 12. Then a franchise record 15. And so on and so forth. Detroit crumbled in the fourth quarter. The Pistons continued to turn the ball over to a blatant degree in the beginning, middle and end of ball games. The rebuilding team that had never learned how to win at this level looked up and realized it was in a dire situation that only comes around once every few years. This is “deer in the headlights” in human form. No one has answers because they only know losses at this level.

The last time Detroit won a game, the World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers was tied at one game apiece. Since then United Auto Workers ended a month-long strike. Rep. George Santos was expelled from Congress and started making Cameos.

The Pistons haven’t won a basketball game since October 28. That’s 46 days, 20 games in a row without walking away victorious. How does that happen?

How much time do you have?

Detroit’s disastrous season today started last year, about thirteen months ago, when 2021 No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham was shut down after 12 games and underwent season-ending shin surgery. For Detroit, last season was supposed to be about group development. The “restoration,” as general manager Troy Weaver likes to call it, would continue to evolve with Cunningham, rookies Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey, veteran Bojan Bogdanović and a handful of other players the organization had high hopes for. It had to be the seed planting of something special.

However, Cunningham’s injury essentially led to the Pistons punting on their season. His absence led to Detroit attempting to catch lightning in a bottle and go after once-touted prospects in hopes of reviving their careers. The franchise shifted from hoping to build continuity to, once again, prioritizing individual development.

Loss followed. Players who could help Detroit be respectable on most nights showed up on the injury report around the top of the calendar year. The result? The Pistons won just seven games from January 1 through the end of the regular season in April. It didn’t help that the prize for winning the NBA Draft Lottery a season ago was Victor Wembanyama, perhaps the best prospect since LeBron James.

Cunningham’s injury — more than people realized at the time — may have set the rebuilding franchise back another season.

“It was a challenge for us,” Weaver said The Athletics in January when asked how Cunningham’s injury affected the team’s development. “I don’t know how many different starting lineups the coach has had. From a team development perspective, we have, for lack of better words, failed to consistently find an identity. That has been the challenge.”

Fast forward to October of this year, and Weaver posted a late-season finish for the first time during this rebuild. He said the team expects to “play meaningful basketball” until the end. But it’s December and that already feels like a dream.

However, fans needed words of encouragement after what they experienced last season, but no one really knew what was in store for the Pistons this season. Not the new coaching staff. Not the front office. Not owned. This team was basically strangers to each other on a basketball court.

The Pistons have four players with All-Star potential – Cunningham, Ivey, Duren and Thompson – who will determine whether this historic franchise can return to relevance. So far, these four have played eleven matches together. Take out rookie Thompson and the slightly more seasoned trio has only played 20 games together for various healthy reasons. There wasn’t enough sample size to suggest that Detroit was indeed ready to enter the next phase of its restoration.

The Pistons were cheap on free agency this season because of what happened last season. Cunningham’s injury prevented them from properly assessing their group. This year, Detroit’s front office opted to once again prioritize youth development and see what they had in store, with expectations sprinkled in by a few veterans to help keep everyone on track.

Instead, Detroit got a bunch of injured veterans and even more young players asked to do something they’ve never done as pros: win.

Bogdanović, one of the most efficient, most-used offensive players in the NBA last year, is largely out of the picture due to a calf injury. He played his first game of the season on December 2. Monté Morris, the veteran guard Detroit acquired this offseason and who was expected to be the adult on a very, very young defense, hasn’t played all season due to injuries.

The one person who has been around the corner as the Pistons’ losses piled up is coach Monty Williams, who signed a huge contract this summer that could pay him up to $100 million. But – and he’ll be the first to tell you – even he has had trouble figuring out his new team, given the youth and all the injuries.

GO DEEPER

Monty Williams has turned around a franchise before. The Pistons will be different

Williams and his coaching staff have been slow to figure out what the best version of this team looks like. The Pistons had their best offensive performance of the season in Monday’s 131-123 loss to the Indiana Pacers, who are not a good defensive team by any means. However, the highest scoring game of the season coincided with the first time Williams unleashed a small, range-friendly lineup for Detroit (it happened due to injuries to Duren and Marvin Bagley III). It also coincided with him staggering Cunningham and Bogdanović together for the first time, so there was always someone on the field. It coincided with Ivey — who struggled to find a role under Williams despite being one of the NBA’s top rookies last season — playing a season-high 34 minutes, which was only the third time this season he played more than 30 minutes.

“I think we’re starting to realize that if we space the floor properly, we can score,” Williams said after the Indiana loss. “I’m learning how to use certain guys on the team.”

It’s far too early to tell whether or not hiring Williams will work in the long run, but owner Tom Gores should have made sure Williams was the right man at the right time, rather than wanting the press conference win and in turn , handing out a contract that won’t be cheap when he finds out this isn’t a good marriage.

As for the front office, they were a little premature when they set the finish line for this team before the season. There was nothing to indicate that this team was ready to make a leap, even before injuries struck. It also wouldn’t have hurt to try to convert one of the two big players Detroit has on the roster into proven forward depth.

The blame needs to be spread around, like Oprah Winfrey hands out cars. You don’t get 20 straight losses without everyone having a hand in it.

The NBA’s longest losing skid in a single season is 26. The longest losing skid (over two seasons) is 28.

The Pistons, one of the league’s most successful franchises, are on the wrong side of history.

To get The Bouncea daily NBA newsletter from Zach Harper and Shine Charania, in your inbox every morning. Sign upwards here.

(Photo of Monty Williams: Jason Miller/Getty Images)