Detroit Pistons, amid 28-game losing streak, facing issues beyond the skid

BOSTON – The visitors' locker room at TD Garden was silent.

It was about a half-hour after the Detroit Pistons lost their 28th straight game — a 128-122 overtime loss to the league-leading Boston Celtics. For much of the contest, it looked like this might – finally – be the time Detroit would end its two-game losing streak.

Instead, it became the latest painful outcome in a season that was full of them.

The weight of the streak and how close Detroit came to escaping it hung heavy in the air.

“I think it shows we're on the same level as every team we play,” Pistons star Cade Cunningham said. “I’ve never met a team in the NBA where I felt like I was walking into a slaughterhouse.”

Moral victories, however, do not end losing streaks. And, with Thursday's loss, Detroit tied the Philadelphia 76ers — who lost the final 10 games of the 2014-15 season and the first 18 of the 2015-16 campaign — for the most consecutive losses in an NBA franchise.

But while those “Trust The Process” 76ers were built to lose games while rebuilding through the NBA draft lottery, these Pistons were not.

“We wanted to compete every day, [to have] “We wanted our players to grow. That would have been a success for us. … Those were the expectations: to compete, to grow and to be close to the playoffs. That's how you grow the most.

“Make no mistake, it was what we expected.”

A team doesn't expect to be at the bottom of the standings when it drops $78.5 million to hire a new coach, landing Monty Williams in May after he was fired by the Phoenix Suns, two years after he coached in NBA. Finals.

But here's where the Pistons stand: with a 2-29 record, no clear vision for the franchise's future and no guarantee that its streak of futility will end anytime soon.

“At this point, that’s all we have right now,” Pistons forward Bojan Bogdanovic told ESPN before Thursday’s game. “So you have to get a W and keep growing, even though it’s hard right now to find anything positive.”

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Detroit's fall roots date back to the 2008-09 season. The year before, Detroit was in the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth straight season, losing to the eventual champion Celtics in six games. Game 4 of this series was the last time Detroit won a playoff game.

Nine players from that season remain active and the arena where the game was played, The Palace at Auburn Hills, closed six years ago and imploded in 2020.

Over the past 15 years, Detroit is the only NBA team without a playoff victory. It has the fewest regular season wins (454) and lowest winning percentage (.372) over that span, with only the Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves joining them under .400.

These teams, however, are among the top four in the Western Conference and have several All-NBA selections on their rosters: De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis in Sacramento and Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in Minnesota.

Right now, Detroit has nothing comparable.

Cunningham has shown flashes of being a fundamental piece for the Pistons, especially lately, with several 40-point games and a 31-point performance in Detroit's close loss on Thursday.

But while Cunningham's recent play has been a bright spot, there have been a few others.

League sources view the Pistons as a team with multiple stakeholders articulating different visions for the team — from Gores to Williams to general manager Troy Weaver to Arn Tellem, the longtime superagent who serves as vice president of the team. Since their last playoff appearance, the Pistons have been caught between competing for one of the final playoff spots and rebuilding, which has left the franchise without additional capital or young talent.

Detroit can create up to $60 million in salary cap space this offseason, according to ESPN NBA front office insider Bobby Marks — although the Pistons are not considered a free agent destination this summer.

On the court, Detroit has a poorly suited roster: a flurry of guards and centers but not much in between. This has led to some difficult lineups, like playing two of Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart, Marvin Bagley III and James Wiseman together for long stretches of most games, when each is best suited at center.

Detroit is tied for 29th in 3-pointers made (10.0) and attempts (29.9) per game and 29th in 3-point percentage (33.4). Boston, for example, leads the league with 16.1 3-pointers per game.

The Pistons also suffered from a lack of continuity. Bogdanovic, the team's top veteran, missed the first 19 games of the season with a calf injury. Duren, their best youngster and arguably their second-best player behind Cunningham, missed five games last month and eight more in December before returning to the lineup Tuesday.

But injuries are only part of the story. Detroit had the No. 5 pick in each of the last two drafts, taking Jaden Ivey in 2022 and Ausar Thompson this year. Both players have been in and out of the starting lineup, contributing to the volatility of the Pistons' rotations throughout the season. Thompson played a season-low eight minutes in Thursday's overtime loss.

Detroit hasn't had a single five-player lineup play more than 100 minutes this season, and none have played together for more than nine games.

“It's tough,” Williams said of trying to balance changing rotations with finding consistent roles for his players, “but that's my job. For me, there are times when the first unit is going pretty well and I feel like I'm a ding-dong taking one of these guys when things are going well. But I also have to think, “I need one or two of these guys – there with the second unit.”

“So sometimes it’s a choice of pace in the game.”

But arguably the Pistons' biggest problem is that after nearly 15 years, they're no closer to becoming a consistent playoff team.

Across the league, there are myriad examples of teams — including the Celtics, 76ers, Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder — that have undergone complete rebuilds, but the Pistons have almost exclusively stayed near the bottom . Others, like the Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets and Indiana Pacers, appear to be emerging from recent rebuilds with playoff-caliber clubs this season.

Detroit, on the other hand, tied the league's futility record and could stand alone with a loss Saturday at home to the Toronto Raptors. After this game, the Pistons begin 2024 with a Western Conference road trip to Houston, Utah, Golden State and Denver.

“We're all human beings. We all know what's going on in the league and what's going on around our team,” Bogdanovic said.

“But at the end of the day, if we can't figure this out, who knows how many games we might lose in a row? So it's up to all of us to take ownership of what's happening right now.”