By Kelvin Butler
At the start of the 2019-2020 NBA season, a lot of people and analysts thought the Detroit Pistons would make the playoffs. The belief was that they’d secure it around the fifth or sixth seed in the eastern conference.
The Pistons were coming off of a season where their two stars — Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond — were having career seasons. The play from those two got the Pistons to the playoffs, where they lost in a sweep to the one-seed Milwaukee Bucks.
Making an unexpected move, the Pistons signed former NBA MVP Derrick Rose.
Rose was recruited from the Minnesota Timberwolves after he revived his career in the previous season, when he was having his best games since his time playing for the Chicago Bulls.
The Pistons also bought a reliable bench player out of his contract — Markieff Morris — from the Oklahoma City Thunder. These acquisitions added some great rotation players onto the Pistons’ team.
Downhill fast
Once the season started, the Pistons’ starting point guard, Reggie Jackson, got injured. Jackson has missed 30 straight games with the injury.
Following Jackson, Griffin got injured and also missed several games. Now he’s opting to get a season-ending surgery.
These injuries forced Drummond and Rose to carry the load while forcing other players to step up, like Luke Kennard and Langston Galloway. Those two, unfortunately, don’t have much to give because of inconsistency in their play.
The injuries put them in the 11th seed of the eastern conference. This seed is like a limbo stop — they’re too good to lose to bad teams, too bad to beat good teams.
Can they bounce back?
With the Pistons being the 11th seed in the east, it’s not impossible to make the playoffs.
They are a couple of games behind the Orlando Magic, who currently hold the last playoff spot. The east is known to be the worst conference out of the two, so the Pistons could definitely take it from them.
There are about 50 games left in the season, so the Pistons have plenty of time to improve their team’s chemistry and health.
Then if they get hot and go on a little win streak, they’ll be back in the playoff race. We have to hope that happens; if it doesn’t, the Pistons are in a world of hurt.
The team is also looking to trade away Drummond and Rose after the slow start while moving in a direction that develops their younger players. So never mind how long it would take for them to get back to championship contender status. If they do trade those two away, then let God take the wheel.