Detroit Pistons players still have no clue how season became train wreck

It’s the defining question of the season — what the heck happened? Even after its conclusion, the answer still eludes the Detroit Pistons.

Players had a tough time putting into words exactly why the 2023-24 campaign was historically bad, as they addressed the media one-by-one during exit interviews Monday at their practice facility in Detroit. The Pistons imploded after starting the season 2-1, recording an NBA-record 28 straight losses en route to a franchise-worst 14-68 mark.

Less than 24 hours after Sunday’s finale in San Antonio, the season seemed to be too fresh to be put into proper context. But they were on the same page on one thought: It can’t happen again. Players expressed optimism for next season, pledging to carry the painful lessons learned from this season forward. 

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“Obviously not the year that we hoped for coming in, but we learned a lot for sure,” guard Cade Cunningham said. “A lot of lessons came out of it. For me, I'm just thankful to have been able to make it through another season, to be healthy, to find who I am again on the court after missing most of my second year. Those are the positives that I’m taking away from a tough situation like this. I’m really looking forward to what’s to come.

“I’ve put thought to it before. It's hard to say, but a lot went wrong, you know? It was on us to try to adjust and find ways to start winning games. We just had a tough time throughout the year. A lot to learn from, a lot of experience for a young team. We got a lot of experience from it and I think we’ll all be better.” 

It was a humbling, and often embarrassing, season for a Pistons team that expected to take a step forward. It epitomized Murphy’s Law — everything that could go wrong, went wrong. They began and ended the season with long injury reports, struggled to hit 3s and play defense, committed far too many turnovers and didn’t see the leaps they banked on from some young players. 

It was a season that highlighted why some teams prefer perpetual mediocrity to undergoing a full roster teardown. When you bottom out, you might get stuck there. 

“You can get a lesson out of everything you go through,” power forward Isaiah Stewart said. “We’ve been taught a bunch of lessons that will prepare us for what’s ahead and what we have to go through to become a winning team and turn this thing around. I don’t think no other team has been through what we’ve been through, and everything that we’ve gone through in terms of this season and years past.

“It’s a feeling you don’t want to feel again. It gives you an extra edge to not want to feel that feeling, to fight to get away from that. I feel like it can benefit us for sure in numerous ways.”

This offseason will be a reset for the Pistons, on multiple levels. Ownership is pursuing the hire of a president of basketball operations who would assume power over the entire operation, including staffing decisions with the front office and coaching staff. With $60 million in cap space available, they will have the means to make major roster upgrades. 

The development of the Pistons' young core will continue to play a big role in the direction of the team, of course. While it remains to be seen if the team can retain all of its recent first-round picks, they will need Cunningham to make the leap from burgeoning star to superstar, and at least one of Ausar Thompson, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren to become a viable secondary All-Star-level performer. 

Players appear to still have confidence in each other, despite the final record. 

“When I look at our locker room and coaching staff and I look at their character and the guys that we have around who want to work and want to get better and the potential, I get excited,” Duren said. “This hasn't been the two years that anybody would’ve expected or wanted, but I really do truly believe God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. 

“We went through a lot of adversity. The city’s seen it, the team felt it. But we’re a young team that’s hungry, and I know you guys hear that a lot and you hear how hard we work and how much we’re committed. But we really are.”

Winning, clearly, is a difficult task in the NBA. The Pistons have done much right on paper — prioritize building around a core of lottery picks, spend big money for a former Coach of the Year, take swings on highly drafted yet unproven players and bring in veterans. But many of those moves have and failed. As other young teams have ascended, the Pistons have yet to gel and receded further.

If nothing else, this season has given everyone on the team important data points to take into the offseason. For the players, the most important one could be understanding how high the bar is to establish consistent success. 

“What we went through this season is not for the weak, for sure,” Cunningham said. “It’s hard winning games. But we definitely see how hard it is to lose as many games as we did. It’s a challenge for us and I think we’re all excited to take on this challenge and find our way out of this hole that we dug. We’re going to do it together, we’re gonna not hide from it. We’re just gonna keep chopping wood and carrying water.

“I’ve had adversity in my life but nothing like this, in basketball. I’ve been blessed in basketball for all my life, winning games, accolades, whatever. This is really, the NBA, since I’ve gotten to the NBA has humbled me as far as knowing how much it takes to succeed. I’m learning more and more about myself every day. I love where I’m at, I love what I do and I’m excited to change the narrative about not being able to win games.”

Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.

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