So where do we rank in the east as of now

[No-Man]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

You are clearly worse than many teams, and you will be fighting with Orlando, Philly and Boston for the last spots in the East.

Best case scenario you end up 15th with the 1st pick in the draft, worst case? end up 11-12th and out of the top5.

The roster is a joke, no balance, no team players, not creators... Detroit is going to be pretty bad, one of the worst teams in the league for sure.

[kf96]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

You are clearly worse than many teams, and you will be fighting with Orlando, Philly and Boston for the last spots in the East.

Best case scenario you end up 15th with the 1st pick in the draft, worst case? end up 11-12th and out of the top5.

The roster is a joke, no balance, no team players, not creators... Detroit is going to be pretty bad, one of the worst teams in the league for sure.

OK I will text you with this when season ends.

[ADflight1]

Its hard to say because it hinges on Drummond, if Drummond takes the next logical step in his development then the only teams obviously better than us are the Pacers, Cavs, Heat, Bulls (only if Rose returns to form). If Drummond becomes a force then I think we are in a group with the Raptors, Hornets and Wizards for playoff contention.

I agree with this

I dont think that Heat is better then us then. That depend on how Bosh and basicly Wade will play or will he be injured again.

Heat are much better. Wade/Bosh/Deng/McRoberts with solid role players in Cole, Birdman, Haslem.

The Pistons, at the very best (as the roster stands right now), are an 8 seed.

[JD43320]

I'd like to think we're going to be much better but with tweedle dee and tweedle dum still on the roster I doubt it. 30-52 unless SVG benches the two dumb asses for being dumb asses. Then we should creep towards 40 wins.

[Redeemed]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

You are clearly worse than many teams, and you will be fighting with Orlando, Philly and Boston for the last spots in the East.

Best case scenario you end up 15th with the 1st pick in the draft, worst case? end up 11-12th and out of the top5.

The roster is a joke, no balance, no team players, not creators... Detroit is going to be pretty bad, one of the worst teams in the league for sure.

There's good cause for us to expect less than a playoff appearance with our recent history. And if we ended up in the draft with a top five pick that would be better than not having a pick at all.

That being said, there's no way the Pistons are the 15th best team in the east. Our biggests problems last year were spacing and indecisive at best and incompetent at worst coaching. We have floor spacing role players to compliment Drummond. We have clear sighted coaching.

Right now I have us in the10th spot in the east with puncher's chance of making it as one of the top 8 teams.

[ImHeisenberg]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

We won't be bad enough to lock down a top 5 pick. If we couldn't achieve it last year with that complete disaster of a team and coaching.

But, we'll probably still be a lottery team.

[godkingleonidas]

Assuming each team's main players stay healthy:
1. Bulls
2. Pacers
3. Cavaliers
4. Washington
5. Heat
6. Hawks
7. Raptors
8. Hornets
9. Nets
10. Pistons
11. Knicks

The Raptors only need to win the Atlantic to secure (at worst) 4th place.

[ImHeisenberg]

Assuming each team's main players stay healthy:
1. Bulls
2. Pacers
3. Cavaliers
4. Washington
5. Heat
6. Hawks
7. Raptors
8. Hornets
9. Nets
10. Pistons
11. Knicks

The Raptors only need to win the Atlantic to secure (at worst) 4th place.

It's just a random list of teams who I believe are all better than Detroit. But thanks for that intel, I was really concerned about the Raptors.

[godkingleonidas]

Assuming each team's main players stay healthy:
1. Bulls
2. Pacers
3. Cavaliers
4. Washington
5. Heat
6. Hawks
7. Raptors
8. Hornets
9. Nets
10. Pistons
11. Knicks

The Raptors only need to win the Atlantic to secure (at worst) 4th place.

It's just a random list of teams who I believe are all better than Detroit. But thanks for that intel, I was really concerned about the Raptors.

Is cool essé. No mas.

[Mr Peanut]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

You are clearly worse than many teams, and you will be fighting with Orlando, Philly and Boston for the last spots in the East.

Best case scenario you end up 15th with the 1st pick in the draft, worst case? end up 11-12th and out of the top5.

The roster is a joke, no balance, no team players, not creators... Detroit is going to be pretty bad, one of the worst teams in the league for sure.

Not sure if this is supposed to be a joke or not...

Anyways, at least we've got our budding superstar for the future in Drummond. Good luck with your aging Dirk and 15M/yr Parsons and getting bounced in the first round for the foreseeable future

[KCP5]

Its near impossible that we go backwards next year and its hard to see how we havent improved this offseason as an organization. There are so many reasons to believe we can push up and pinch a playoff spot.

[Scout Taron]

Yeah we aren't even close to top 5 pick bad, lol. We've been 7-9th worst for 4-5 years straight. We aren't just gonna plummet out of nowhere. Right now, I have us penciled in around 9 and missing the playoffs. All really depends on SVG. How much can his influence actually improve our team just based on coaching?

[detroitKG]

Where is the logic in us being a top 5 lottery team? We've been hovering around 7-9 for years now, all while having no direction, no coaching, and a misshaped roster.

We have excellent coaching, a clear vision for this team going forward, and plenty of talent to make the playoffs in the east. I suppose I have a bit more faith in svg than others.


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[Kilo]

Only way we're Top Five bad is if Drummond is lost for a significant chunk of the season due to injury.

[hoophabit]

Detroit is likely going to get a top5 pick in next years draft

You are clearly worse than many teams, and you will be fighting with Orlando, Philly and Boston for the last spots in the East.

Best case scenario you end up 15th with the 1st pick in the draft, worst case? end up 11-12th and out of the top5.

The roster is a joke, no balance, no team players, not creators... Detroit is going to be pretty bad, one of the worst teams in the league for sure.

I'm going to go with "not a troll," but could be off base.

I can't agree that it's likely that the Pistons will be even worse than they were last year. SVG has to have a better system than we saw last year. Cheeks was a bad choice, but turning the team over to Loyer at mid season was an even worse decision. Loyer's benching of KCP was about his biggest mistake, and neither he nor Cheeks had much control (read discipline) of the team.

I just don't see the East as all that greatly transformed as to overall power, although there is some obvious shuffling. Cleveland is going up thanks to LeBron going home and their incredible luck in the lottery. Chicago is a big question mark. Rose healthy?, maybe, and Pau will help, but they've been better than us for a long time. I'm not expecting most of the rooks to make huge impacts with their teams, basing this on history.

I can't really follow why you'd say "no balance, no team players, no creators." The one thing SVG has worked on in FA so far is to better balance the team, both in terms of youth/vet and to address team shooting. There are team players here and the "mutiny crew" is long gone. There were problems with both role and discipline under the old regime. I expect SVG to make improvements in both areas.

Drummond's continued improvement should make Detroit a better team. I expect SVG to start asking Drummond to be more involved on both ends of the floor. I'm also expecting Drummond to continue becoming a more assertive player. Late last season he was showing enough improvement in terms of having some low post moves to give some hope. The growth of other young players should also help.

Of course, what happens with Monroe is an unresolved major piece of this puzzle. There are several potential outcomes that might be good, but we'll just have to wait and see.

I see the Pistons as a middle tier team, not a bottom feeder.

[Entourage27]

1. Chicago Bulls
2. Cleveland Cavaliers
3. Miami Heat
4. Toronto Raptors
5. Indiana Pacers
6. Washington Wizards
7. Atlanta Hawks
8. Brooklyn Nets
9. Charlotte Hornets
10. Detroit Pistons
11. New York Knicks
12. Boston Celtics
13. Orlando Magic
14. Milwaukee Bucks
15. Philadelphia 76ers

The east got strong!! The east might not have 1-8 teams with 50 wins or more but it will be a battle to try to make playoffs. Every team improved in the east except for the Heat (obviously) and the Pacers.

[Hooplah]

Teams that are probably better than the Pistons

Bulls
Cavs
Pacers
Raptors
Wizards


Could go either way

Hawks
Heat
Hornets
Knicks
Nets

Teams the Pistons are probably better than

76ers
Bucks
Celtics
Magic


Prediction: East Shake Up

1. Raptors
2. Bulls
3. Pacers
4. Cavs
5. Wizards
6. Pistons
7. Hawks
8. Hornets

[Minas]

1. Bulls
2. Cavs
3. Heat
4. Pacers
5. Wiz
6. Raps
7. Hawks
8. Nets
9. Hornets
10. Pistons
11. Knicks
12. Celtics
13. Magic
14. Bucks
15. 76ers

I would guess that we will be the 10th or 11th seed and that we'll win about 35 games

[ajaX82]

Where is the logic in us being a top 5 lottery team? We've been hovering around 7-9 for years now, all while having no direction, no coaching, and a misshaped roster.

We have excellent coaching, a clear vision for this team going forward, and plenty of talent to make the playoffs in the east. I suppose I have a bit more faith in svg than others.


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We aren't going to be one of the worst teams in the league...too much talent. We appear to have used up our good karma in the Memphis trade/jump to #2 (regardless of how it worked out), so moving up in the lotto is out too. On the other side we are nowhere near good enough to compete for the East. Someone earlier in the thread had us at 4, which is nice and all, but not even close.

It partially depends on the roster and how Stan works his rotations. He's a good coach and that alone should help. I want to say we should sneak in to the 8 spot, but that's been the hope for a few years to no avail. I just can't be optimistic about playoffs at this time. Pencil me in for 9th/10th in the East and a pick in the early teens

[piston1423]

Cavs
Pacers
Raptors
Wizards
Heat
Pistons
Bulls
Hawks.

If Detroit can get one of Monroe or Smith to come off the bench, that'd be a scary big man rotation.