Playoffs locked up. Just happened. Like a few minutes ago. Just now! All locked up!

[bstein14]

I think the easiest thing to do as the NBA is more back-to-backs without travel. The travel part is the hardest thing to deal with when you don't have a day in between games.... the league needs to stop the back-to-backs with travel and cut those out almost entirely.

Back-to-back in LA is fine you have the Clippers and Lakers with arenas 20 minutes apart. Back-to-back games with Brooklyn and NY is fine as their arenas are just five miles apart. Outside of that only back-to-back games should be ones where both teams stay and play back-to-back games together. Schedule us against the Hornets for back-to-back nights in Charlotte so we don't have to travel in between. Cut back massively on travel over the court of the season.

I agree with Canadafan. Having 60 games with 3 days in between most games would make it so that the players would have to compete harder to win with better game planning and rest.

Bill Simmons was talking about this in his most recent podcast. He was making the argument that when the new teams enter the NBA in a few years the season should start at the beginning of December to avoid football, have the NBA cup just after the superbowl, and cut about 10-12 games. It would mean the finals would be in July, but his argument is that the only reason it wasn't in July in the first place was to avoid baseball which is irrelevant now.

They just signed a massive TV deal, in which I believe to get paid the full amount there must be at least 76 games per year (so could be a few less than 82 if something like a pandemic hit, strike, war breaks out, etc). So I think its a safe bet that if the league does reduce the number of games they won't reduce it by much.

32 teams, 16 teams per conference and go back to just four 8 team divisions. Play teams in your division 4 times each (4x7=28) and play the other 24 teams once at home and once away (2x24=48) so a total of 48+28 games which is 76.

Atlantic = MIA, ORL, CHA, WAS, BOS, NY, BKN, PHI
Central = DET, CLE, TOR, CHI, ATL, IND, MIL, MIN

Going anything lower than 76 games would really shock me. NFL is going in the other direction almost certainly going to be a 20 week season with two bye weeks soon and a total of 18 games played. They'll just cut back to one Preseason game.

[jars]

I agree with Canadafan. Having 60 games with 3 days in between most games would make it so that the players would have to compete harder to win with better game planning and rest.

Bill Simmons was talking about this in his most recent podcast. He was making the argument that when the new teams enter the NBA in a few years the season should start at the beginning of December to avoid football, have the NBA cup just after the superbowl, and cut about 10-12 games. It would mean the finals would be in July, but his argument is that the only reason it wasn't in July in the first place was to avoid baseball which is irrelevant now.

They just signed a massive TV deal, in which I believe to get paid the full amount there must be at least 76 games per year (so could be a few less than 82 if something like a pandemic hit, strike, war breaks out, etc). So I think its a safe bet that if the league does reduce the number of games they won't reduce it by much.

32 teams, 16 teams per conference and go back to just four 8 team divisions. Play teams in your division 4 times each (4x7=28) and play the other 24 teams once at home and once away (2x24=48) so a total of 48+28 games which is 76.

Atlantic = MIA, ORL, CHA, WAS, BOS, NY, BKN, PHI
Central = DET, CLE, TOR, CHI, ATL, IND, MIL, MIN

Going anything lower than 76 games would really shock me. NFL is going in the other direction almost certainly going to be a 20 week season with two bye weeks soon and a total of 18 games played. They'll just cut back to one Preseason game.

According to Simmons and Kirk Goldsberry the NBA cup was proposed to the owners as a way to recoup money if they dropped a handful of regular season games. The owners said "why don't we do both" and now we're here with just as many games plus the NBA cup. The bottom line is that owners don't want to take the financial hit and why would they? It sucks because there are so many ways to do this better. I wonder how much this LIV basketball model will impact things.

[zeebneeb]

Cade highlights VS Pelicans.

https://youtu.be/g-Pizj2l4Fg?si=Zvm9W_MrEokqn7mw

Simone Fontecchio Highlights VS Pelicans

https://youtu.be/N9L_uLrN4-w?si=Imkg9inzDYvzt-yl

[breezypeezy]

Still feel we can overtake one or the other of these 4th and 5th seed imposters.

[zeebneeb]

Couple of great videos for you fine Piston folk. First.up we have a season collection(just posted) of Cades greatest hits;

https://youtu.be/3NZ3MR9YXTg?si=36cs-xi8-kTW53Jt

Then game highlights from last night's game;


https://youtu.be/jKJ-kKwQrKE?si=gDyWEadYVszwqqPZ

Then finally Cade highlights from last night's game;

https://youtu.be/_AoO1bCISa0?si=jYFt-_tE-SiwMsa-

Enjoy!

[GreekAlex]

Cade highlights VS Pelicans.

https://youtu.be/g-Pizj2l4Fg?si=Zvm9W_MrEokqn7mw

Simone Fontecchio Highlights VS Pelicans

https://youtu.be/N9L_uLrN4-w?si=Imkg9inzDYvzt-yl

I think Simone might need to rewatch that as well

[zeebneeb]

Oh, this is a great read on the Pistons, from the ringer.

https://www.theringer.com/2025/03/19/nba/detroit-pistons-nba-playoffs-2025-cade-cunningham-ausar-thompson

"4. Stewart’s total disregard for decorum and willingness to fight literally anyone on sight. He has an old-school enforcer’s level of hostility, which authorizes everyone on his team to puff their chests out, too. He’s also sacrificed more than anyone else on the roster: Beef Stew’s 3-point rate has plummeted more than any other player’s, while his pick-and-roll, pop, and slip frequency has risen more than that of any big man in the league."

Well worth the read.

[ComboGuardCity]

This is great. If we can somehow avoid the Buck while moving up
To the 5th seed, I’m all for it. I think we have a much better chance of winning a series against Indy or NY. Would be sweet to beat the Pacers because they’re the definition of peaked but don’t know it yet.

[ComboGuardCity]

Wow just saw Lakers are pretty much sitting everyone for this one

[JohnReese]

Am I the only that is looking more at securing the 6th than thinking about 5th or 4th? The Hawks got an easy calendar and I am still worried with a potential bad run.

[Cowology]

Am I the only that is looking more at securing the 6th than thinking about 5th or 4th? The Hawks got an easy calendar and I am still worried with a potential bad run.

I'm way more interested in how we're paying than seeding. In a vacuum the Knicks should be a better match up and 6th suits me just fine. Getting HCA would be dope, but seems unlikely. 5th is kinda "meh". Like, can't be mad about a 5-seed, but probably the hardest path.

[BadMofoPimp]

Wow just saw Lakers are pretty much sitting everyone for this one

Lakers have been mad at the Pistons for many years stealing their ships in 2 different era's.

[DetroitSho]

Am I the only that is looking more at securing the 6th than thinking about 5th or 4th? The Hawks got an easy calendar and I am still worried with a potential bad run.

I can't even begin to bring myself to be concerned about a team that's played .400+ ball for 70 games all of a sudden playing .800 ball, all while us needing to play .200+ ball for it to happen.

That's why I laugh at people for including Atlanta, Orlando and Miami in these playoff updates like they matter to us. What they do has absolutely no bearing on us other getting to our magic number quicker.

Sent from my SM-S918U using RealGM mobile app

[tmorgan]

I mean, let’s just get all crazy. Suppose we do win our first series, no matter who it is against amongst NY, Indy, or Milwaukee. Who would we rather face in the conference semis? At 6, we get Boston. At 4 or 5, we get Cleveland.

This is going to sound a little crazy, but I’d rather play the defending champs. I still think Boston is going to beat Cleveland in the conference finals, but I think we stand a better chance against Boston and their crazy high volume three point shooting. Just a game or two of rough shooting and we get a win or two and make it interesting. Cleveland is a tougher matchup for us, as they’re better equipped to run with us and have better rim protection. We’re not winning a series against either, but still.

So yeah. both because I think the Knicks are our best matchup in round one and the Celtics are a better matchup in an improbable but possible round 2, I’m just fine staying 6th. It’d be cool to get to ten over .500 and finish 46-36 (32 game improvement!), especially if we’re still 6th doing it.

[DetroitSho]

Wow just saw Lakers are pretty much sitting everyone for this one

Lakers have been mad at the Pistons for many years stealing their ships in 2 different era's.

It's scary if you actually believe this means anything in regards to tonight's game.

Sent from my SM-S918U using RealGM mobile app

[bstein14]

Pacers were down 5 with a minute left but forced OT and got the win in a game where Haliburton sat and Siakam 2-8 with 4 TOs.

As far as the Hawks go, even if they play really well at best they can go like 42-40 (9-4 finish) and even if we play really poorly at worst we're going to go something like 5-7(44-38) so I don't think there's any chance they pass us even if we falter a bit down the stretch. We've been playing well above .500 ball for months.

Thunder - Cavs - Celtics - Lakers - Pacers - Nuggets - Pistons - Warriors have had the best records in the league since Jan 1st.... Wouldn't surprise me at all if those 8 end up being the 8 teams that make it into the second round this year.

[tmorgan]

Couple of great videos for you fine Piston folk. First.up we have a season collection(just posted) of Cades greatest hits;

https://youtu.be/3NZ3MR9YXTg?si=36cs-xi8-kTW53Jt

Then game highlights from last night's game;


https://youtu.be/jKJ-kKwQrKE?si=gDyWEadYVszwqqPZ

Then finally Cade highlights from last night's game;

https://youtu.be/_AoO1bCISa0?si=jYFt-_tE-SiwMsa-

Enjoy!

I watched the first 20 minutes of the ‘Cade season highlights’ vid. There were some and-1’s in there, but Cade really doesn’t get the whistle he deserves yet. Lots and lots of contact finishes with no call. If he had SGA’s whistle he’d average 3 more points a game just from free throws.

[engelbert321]

Pacers are scary. I’d rather face the Knicks or Bucks

[TPA]

Pacers are scary. I’d rather face the Knicks or Bucks

Nah. I want to face them head on. If we lose that series it'll provide a lot of motivation in the off-season. If we win, it'll be a statement to the league that we are close to a conference finals worthy team.

[MrBigShot]

I want NY in round 1.

Pacers always destroy us.