RealGM

Opening night @home against the Pacers.

https://www.nba.com/schedule/pistons?cal=all&pd=false&region=1&season=Regular%20Season

Every year, me and my brother print out the schedule (two copies) and predict wins and losses. Last year was an absolute trainwreck.

4 national TV games this year, albeit only one on ESPN, the rest NBATV.

Looks like an awful October, followed by a softish November, followed by a rough December. Then it will be time to trade the vets……

Wow them first 6 games tho but it’s early in the season so we should catch some of these teams slipping

I'm always hoping for an easy schedule to begin the season so we have a higher chance of having a good record, instilling confidence as opposed to the reverse.

The NBA did us WRONG with this start of the season schedule.

IND, @CLE, BOS, @MIA, @PHI, NYK, @BKN, LAL

If we drop that Brooklyn game...

looking at the schedule and trying to find tough/easy stretches isn't easy, it makes you realize how many good teams there are out there.

our in-season tourney group is:

detroit
miami
toronto
indiana
milwaukee

Brutal way to start the year haha

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using RealGM mobile app

Every schedule looks brutal when almost every team is significantly better than you.

But yeah, that’s not a great start.

Snakebites wrote:Every schedule looks brutal when almost every team is significantly better than you.

There are five legit tankers in the East, and three teams in the West that at least won't be trying to win. With a much more functional roster than they had last season and an immensely better coach, the Pistons may be better than most or all of them.

6 East playoff teams to start? Including all 4 finalists? Brutal for a team that needs confidence early on.

Compare that to Washington (another garbage team needing confidence) - Their first 12 consists of Atlanta x3, Detroit, San Antonio, Golden State, Houston, and Memphis. That's 8/12 vs non-playoff teams. Pistons first 12 is vs 8 playoff teams by comparison.

All evens out throughout the span of a season, but this team really needed an easy start early on compared to say March when the trade deadline has passed and players are resting.

Just the luck of the draw, but between this and losing the lottery every year, it's just more "Detroit vs everyone".

Could be a blessing in disguise. Even if they start 3-3 vs those teams, that would be a huge confidence boost early in the season with a new coach. But honestly I would imagine 0-6 is far more likely than 3-3 or better.

Not sure what the complaint is - first 10 Rankings from last season
Pacers 6
Cavs 4
Celtics 1
Heat 8
76ers 7
Knicks 2
Nets 11
Lakers 7
Hornets 13
hawks 10
Avg 6.9

League average is 8, so it's a moderately tough start, but that's only +1 seed to who you would expect to play. Based on last years record, 4 good teams, 3 average teams, 3 bad teams. 5 home games, 5 road. I mean, 6 of 10 were play-in or lottery teams. If you want to work your way up be competing for a play-in, these are they type of teams you have to beat. We can't expect the league to just roll over and let us start winning again.

Billl wrote:Not sure what the complaint is - first 10 Rankings from last season
Pacers 6
Cavs 4
Celtics 1
Heat 8
76ers 7
Knicks 2
Nets 11
Lakers 7
Hornets 13
hawks 10
Avg 6.9

League average is 8, so it's a moderately tough start, but that's only +1 seed to who you would expect to play. Based on last years record, 4 good teams, 3 average teams, 3 bad teams. 5 home games, 5 road. I mean, 6 of 10 were play-in or lottery teams. If you want to work your way up be competing for a play-in, these are they type of teams you have to beat. We can't expect the league to just roll over and let us start winning again.

Yeah cutting it off at 8 is a little misleading, but I also get it, people don't want to start 0-8 or 1-7.

But I stand by what I said. We're a bottom tier team. There are no easy wins.

JennetteMcCurdy wrote:Looks like an awful October, followed by a softish November, followed by a rough December. Then it will be time to trade the vets……

You mean trade the youth? Fans want the team to get better as they get younger, doesn't make sense. If we still suck by January, our youth won't have any value left by the end of the year. Gotta trade them for their potential or you end up with a Greg Monroe, Killian situation and they leave the league for nothing. If ausar doesn't figure out a shot sooner or later, he's going to be one of them. He's my biggest concern. I think Ivey stays in the league for years just because he's not a bad shooter like Ausar, just needs the ball in his hands like most guards.

Who cares what the schedule shows, we go through this every year.

First 5 games
1. Depends on injuries during camp and preseason.
2. Depends on team cohesion, not every team practices and trains in the offseason.
3. Our team could be completely cohesive until we break down like we did at halftime Portland game. Downhill from there last year, could be uphill this year.

Our team's success next year relies solely on ONE player believe it or not as I mentioned last year, Duren. If he doesn't improve defensively or show any care or effort, we're done for the season.

Spider156 wrote:

JennetteMcCurdy wrote:Looks like an awful October, followed by a softish November, followed by a rough December. Then it will be time to trade the vets……

You mean trade the youth? Fans want the team to get better as they get younger, doesn't make sense. If we still suck by January, our youth won't have any value left by the end of the year. Gotta trade them for their potential or you end up with a Greg Monroe, Killian situation and they leave the league for nothing. If ausar doesn't figure out a shot sooner or later, he's going to be one of them. He's my biggest concern. I think Ivey stays in the league for years just because he's not a bad shooter like Ausar, just needs the ball in his hands like most guards.

I think we’ll see THJ and Beasley moved at the deadline as Bickerstaff gives them plenty of time early on to showcase themselves. Then minutes for the Hollands and Sassers will increase……

If we are a bottom 3 team again next season with under 27 wins, Monty wasn’t the problem and you can’t convince me otherwise. I’ll be ringing that all season for everyone on here if there’s no improvement. 27 wins basically tells me Bickerstaff is the same level as Casey and we wasted time changing coaches. The answer imo is to trade the youth at that point and keep flipping players for veterans ages 23-27 like Grimes Okoro Fontecchio and keep drafting best available like Holland.

JennetteMcCurdy wrote:

Spider156 wrote:

JennetteMcCurdy wrote:Looks like an awful October, followed by a softish November, followed by a rough December. Then it will be time to trade the vets……

You mean trade the youth? Fans want the team to get better as they get younger, doesn't make sense. If we still suck by January, our youth won't have any value left by the end of the year. Gotta trade them for their potential or you end up with a Greg Monroe, Killian situation and they leave the league for nothing. If ausar doesn't figure out a shot sooner or later, he's going to be one of them. He's my biggest concern. I think Ivey stays in the league for years just because he's not a bad shooter like Ausar, just needs the ball in his hands like most guards.

I think we’ll see THJ and Beasley moved at the deadline as Bickerstaff gives them plenty of time early on to showcase themselves. Then minutes for the Hollands and Sassers will increase……

I think Sasser is closer to leaving the league than getting minutes.

I think Sasser Moore are a complete waste of roster space at the moment and we desperately need to get a guy like Fultz, DSJ (who else is left?) and Okoro for sure. By trade deadline we need to be cashing in on Stewart’s value and whatever value Ausar has left on him. This of course worst case scenario. I think we can easily trade THJ and Beasley still to contenders though. Guy like Ivey needs to be backup PG if we are still losing. Even before the season starts I see him as a backup PG. Even Duren needs to get benched if he doesn’t show improvement on defense next season.

^^^^yes to Okoro or even give me Fultz. Maybe a miracle happens and he figures out how to shoot lol

Spider156 wrote:If we are a bottom 3 team again next season with under 27 wins, Monty wasn’t the problem and you can’t convince me otherwise. I’ll be ringing that all season for everyone on here if there’s no improvement. 27 wins basically tells me Bickerstaff is the same level as Casey and we wasted time changing coaches. The answer imo is to trade the youth at that point and keep flipping players for veterans ages 23-27 like Grimes Okoro Fontecchio and keep drafting best available like Holland.

26 games would be a 12 game improvement. If you expect Bickerstaff to come in and have us fighting for the play in you are going to be very disappointed. Irregardless of what happens, Monty was a horrendous coach.

Spider156 wrote:

JennetteMcCurdy wrote:

Spider156 wrote:You mean trade the youth? Fans want the team to get better as they get younger, doesn't make sense. If we still suck by January, our youth won't have any value left by the end of the year. Gotta trade them for their potential or you end up with a Greg Monroe, Killian situation and they leave the league for nothing. If ausar doesn't figure out a shot sooner or later, he's going to be one of them. He's my biggest concern. I think Ivey stays in the league for years just because he's not a bad shooter like Ausar, just needs the ball in his hands like most guards.

I think we’ll see THJ and Beasley moved at the deadline as Bickerstaff gives them plenty of time early on to showcase themselves. Then minutes for the Hollands and Sassers will increase……

I think Sasser is closer to leaving the league than getting minutes.

I think Sasser Moore are a complete waste of roster space at the moment and we desperately need to get a guy like Fultz, DSJ (who else is left?) and Okoro for sure. By trade deadline we need to be cashing in on Stewart’s value and whatever value Ausar has left on him. This of course worst case scenario. I think we can easily trade THJ and Beasley still to contenders though. Guy like Ivey needs to be backup PG if we are still losing. Even before the season starts I see him as a backup PG. Even Duren needs to get benched if he doesn’t show improvement on defense next season.

Yeah I’d put the over/under on Moore’s minutes at about one hundred. He may very well be cut or just hang around for salary purposes in trades.

Moore was awful in summer league. Sasser was….. out of position? Meh, I don’t think he’s going to be in JB’s rotation early on but after the wheels fall off he’ll get some time.

Looking at the schedule, could be as early as game seven