Pistons

[PhilBlackson]

As Morey said about us "regression to the mean".

It wasn't accurate when Morey said that about you and it's not accurate about the Pistons now.

The Pistons were/are not one of the best teams in the league. They were playing very good basketball and things were clicking so they had a bit of a streak but end of day no offense but they just don't have enough talent to remain around the top of the conference. They are a Playoff to borderline Playoff team, that's just the make up their roster.

Here's the thing with the East right now. There are 3 teams that are clearly above the rest. Those teams are the Celtics, the Raptors and the Cavs. Then there's 5 teams with a record ranging from 19-15 (Detroit) to 18-16 (Miami). Those 5 teams are really, really close when it comes to power level and they're going to duke it out throughout the season. And then you have the Knicks (17-18) and the Sixers (15-18) on the outside looking in with a lot of potential to join the previously-mentioned group. Both of them can go above .500, depending on the health of their star players (KP and Embiid).

In my opinion, the Pistons are the best team out of that 5 team group (that includes the Bucks, the Wizards, my very own Pacers and the Heat). They have a top 10 defense (#9 currently -> https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/defensive-efficiency) and an above average offense (#13 currently -> https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/offensive-efficiency). The Wizards have very similar numbers and I could put them above the Pistons at full health but they cannot seem to win the games that they're supposed to win and that's what usually gives a team a high seeding (playoffs are a different story).

You can use whatever metric and analytics you like, I will take WAS (9x out of 10) and MIL (maybe 7x out of 10) in a series against DET and I would favor the Pacers as well more times than not. Even with how you're trying to figure out where they stand the bottomline is the fall somewhere between the middle of the pack to borderline Playoff team which really is who they are right now and I don't see how any of it refutes what I've said.

I'm not insulting them. They have a couple of good young pieces and a bunch of ok pieces so the results are fitting as a fairly average team. It's not a horrible situation, at least they have players like Drummond and AB they can work with and have some movable players like Johnson, Harris and maybe even Reggie to try and package possibly with a pick to add to that to take the next step and enter into the tier with WAS and MIL or possibly better but imo they're not there yet. Those 2 teams are underperforming, WAS were without Wall for most of this season so far and from what I read Kidd is an idiot. DET isn't a great team but they're not a bad one either, they are who they are and have plenty of room to improve and become one of the better teams in the East they just aren't there yet imo and whatever arbitrary stats won't change my opinion in what I can clearly see....coincidentally IND is in a similar place although personally I like Dipo, Turner and Sabonis more hence why I would take your team over them as well.

[Nuntius]

As Morey said about us "regression to the mean".

It wasn't accurate when Morey said that about you and it's not accurate about the Pistons now.

The Pistons were/are not one of the best teams in the league. They were playing very good basketball and things were clicking so they had a bit of a streak but end of day no offense but they just don't have enough talent to remain around the top of the conference. They are a Playoff to borderline Playoff team, that's just the make up their roster.

Here's the thing with the East right now. There are 3 teams that are clearly above the rest. Those teams are the Celtics, the Raptors and the Cavs. Then there's 5 teams with a record ranging from 19-15 (Detroit) to 18-16 (Miami). Those 5 teams are really, really close when it comes to power level and they're going to duke it out throughout the season. And then you have the Knicks (17-18) and the Sixers (15-18) on the outside looking in with a lot of potential to join the previously-mentioned group. Both of them can go above .500, depending on the health of their star players (KP and Embiid).

In my opinion, the Pistons are the best team out of that 5 team group (that includes the Bucks, the Wizards, my very own Pacers and the Heat). They have a top 10 defense (#9 currently -> https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/defensive-efficiency) and an above average offense (#13 currently -> https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/offensive-efficiency). The Wizards have very similar numbers and I could put them above the Pistons at full health but they cannot seem to win the games that they're supposed to win and that's what usually gives a team a high seeding (playoffs are a different story).

You can use whatever metric and analytics you like, I will take WAS (9x out of 10) and MIL (maybe 7x out of 10) in a series against DET and I would favor the Pacers as well more times than not. Even with how you're trying to figure out where they stand the bottomline is the fall somewhere between the middle of the pack to borderline Playoff team which really is who they are right now and I don't see how any of it refutes what I've said.

Ok, I think I found the disconnect. You seem to be talking about the playoffs. I was talking exclusively about the regular season.

The Wizards definitely have the highest ceiling of every team in that 5-team group but they also have a 9-10 record against teams below .500. You cannot have a good enough record to get HCA if you don't beat the teams below .500. That's why I do not see them eventually snapping up that 4th seed.

Milwaukee, I could see snapping up that 4th seed. They have been better ever since they got Bledsoe. That said, they struggle defensively and their coach isn't good enough which leads to some consistency issues.

We (Indiana) are still quite young and we also struggle defensively so we're also facing some of the consistency issues that are plaguing Milwaukee.

That's why I believe that Detroit will ultimately take the 4th seed. I do think that the Wizards and the Bucks have better playoff potential but when it comes to the regular season I believe that Detroit will ultimately come out on top.