Detroit Pistons Just Had Their Best Offseason, Since?
By Jon Poole
With all the worst to first examples in pro sports, it’s well understood how transforming offseasons can be for a franchise; you can make or break a franchise in simply one offseason. The Detroit Pistons just completed a tremendous offseason with the little cap flexibility they had at their expense.
Maybe the most impressive example, because they did it without much change at all, happened in Detroit, formerly your very own Detroit Shock went from 9-23 in 2002 and last in the WNBA, to an unbelievable 25-9 in 2003 and winning the WNBA championship. The most recent Detroit Pistons example would be between the 2000-2001 seasons they went from 32-50 to 50-32, fifth in the division to first. They did it with a coaching change, firing George Irvine and hiring Rick Carlisle. They also drafted Mehmet Okur and traded for Cliff Robinson & Jon Barry. This initiated the ‘Go To Work’ era.
My favorite example is the 1998-1999 St. Louis Rams. In ’98 the Rams were 4-12, in ’99 they were 13-3 and won the Super Bowl, they did it by developing second-year quarterback Kurt Warner and signing Marshall Faulk. One of the best NBA versions was the 2007-2008 Boston Celtics; they did it primarily with smart trades.
Just over the past month or so the Detroit Pistons had one of their best offseasons in memory. I would go as far as to say in 17 years, and to be honest, it’s hard to find any good ones in between. I thought the last time the Pistons had a better offseason was in 2002 when they drafted Tayshaun Prince 23rd overall and signed Chauncey Billups in the same month. That offseason and the offseason prior got Detroit a championship two years later.