Pistons 2015-16 Schedule: Top Games, Championship Odds and Record Predictions
With Stan Van Gundy entering his second season as head coach, the Detroit Pistons should be looking at a marked improvement over their 32-50 record last year.
Flash back to last year, and even the more generous preseason predictions likely had Detroit as the No. 7 or 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, with an early exit from the playoffs to follow.
Then, the Pistons entered the month of December with a 3-14 record. They fell to 5-23 before deciding something needed to be done to turn their fortunes around. That something turned out to be waiving Josh Smith.
Perhaps it was a mere coincidence, but Detroit played much better in the days and weeks after Smith's departure. The honeymoon period ended, though, and even the arrival of Reggie Jackson couldn't radically alter the team's fate.
Still, fans in the Motor City will likely feel a little optimistic looking ahead to the upcoming campaign.
Aside from the Philadelphia 76ers, every other East team has a case for making the playoffs. Maybe the Pistons are finally able to break their postseason drought and reach the first round for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
Going much deeper than the first or second round is even more wishful thinking. According to OddsShark.com, Detroit has 100-1 odds of winning an NBA title in 2015-16.
With the Pistons' schedule being released on Wednesday, it seems an appropriate time to analyze some of their juicier upcoming matchups and just how good they can be this year.
Top Matchups
Detroit Pistons vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
When: Friday, November 27 (in OKC), Tuesday, March 29 (in Detroit)
This will be the first time Jackson faces off with his old team, and you wonder whether that will open up the old wounds from his days with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Shortly after OKC dealt him, Jackson fired off this memorable tweet:
Former teammate Kevin Durant also seemed to subtly throw some shade at Jackson, saying goodbye to only Kendrick Perkins over social media:
Durant didn't mention Jackson by name when speaking to reporters after the trade, but it didn't take much to connect the dots, per ESPN.com's Royce Young:
"It was pretty easy. We felt like everybody wanted to be here except for one guy. So it wasn't like everybody was going crazy at shootaround. I went to sleep and woke up and we had new players. It goes like that sometimes. Everybody that wants to be here is here, we're excited about our new guys, and it hurts to see [ Perkins] leave, but we're still going to remain brothers until we're both gone. It was definitely a tough day, but a good day as well.
"
Jackson fired back at his detractors in an interview with Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski:
"I wasn't always perfect, nor was the situation, but I became the brunt of the blame there. Everything bad that happened, I was the scapegoat. I'm taking all this blame, and I'm wondering: 'How am I supposed to change it all here, make an impact, in eight minutes a game?' Everybody is jumping down my neck, and it gets annoying when I'm supposed to have this great impact playing so little this season. All of a sudden, I'm the bad locker room guy. I'm the problem…
"
It's likely the passage of time has cooled some of the animosity Jackson holds for the Thunder and vice versa. Plus, he is getting the starting role he always wanted, and OKC is free of the headache he supposedly caused. If everybody is happy now, why dwell on the past, at least in the buildup to the game?
But that won't make the Pistons vs. Thunder any less interesting. Revenge games are always fun to watch, and Jackson is capable of putting up crazy numbers against OKC if all the stars align right.
Detroit Pistons vs. Milwaukee Bucks
When: Monday, November 23 (in Milwaukee), Friday, December 4 (in Detroit), Saturday, February 27 (in Milwaukee), Monday, March 21 (in Detroit)
Looking at the Central Division, the Pistons' ceiling is likely third place, depending on how well Paul George plays in his first season back. Detroit is not going to finish ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls unless one or both teams get ravaged by injury.
Rather than judging them against the Cavs, Bulls or even Pacers, the Pistons' best measuring stick might be the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks finished 41-41 last year and earned the sixth seed in the East. With Jabari Parker healthy, Giannis Antetokounmpo still growing as a player and Khris Middleton coming off a career year, Milwaukee's future looks bright.
And despite all of the turmoil stemming from his brief tenure with the Brooklyn Nets, Jason Kidd proved he is a very good young coach with his handling of the team.
Last year, Detroit went 1-3 against Milwaukee. If the Pistons want to show they're turning a corner, they have to perform better against a direct division rival, especially one whose trajectory is somewhat similar to that of their own.
As if all of this doesn't make for an intriguing on-court battle, you have the added subplot of Greg Monroe playing against Detroit. His breakup with the Pistons didn't appear to be too acrimonious—beyond the lingering effects from his contract situation—but he'll probably want to make an example of his old team.
Record Prediction
It's tough projecting how the Pistons will finish this far out since so many questions regarding key players remain unresolved.
Will Jackson flourish in a starting role? And how will he coexist with Brandon Jennings, who looked good last year before rupturing his Achilles? Can Andre Drummond be the man inside now that Monroe is gone?
At the very least, this year's Pistons team is built more to the head coach's liking. Detroit improved from 29th in three-point percentage in 2013-14 to 17th last year.
Now, Van Gundy will have Anthony Tolliver for a full year, along with new acquisitions Ersan Ilyasova and Marcus Morris, both of whom will help space the floor even more. Trading for Morris could prove to be a shrewd move as the Pistons capitalized on the Phoenix Suns' desperation to cut costs in their pursuit of LaMarcus Aldridge.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope should also continue growing in his career, giving the team another strong secondary backcourt scorer behind Jackson.
As much as Van Gundy has done to improve Detroit's depth, the progression of Jackson and Drummond will ultimately decide how good the Pistons can be this coming year.
At their worst, they're probably a 35-win team—and that's the extreme low end. Detroit's ceiling is somewhere around 46 or 47 wins if Jackson averages nearly 18 points and a little over nine assists like he did in his 27 games with the Pistons last year.
Let's go somewhere in the middle.
Prediction: 40-42 (Eighth in the East)
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