Two points. First, I think the article underestimates the effect of injuries on PER and related stats. Look at Tayshaun. Not only was he out a lot of the year, but recent games indicate that often, even when he played, he wasn’t feeling 100% and therefore wasn’t performing up to his capabilities. And even the guys who were healthy, well, when they’re playing with a significantly depleted roster, that’s going to hurt their stats. See Stuckey’s low assist numbers in various stretches of the year. Yes, he’s not a pure PG and he needs to work on the distributing aspect of his game. But also, he’s been on the floor a lot with a bunch of guys who aren’t scorers at all. I still say if everyone had been healthy, or as healthy as an average NBA team, this would have been about a .500 squad.

Of course .500 isn’t good enough, which brings me to my second point. Yes, barring something odd, we will have Gordon and CV on our squad for a while and not a lot of cap room. But I still think there’s a chance both could play significantly better. That would in part be due to everyone getting healthier, but also because I think Detroit can get a more balanced roster. OK, so we’re not going to get a dominant big man in the post. I don’t think it’s out of the question that we could get one or two basically competent bigs who could score, albeit not dominate, in the post. Guys who are just a couple of notches better than Kwame and Wilcox could make a big difference, in terms of allowing Detroit to spread the floor and getting Gordon and CV better shots. I still worry about their defense, but we’re never going back to the lockdown D of the 2003-6 Pistons — and given league rules, I’m not sure trying to do that would work.

In short, if either through the draft or through a shrewd non-blockbuster trade, we get a competent post scorer and everyone stays healthy, well, we could be significantly better than .500. To challenge for a ‘ship, we would have to get lucky beyond that, though, and that’s where my silver ball gets cloudy..

Or, Joe could screw up the high draft pick, not be able to make a decent trade, and we’ll be stuck with a team whose offense relies on guards shooting mid-range jumpers and driving into clogged lanes, and whose defense is suspect.

Finally, if you wanted more evidence about Joe’s problems drafting, how about this fun fact from the RealGM piece: JJ was “Detroit’s first Rookie of the Month since Zeljko Rebraca in 2002.”

Wow, this is almost unbelievable, literally:

In the offseason, they traded Amir Johnson to clear just a little more cap space, signed Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to monster contracts of $55 million and $35 million over five seasons. Detroit has three five-man units with at least 100 minutes and two of them have a positive +/-, but neither player is included.

It’s (ironically) nice to see that it’s not just Pistons fans, who are inevitably a bit biased, that are pointing out JoD’s blunders and the bleak future we appear to have. Kinda cathartic, in a way, and at least we know we’re not crazy for thinking what we do.