Speaker 1: Welcome to this League Uncut. You rule a twenty four
Speaker 1: hour NBA news. This news you, Chris Haines. It's time,
Speaker 1: work's time, It's so time. This League Uncut is underway
Speaker 1: and on five this should be a good one.
Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome in to the latest edition of This
Speaker 2: League Uncut. A solo essay edition of This League Uncut.
Speaker 2: My dear friend Chris Haynes and I we've both been
Speaker 2: on the run since the NBA's five game Christmas Day buffet.
Speaker 2: We will connect again very soon to resume usual service.
Speaker 2: But what happened Tuesday night in the NBA. It demanded
Speaker 2: an immediate response because man t seven losses in a
Speaker 2: row twenty seven. Remember you have to get twenty seven
Speaker 2: outs in a row in baseball to pitch a perfect game.
Speaker 2: Losing a completely blemished twenty seven NBA games in a
Speaker 2: row in the modern NBA, that is really, really, really
Speaker 2: hard to do. And yet it really just happened Tuesday
Speaker 2: night Nets one point eighteen Pistons one to twelve in Detroit.
Speaker 2: And I've written extensively on this on my substack as well.
Speaker 2: This losing streak, it honestly goes back to mid May
Speaker 2: for the Pistons, it's lasted longer than six months. As
Speaker 2: bad as the last few nights have been for Detroit,
Speaker 2: they couldn't beat a severely weakened Jazz team at home
Speaker 2: to avoid lost number twenty five in a row. They
Speaker 2: couldn't figure out how to beat the Nets in either
Speaker 2: half of a home and home to stop this thing
Speaker 2: before it got to twenty six and now the single
Speaker 2: season record twenty seven consecutive defeats. However, as low as
Speaker 2: these last few clinching ls have left the Pistons Tuesday, amazingly,
Speaker 2: that was not the worst day of twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: for this beleaguered franchise. Super bad, Yes, it was super bad.
Speaker 2: Not the low point, though. Nothing hit the Pistons harder
Speaker 2: than what happened in Chicago on May sixteenth. I was
Speaker 2: there in the room in Chicago when the NBA draft
Speaker 2: lottery dropped the Pistons. They had the league's worst record
Speaker 2: in the league remember last season worst record seventeen and
Speaker 2: sixty five. The lottery results dropped the Pistons as far
Speaker 2: as they could mathematically plummet in the Victor Wemberyama Sweepstakes.
Speaker 2: Detroit cratered that day from a potential number one in
Speaker 2: the draft all the way down to number five, and
Speaker 2: that was true devastation because that was their shot at Wenby.
Speaker 2: You have to say, though, that Tuesday Night was plenty
Speaker 2: devastating in its own right. These Pistons have now lost
Speaker 2: more games in a single season than any other team
Speaker 2: across the NBA's seventy eight seasons. And part of what
Speaker 2: makes it so hard to take when you're looking at
Speaker 2: the circumstances surrounding the two teams that they've just supplanted
Speaker 2: on this list that nobody wants to be on Detroit's
Speaker 2: twenty seven game skid. Just say it out loud again,
Speaker 2: twenty seven game skid. That's one lost longer than both
Speaker 2: the twenty ten to eleven Cleveland Cavaliers, who had just
Speaker 2: lost Lebron James to the Heatles in free agency. Well,
Speaker 2: they lost him to the heat and then they became
Speaker 2: the Heatles with Lebron, as well as the twenty thirteen
Speaker 2: to fourteen Process Sixers, who were trying to lose for
Speaker 2: draft position. These Pistons were not trying to lose the season. Remember,
Speaker 2: they started the season with dreams of a playing spot
Speaker 2: in the East seriously playing spot. That was the that
Speaker 2: was the target, the minimum target that this team thought
Speaker 2: it was competing for. Pistons again, they were two to
Speaker 2: one on October twenty eighth, after surviving zach Lavine's fifty
Speaker 2: one points to win their home opener. And yes, you
Speaker 2: heard me correctly. It's the same zach Lavine who the
Speaker 2: Chicago Bulls so badly want a trade. Now, there have
Speaker 2: been eight fifty point games registered this season by the
Speaker 2: various scoring machines all around the league. The first of
Speaker 2: those came from zach Lavine. He went for fifty at
Speaker 2: Little Caesar's Arena October twenty eighth, and somehow Detroit survived that.
Speaker 2: Since then, I don't really know that we can use
Speaker 2: the words celebrated here, but exaggerated air quotes you can employ.
Speaker 2: The Pistons have celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas without
Speaker 2: adding a single win to that total. Now, in the
Speaker 2: interest of being ultra factual here, we must point out
Speaker 2: that the Wembin Yama led Spurs at four and twenty
Speaker 2: five entering Wednesday's play, not much better off in the
Speaker 2: standings than the two and twenty eight Pistons. The massive difference,
Speaker 2: of course, is that San Antonio has the seven foot
Speaker 2: five Wembin Yama to build around. So Spurs fans, no
Speaker 2: matter how bad the present is, they have tangible dreams
Speaker 2: and reason to at least imagine picture a return to
Speaker 2: glory down the road. Poor Pistons fans right now, they
Speaker 2: only see despair, an uncertainty, and an extremely lonely Cad
Speaker 2: Cunningham who's playing quite well. That's what they're looking at now,
Speaker 2: after a decade plus of team building that has absolutely
Speaker 2: gone awry. Think about this. Detroit essentially entered this current
Speaker 2: rebuilding mode as far back as the twenty nineteen twenty season.
Speaker 2: That's when they traded Andre Drummond to Cleveland, they bought
Speaker 2: out Reggie Jackson. Blake Griffin only played in eighteen of
Speaker 2: sixty six games that season, the pandemic shortened season. Blake
Speaker 2: Griffin was bought out that following season in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. So the Pistons, these guys are in
Speaker 2: year three of this supposed rebuild. And that's if we're
Speaker 2: being nice with the way we count, and even if
Speaker 2: we are being gentle by saying year three rather than
Speaker 2: year four, that's the most minuscule of concessions you can
Speaker 2: make at a time when last season's record, that's seventeen
Speaker 2: and sixty five record, when Cad Cunningham was limited to
Speaker 2: twelve games last season before he had to undergo season
Speaker 2: ending shin surgery. When seventeen and sixty five feels so
Speaker 2: far out of reach and the calendar hasn't even flipped
Speaker 2: to January first yet, I don't really know how nice
Speaker 2: were being. I mean, the Pistons in their current state,
Speaker 2: they're gonna need an eight and forty four finish, which
Speaker 2: you could actually classify as an eight and forty four
Speaker 2: surge when you have only won two of your first
Speaker 2: thirty games. They're gonna have to go eight and forty
Speaker 2: four to finish better than the nineteen seventy two seventy
Speaker 2: three Philadelphia seventy six ers who went nine and seventy three.
Speaker 2: If you really study the history books, you'll note that
Speaker 2: the Charlotte Hornets of twenty eleven twelve. Those Hornets went
Speaker 2: seven to fifty nine during a lockout shortened season that
Speaker 2: only lasted sixty six games. The Hornets fared worse than
Speaker 2: those infamous seventy six ers percentage wise, but it's really
Speaker 2: the nine and seventy three mark through the years that
Speaker 2: has retained the greater historical relevance in terms of a
Speaker 2: symbol of futility. But the Pistons right now they are
Speaker 2: on a five and seventy seven pace five and seventy seven.
Speaker 2: This team has the chance to possibly knock both the
Speaker 2: nine and seventy three Sixers and the seven and fifty
Speaker 2: nine Hornets. They might knock both of these teams out
Speaker 2: of the record books. The franchise has a three sixty
Speaker 2: eight winning percentage since the start of the twenty eleven
Speaker 2: twelve season under Tom Gores as majority owner. That's three
Speaker 2: fifty eight and six fourteen in Gores' twelve full seasons.
Speaker 2: The once proud Pistons, they've made the playoffs twice. They
Speaker 2: haven't won a playoff game since two thousand and eight. Now,
Speaker 2: I've got to put my own hand up here and
Speaker 2: say that in the offseason I applauded goers for spending
Speaker 2: so much to bring in Monty Williams because the Pistons
Speaker 2: aren't making free agent splashes with on court free agents,
Speaker 2: so a lot of people looked at that contract nearly
Speaker 2: eighty million over six years. It shocked a lot of people,
Speaker 2: but I did see it as a breakthrough moment four
Speaker 2: Gores and the Pistons. To me, it was a clear
Speaker 2: dub inspired by that old maxim that tells us there's
Speaker 2: no salary cap when it comes to coaches. There is
Speaker 2: no way now when you evaluate the Pistons and their situation,
Speaker 2: that you can apply that kind of analysis now. League
Speaker 2: sources told me that Gores met with various players as
Speaker 2: well as GM Troy Weaver and Monti Williams a week
Speaker 2: ago today in Detroit, both in search of answers behind
Speaker 2: closed doors, and it was an attempt to lift spirits
Speaker 2: that didn't work either. The next night was the game
Speaker 2: against Utah, where the Jazz were resting numerous regulars and
Speaker 2: the Pistons lost at home one nineteen one to eleven.
Speaker 2: No market In, no Clarkson, no Keyante George, no Taylor,
Speaker 2: Horton Tucker still couldn't beat the Jazz, who were playing
Speaker 2: on the second night of a back to back. And
Speaker 2: part of what has to make this so galling and
Speaker 2: hard for Pistons fans to accept It was roughly a
Speaker 2: year ago at this time that the Pistons they were
Speaker 2: actively resisting external trade interest in guys like Boyan Bogdanovich
Speaker 2: and Alec Burks. It happened again during the summer. They
Speaker 2: wanted to keep quality veterans on the roster so that
Speaker 2: a young core led by Cad Cunningham and Jalen Duran
Speaker 2: would have win now players around them, and again the
Speaker 2: hope was to make a push at worst for a
Speaker 2: play in spot in this season's East. Now the Pistons
Speaker 2: awoke Wednesday already eleven games behind the tenth seeded Bowls,
Speaker 2: the fourteen and eighteen Bowls, who won't even have Levine
Speaker 2: back on the floor until some point in the new year,
Speaker 2: and who just lost Nikolovucevich to an injury as well.
Speaker 2: It's become a very grim game throughout the NBA to
Speaker 2: look at the Pistons' upcoming schedule and try to figure
Speaker 2: out how many more holidays are going to pass before
Speaker 2: they finally win again. Are we talking New Year's Day?
Speaker 2: Are we talking Valentine's Day? The best upcoming opportunities to
Speaker 2: scrounge a win would appear to be on Saturday. They've
Speaker 2: got a home date with Toronto. The Raptors are eleven
Speaker 2: and eighteen and going in the wrong direction. The Pistons
Speaker 2: have a January third rematch with Utah, that one's in
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City, and on January tenth, they've got the
Speaker 2: Spurs in town with mister wenman Yama himself. You'd probably
Speaker 2: have an easier chance though, trying to predict when the
Speaker 2: Pistons are going to find that win than trying to
Speaker 2: pinpoint their next shot at a Wembe level prize in
Speaker 2: the draft. Because the twenty twenty four draft do not
Speaker 2: expect anything resembling last season's anticipation and hooplah, the widespread
Speaker 2: sentiment around the league is that the top of the
Speaker 2: draft board in June it's gonna be far more underwhelming
Speaker 2: than usual. And the simple translation when you boil all
Speaker 2: that down is this is a bad season for the
Speaker 2: franchise once famed for their title winning bad boys to
Speaker 2: be super bad. All right, everyone, that's gonna do it.
Speaker 2: For this quickie solo monologue edition of This League Uncut,
Speaker 2: I repeat, Chris and I will be back with you
Speaker 2: very very soon this week. As always, please remember to rate, review,
Speaker 2: and subscribe to the show if you haven't already. Thanks
Speaker 2: for listening, and.
Speaker 1: That'll do it for us, See you next time. This
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