Detroit Pistons: Player grades at the midseason point
By Duncan Smith
The Detroit Pistons have hit the midseason point along with the rest of the NBA, and for a team looking to bounce back in their rebuild process, things couldn’t have gone much better. They have the NBA’s second-worst record and after looking like they may be a bit better than their record, a few tough losses have solidified their hold on a top lottery slot.
Through the first half of the season, the overarching theme for this team seems to revolve around reclamation projects making good. Josh Jackson and Dennis Smith Jr. are both on this track, and it stands to reason that this will continue to be something general manager Troy Weaver uses as a way to develop talent.
Detroit Pistons player grades at the midseason point
The Pistons have had near-total roster turnover since the beginning of the offseason in November. After trading Derrick Rose earlier this season and buying Blake Griffin out of the rest of his contract, only two players remain from last year’s team: Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Sekou Doumbouya.
Mykhailiuk has been a Piston since February of 2019, and he is the longest-tenured player on the roster. Doumbouya is last season’s first-round pick.
Plenty has changed since even the one-month mark of the season when we took a look up and down this roster and gave grades, so we’re going to revisit these grades and update them for the mid-point.
We’re only going to grade the players who are actually on this team, which means that Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose will not be re-graded. Neither played much since the one-month grades anyway, and neither would have re-graded well, so consider that a small mercy for both.
Our grades will begin with the starters before moving to the bench, and we will compare current grades to those of the one-month mark. You can go back and read those here.