Detroit Pistons: 3 ways they can conclude their season perfectly

How the Detroit Pistons can conclude their season perfectly: Ride the youngsters

There isn’t anything fun about a tank season. Not for players, who in their heart of hearts know they’re rarely going to win games. Not for front office execs, who ostensibly have their jobs for the purpose of winning championships. Not for coaches, for a million reasons.

When you tank, you want to do it right. It’s a matter of precision, tanking the right way. The Pistons have done just that so far. They’ve given their young core the opportunity to grow and succeed and fail and expand their games, and along the way, they’ve managed to find themselves with the second-worst record in the NBA.

You don’t want to have to do this twice if it can be avoided, which is why it’s important to check all the “tanking correctly” boxes, and get lucky as well to win the lottery or at least not drop precipitously if things go badly when the balls start popping up in the hopper.

That’s all chance and luck, though. All the Pistons can do is continue to try to do things the right way, and in the final days of the season, that means riding their young core. Killian Hayes, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart, Saben Lee and Sekou Doumbouya all have more to prove and more they can show before the end of this season, and from all indications, they’re going to get plenty of opportunities to do so in the last games of the 2020-21 campaign.

And that’s tanking the right way for the Detroit Pistons.