10% to blame - Cade Cuningham and the players themselves
Now that 85% of the blame pie is filled out, we must turn to the smaller parties to blame. The coach and general manager obviously make up a lot of a team’s culture, but the star player is also a big part of this.
Cade Cunningham simply has not been good enough this season and has not led by example for the rest of this young Pistons team. On face value alone, 22.2 PPG and 7.1 APG sounds like a productive season, but when your team has lost 25 games in a row, there needs to be some accountability from the team’s best player.
Look no further than Detroit’s last loss against the Utah Jazz. There is no reason that a depleted Jazz team playing their 6th game in 9 days should be able to beat a hungry-Pistons team coming off of two-days rest and playing in front of their home crowd.
At some point, the players on the court need to take over and simply refuse to let their team lose at home when they are desperate for a win and even more desperate to avoid making the history books as one of the longest-losing streaks in NBA history.
5% to blame - Injuries
Injuries are something that feels like a cop out to use as an excuse, because every team is dealing with injuries in the NBA. With that being said, it is fair to give a small percentage of the blame pie to injuries and some bad luck for Detroit.
Monte Morris has been injured all season and would be a great veteran PG who can actually space the floor and provide a calming presence on the court when things start to get out of hand. Jalen Duren has missed half of their games and is arguably their best interior player. Bojan Bogdanovic is a lights-out shooter who is just now coming back from injury and has only played in nine games this season.
Fair or not to use injuries as an excuse, it is very likely that if Duren, Morris, and Bogdanovic had been healthy all at the same time earlier this season, the 25-game losing streak likely never happens. Sure, the Pistons might still only have a meager 5-6 record, but they wouldn’t be getting discussed as one of the worst teams in NBA history.
The Pistons look to break the skid or set the all-time losing record in the next couple of days with back-to-back games against the Brooklyn Nets. If Detroit cannot pull out a win over the next two games, they will become the sole leader for the longest losing streak during an NBA season, and the holiday season will almost certainly be ruined for Pistons fans across the globe.