National Basketball Association

3 points: The comeback Clippers, a Knicks logjam and the lowly Pistons

Updated Dec. 19, 2023 6:37 p.m. ET

The NBA In-Season Tournament is complete and Christmas — the unofficial start of the NBA regular season — is around the corner. That makes this a perfect time to check in with one surging team, one flailing team and one at a crossroads.

1. We all owe the Clippers an apology

Remember when the James Harden deal looked like a disaster and we were all ready to bury the Clippers? Turns out they might have actually known what they were doing. The Clippers, suddenly winners of eight straight, are now 16-10 and own the NBA's fifth-best net rating. In the past three weeks, they've beaten the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks and notched two wins against the Sacramento Kings.

What's going right? For one, the early losing streak after the Harden deal gave the Clippers the necessary cover to remove Russell Westbrook from the starting lineup — a move which was obvious they needed to make. Their new starting lineup of Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George Ivica Zubac and Terance Mann — who took Westbrook's place — has roasted opponents by 16.5 points per 100 possessions. It's a lineup that makes sense, too. Harden runs the point with Zubac and Mann setting screens and George and Leonard taking advantage of all that extra space.

It's also worth pointing out that Kawhi is once again playing like an MVP. He's averaging 24.1 points per game and bordering on a 50-40-90 season (51.4 FG%, 44.1 3P%, 87 FT%) while posting career best advanced shooting numbers. Most incredible, though, is that he's played every game! Yes, you read that correctly.

Put it all together, and you have a sleeping giant — one that, come playoff time, could be favored in any series save for a matchup with the Denver Nuggets.

2. The Knicks have too many good players

This sounds like a joke, but in a sport where chemistry impacts winning and in a league governed by a salary cap, it can actually present a problem.

In the past few weeks, we've heard two Knicks players publicly complain about their roles. First it was Josh Hart who told reporters that he didn't "feel included" by the Knicks' offense. Then it was Quentin Grimes complaining about how hard it was to perform when "you got a whole quarter without touching the ball." Meanwhile, Immanuel Quickley, last year's Sixth Man of the Year runner-up and a player in a contract year, has seen his minutes slashed from 29 per game to 24. He hasn't complained to the media, but you can be sure he's not happy about it.

There are different issues at play here. When it comes to Hart, I'm not quite sure what he's looking for. Yeah, it can be hard to play alongside a pair of high-usage players like Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson, but Hart's also a role player. An energy guy. That's his skillset. He's not someone who's going to get plays drawn up for him, nor should he.

The Grimes and Quickley situations are different. Those are two good young players trying to make names for themselves and who think they're capable of more — and they might be right. With Grimes, at least, the Knicks have time; he's still just in his third season. But the Knicks have now reached a point with Quickley where it seems like they're stuck. He's going to want to get paid in the off-season, which will be hard for the Knicks because of how deep their roster is. In theory, then, they should be dealing him before the upcoming trade deadline, but can a team competing for a playoff spot really dump a player as talented as Quickley?

Part of this is a result of the Knicks' spending the past three years collecting assets to go hunting for a big star, only to not find one they deem worthy of chasing. And so you have young players like Quickley and Obi Toppin — who they dumped in the offseason — growing into more expensive rotation players who expect money and touches. But at some point, for the sake of asset management and locker room chemistry, the Knicks need to settle for some sort of smaller two-for-one type deal.

3. The Pistons are a disgrace

After their 130-124 loss Monday night to the Atlanta Hawks, the Detroit Pistons have now dropped 24 games in a row. That's the third most in NBA history. Lose two more and they'll tie the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers for most consecutive losses. Lose three more and they'll own the record for longest losing streak in NBA history. Congrats to them!

There's no way to sugarcoat any of this — this current streak is a disaster, and one that's eating at everyone within the Pistons' organization. Remember, this is not Year 1 of a teardown; this is a team that hasn't won more than 30% of its games in any of the past four seasons and that's three years into the Troy Weaver regime that was supposed to help reset things. Instead, the Pistons seem to be going backwards.

How'd this happen? Cade Cunningham, drafted first overall in 2021 and pegged as the player to lead them out of the darkness, not becoming That Guy has hurt. His shooting numbers (42.2 FG%, 31.5 3P%) and catch-all advanced stats are basically the same as they were during his rookie season, and he's clearly not impacting winning.

That's not to say that he's a bust. Cunningham is already a solid NBA player and could grow into something more. And there are other intriguing young talents on the roster, like Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson and Jaden Ivey. But those three are super young, and super raw, and the roster around them is just a disaster and the positions these players have often been put in have, frankly, been puzzling. Most notable has been the Pistons' insistence on sticking with two-big lineups featuring Isaiah Stewart as a stretch-four, a position for which he does not have the skills.

Let's talk a moment about the man drawing up those lineups. In the offseason, the Pistons lured Monty Williams with a six-year, $78.5 million contract, making him the highest-paid coach in NBA history. The hire and contract didn't make sense then and makes even less sense now. Williams was successful in Phoenix, but that was when running a win-now team with Chris Paul at the helm. But he also butted-heads with DeAndre Ayton, a very young and very raw former No. 1 pick, and he seems to be having similar issues with Ivey who, for unclear reasons, has often been banished from the rotation. This is last year's fifth overall pick, and he's only averaging 24 minutes per game for a team that stinks!

Also, if you'll remember, Williams initially wasn't interested in the Pistons job — that's why the Pistons had to write such a big check. It's never a good sign when the man hired to coach your team is only there because you basically literally made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Put it all together, and you have one of the biggest disasters in recent NBA history. Compare them to the two teams who hold the record for most consecutive losses: you have the Process Sixers, who were in the midst of a teardown and were okay losing, and the Cavs the year after LeBron left. Those were different situations. Which is what makes this current Pistons streak so ugly and unlike any NBA losing streak we've ever seen.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.

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