ESPN's Brian Windhorst calls Pistons 'hugely disappointing'
As expected, the Detroit Pistons’ recent skid has landed them negative national media attention.
The Detroit Pistons have earned some rare national airtime recently, but it’s definitely not the kind they wanted.
On Thursday, Dec. 22’s episode of The Lowe Post, ESPN writers Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst briefly discussed some of the NBA’s most disappointing teams to date. For Windhorst, the Pistons are “right there near the top of the disappointment list”:
[Detroit] really impressed me in the playoff series against the Cavs last year. Even though it was a sweep, [Detroit] pressed [Cleveland] really hard. Show me a player on their team that’s had progression. I mean, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has shown flashes. But Stanley Johnson has gone backwards. Reggie Jackson‘s been awful for them this year.
Both Windhorst and Lowe praised the play of Jon Leuer. Lowe correctly hinted that we might soon see Leuer in Detroit’s starting lineup.
Windhorst rightly noted that the reason why Detroit has been so “hugely disappointing” is because the team “felt like this was the year they’d hit the gas” and contend for home court advantage in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Lowe agreed that by any measure, the Pistons have been a disappointment:
Even a Pistons pessimist would have said, They’re probably a .500 team. Now they’re 14-17 and everyone hates Reggie Jackson and they’re all yelling at each other.
Well? It’s kind hard to argue with any of that.
The conversation was brief, and it certainly lacked nuance. National media coverage of a team like Detroit, even from writers as good as Windhorst and Lowe, is always going to trend toward exaggeration. It’s a stretch to say Jackson has been “awful” this season, at least without mentioning his return from injury. And I’m not sure sure everyone hates him, even if he is the source of some locker room tension.
But, yeah. This season’s been a bummer so far for Pistons fans. Stanley Johnson has seemed to take a step backward, and the Pistons have been awful with Jackson on the floor so far.
We know this team is better than their record shows. A strong performance against the Golden State Warriors even in a loss Saturday night may help turn public perception about this team around.
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