The Young Pistons Are Trying to Bring Back That ‘Bad Boys’ Feeling

WASHINGTON — It was early in the fourth quarter, and the Detroit Pistons were attempting to come back from a double-digit deficit against the Wizards. Kevin Knox, a 23-year-old forward, committed an unnecessary defensive foul. Pistons Coach Dwane Casey’s head snapped downward ever so slightly, as if he were trying to suppress his frustration.

On the next play, Knox committed another foul — this time against the star guard Bradley Beal on a step-back jumper. Beal hit the shot and the free throw. Now, Casey, in his 14th year as a head coach, was expressionless.

This has been the job for him with the Pistons — being tolerant of mistakes. As much as he can let himself be. Growing pains, he calls them.

“They’re going to make mistakes,” Casey said after the game Tuesday. “When you were a young writer, you probably made some mistakes in your writing. And it’s the same thing. Guys are going to make young mistakes.”

The next night, the Pistons played the Atlanta Hawks much closer, but a series of mistakes down the stretch meant another loss, part of a 1-4 start to the season. Still, the kids are all right. Not good, mind you — not yet. But the Pistons are not expected to be terrible either, a shift from the last decade or so of Detroit basketball.

The current roster — among the youngest in the N.B.A. — is filled with potential stars who are giving the fan base hope during a multiyear rebuild now purportedly entering its next phase. Leading the charge are Cade Cunningham, the first pick of the 2021 draft, and Jaden Ivey, the fifth pick of this year’s draft. If all goes well, Cunningham and Ivey could be the next great N.B.A. backcourt. However, that requires everything to go right — and most N.B.A. rebuilds do not.

But first, don’t call it a rebuild. The Pistons brass has taken to calling the process a restoration.

“Detroit’s been great,” Pistons General Manager Troy Weaver said. “My dad used to restore older cars, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Weaver said there had been “two great iterations” of Pistons: Isiah Thomas’s Bad Boys in the late 1980s, who won two championships, and the early 2000s team with Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace, who won in 2004. Both versions were defined by a hard-nosed, not-always-pretty style of play.

“We want to model that,” Weaver said. “A lot of people want to come in and reinvent the wheel. We want to stay true to what works in Detroit.”

As that process continues, the team is also dealing with internal turmoil: Rob Murphy, the Pistons’ assistant general manager and the president and general manager of the franchise’s G League team, is on leave and under investigation for possible workplace misconduct, according to a person familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak about the investigation. Murphy joined the franchise in March 2021, about a year after Weaver came to Detroit.

When Weaver was named general manager in June 2020, he took over a franchise that had been to the playoffs only twice since 2009 and hadn’t won a playoff series since 2008. For more than a decade, the team had been directionless, led by ill-fitting sort-of stars like Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe. Weaver rapidly cleared out veterans with long-term contracts, such as the former All-Star forward Blake Griffin, and began to rebuild, er, restore. There are no players left from the team Weaver took over, a head-spinning roster turnover.

“I didn’t expect it to be a whole new team,” Weaver said. “I thought it’d be a gradual process.”

Rebuilding in the N.B.A. usually comes in three phases. 1. Clear out dead-weight contracts. (Check!) 2. Accumulate high draft picks and use them on talented young players — which means losing a lot of games. (Check!) 3. Find success by trading developing players for stars (2008 Boston Celtics) or by watching those players become stars (the current Golden State dynasty).

Point No. 3 is always the hardest, and many teams have failed. The Pistons have assembled a talented core, centered on Cunningham — fortuitous draft luck — and Ivey. Cunningham, a 21-year-old in his second year, has shown flashes of stardom. After a slow start during his rookie year, he averaged 21.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game on 45.7 percent shooting over his final 20 games. He’s skilled at getting into the paint but has struggled with his jump shot. Cunningham seems to have embraced his role as franchise cornerstone, frequently being the first one off the bench to encourage teammates.

“I feel like if I win games and I continue to help grow the organization, that will take us to another level and take my game and my social life in Detroit to another level,” Cunningham said.

The 20-year-old Ivey has been an impactful player in the starting lineup already, averaging 16.0 points and 5.5 assists per game on 48 percent shooting in four games. He’s a creative finisher in the paint and is showing surprising 3-point shooting prowess (42.9 percent), despite not being a particularly strong shooter in his two seasons at Purdue University.

Other young players have shown potential, too. Forward Saddiq Bey, 23, dropped 51 points in a game last year. Center Jalen Duren, drafted eight picks after Ivey, has started his career on a strong note as well — averaging 8.2 points and 8.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game in only 21.4 minutes a game. He is the youngest active player in the N.B.A.

Wins have, however, been hard to come by. Isaiah Stewart, a talented but raw 21-year-old center, is prone to lapses on defense. Against the Wizards on Tuesday, Stewart repeatedly left Kristaps Porzingis, a strong shooting big man, wide open from the perimeter, which Porzingis exploited. The next night, Atlanta’s Trae Young kept maneuvering into the paint for his patented floater, while Stewart repeatedly sagged off instead of aggressively contesting. Young finished with an easy-looking 35 points.

Last season, Detroit finished with one of the worst records in the N.B.A. at 23-59. This year, if restoration continues according to plan, the Pistons should be significantly better.

“We want to be competitive,” Weaver said. “Finally feel like we’re at ground zero. Now, we’re going to be competitive every night. We finally have enough depth to be able to do that.”

But this is where rebuilding plans can go awry. Developing a young core requires patience, but the N.B.A. is a business: Detroit ranked near the bottom of the league in attendance last year, according to ESPN, and has already done a lot of losing this century.

“The league is not going to wait for you just because you’re a young team,” said Cory Joseph, 31, one of the older players on the team.

Coaches and general managers can feel pressure to win games — a natural byproduct of being in the world of competitive sports — but Weaver insisted that the organization was willing to be patient, regardless of the standings. There is a plan.

“Every morning, you want to drink a cup of urgency, and at night you want to drink a cup of patience,” Weaver said, adding: “You’ve got to let it organically happen. And I think a lot of teams, they shortcut the process. They get impatient with process. We won’t do that.”