Detroit Pistons On Track for Worst Record in Franchise History

While the Detroit Pistons entered the season with high expectations for their young core, things didn't pan out that way. Following a year headlined by a record-long 28-game losing streak, the team finds itself on the wrong end of franchise history.

In their latest matchup, the Pistons traveled to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers. Without a handful of key players, they ended up losing to Joel Embiid and company. This loss guaranteed that Detroit could, at best, tie their worst record ever.

With three games left to go on the schedule, the Pistons have the NBA’s worst record at 13-66. If they managed to win all of these matchups, they’d finish the year at 16-66. Anything worse than this means the Pistons will have a new record-low win total for a season.

The last time Detroit won just 16 games came back in the 1980 season. To note, the Pistons’ 17-65 record last season is currently the second-worst record they’ve had.

Even though things didn’t pan out for the Pistons in the standings, they still have some positives to look at from this year. For starters, Cade Cunningham bounced back in a big way after missing most of last year due to injury. Second-year big man Jalen Duren also took massive strides in his development as he is on pace to average a double-double for the season.

Along with the developments of their core players, the Pistons also set themselves up nicely for the future. They brought in multiple complementary pieces at trade deadline, and cleared up a sizable amount of cap space to use in free agency this summer.

The Pistons’ journey to not setting a new franchise low in wins starts on Thursday when they take on the Chicago Bulls. After that, they’ll finish the season with matchups against the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs.