Wizards Facing Heavy Underdog Odds Against Pistons

The 1-9 Washington Wizards have made very few composite arguments for a redemptive season in their first season post-roster “overhaul”, if the changes the front office made can even be referred to as such.

As they head into their next game against the 8-2 Detroit Pistons, who are led by Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren, Washington is an 11.5-point underdog according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Change Without Change

In drafting guard Tre Johnson and acquiring veterans CJ McCollum and Khris Middleton, Washington came into the 2025-26 season making a marked effort to finally break free of the expectations that two straight sub-twenty win seasons cast over the franchise.

Not only have those efforts not made the team better by any obvious metric, but they seem to have only confused the roster and rotation more so than before. The team yet again finds themselves at an all-time low, and in their next matchup with the Pistons, things are only expected to keep trending downward.

Representing exactly the sort of trajectory that the Wizards wish they were on right now, the Pistons have turned their former "worse in the conference" image into a team that, early on, appears to be in position to compete for finality in the top spot that they currently hold.

Gearin' up for a Motor City matchup 🚗#ForTheDistrict | @CapitalOne pic.twitter.com/ykWFmjKbTe
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) November 10, 2025

Needing More Wins Than One

For Washington, a single win at this stage in their season would do very little without a multitude in addition strung after it. Losing a few games to start the season is one thing, but digging what is now nearly a 10 game hole with only one win in response seems almost insurmountable.

Nov 5, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly (0) drive the ball against Boston Celtics guard/forward Jaylen Brown (7) in the second quarter at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images

To boot, the Wizards will be without starting forward and rising franchise cornerstone Bilal Coulibaly, as the forward misses his second extended period of time this season, now with a left calf contusion. An already down-and-out D.C. team needs all the help they can get against the top group in the Eastern Conference, and plainly, they won't have it.

Going into the matchup, Washington appears to be a team simply without the weapons to contend with a team far ahead of them in the rebuilding process, in that Detroit actually appears to have made it out of the other side.

If nothing else, fans should look for the continuation of the team's few positive trends up this point, such as the star-studded rise of sophomore forward Alex Sarr, who continues to lead the team in spite of their overall incoherence.

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