Former Detroit Pistons Playing Significant Roles In Orlando Bubble

In the strangest campaign the NBA has ever seen, 22 teams are preparing to resume their season in Orlando in a seeding group of games before the playoffs begin. You won’t find the Detroit Pistons among this group, but after going 20-46 as of the season’s suspension due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we’ve seen just about enough of 2019-20’s edition of the team anyway.

While this year’s squad won’t be anywhere near the playoffs, there’s a diaspora of former Pistons scattered all over the NBA, and many of them are playing in the Orlando bubble. In fact, quite a few are important contributors for teams that expect to make the playoffs.

These players ranged in role with the Pistons from an unheralded rookie who never really made a mark in Detroit (Khris Middleton, now a star with the Milwaukee Bucks) to starters as recently as February (Reggie Jackson and Markieff Morris).

The list is long.

Markieff Morris, Avery Bradley and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all play for the Los Angeles Lakers (Bradley will sit out of the NBA’s restart). Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris play for the LA Clippers. Tobias Harris and Glenn Robinson III play for the Philadelphia 76ers. Khris Middleton, Stanley Johnson, Ish Smith, Boban Marjanovic, Aron Baynes and Spencer Dinwiddie are scattered among the Bucks, the Toronto Raptors, the Washington Wizards, the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns and the Brooklyn Nets respectively (Dinwiddie has been ruled out of the Orlando bubble due to COVID-19).

It’s not unusual in today’s NBA to see teams have former players all over the league. Player movement is de rigueur as long career tenures with one team become more rare over time. However, there are a few reasons for Pistons fans to feel especially conflicted about the absence and eventual success of these players.

Where Is The Value?

On a list of 13 active NBA players, you’d expect some sort of value in return for these departures. A look at the actual return is nothing shy of disappointing.

Middleton was traded in a package that eventually became Blake Griffin (Middleton for Brandon Jennings, who was moved for Tobias Harris, who was subsequently traded as part of a package for Griffin), so this lineage at least produces an NBA player.

Reggie Jackson and Markieff Morris were bought out this past offseason after apparently the Pistons couldn’t drum up trade interest in either. Stanley Johnson was traded as part of a deal that brought Thon Maker to Detroit, but Maker’s future with the Pistons is uncertain as a pending free agent.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was allowed to walk (thanks to a trade of Marcus Morris for Avery Bradley, who was included in the Griffin trade), as were Ish Smith and Robinson. Spencer Dinwiddie was essentially released, traded to the Chicago Bulls for Cameron Bairstow, who was shortly thereafter waived and hasn’t played in the NBA since.

Boban Marjanovic was included with Harris and Bradley in the trade for Griffin.

In effect, between the players who departed for nothing and players who were traded for NBA players, all the Detroit Pistons have to show for a dozen departing active players to playoff (or playoff adjacent) teams is Thon Maker and an aging Blake Griffin.

Hometown Ineptitude Makes Everything Worse

It might be an easier pill for Pistons fans to swallow if there was some matching success in Detroit. However, the Pistons haven’t won a playoff game — let alone a series — in over a decade. Their stretch of ineptitude goes back to 2008, long before even the most veteran player in this group entered the NBA.

While the Pistons can’t buy a playoff win, between the Lakers, Clippers, Bucks, Sixers or Raptors, chances are strong an ex-Piston will be an NBA champion this season.

Fans can root for or against their former players, but it’s always going to be tinged with at least a hint of bitterness. It’s nice to see these players you used to follow so closely do well, but there will always be the question: Why couldn’t it have been here?

You can’t blame the players for organizational ineptitude, but sometimes the lines blur for fans. Some of these former players will thrive in their new homes but never got their just dues in Detroit.

It’s part of the business, but for a city like Detroit, so starved for sports success, it can be harder to digest.