My plan for today was to write about the Lions and recap their season, but after watching the Pistons and the Bulls play last night, and for some reason I watched the debacle against the Mavs tonight, I have to get this all off my chest.  This team is really bad, but the worst part is everyone is under contract after this season and beyond.

After the back-to-back outings against the Bulls and Mavericks, loses for a combined 38 points, it is clear this team is going nowhere this season and for years to come.  Joe D may be beloved for bringing a championship to Detroit as a player and executive, but the way he will leave the team may be his lasting legacy.

This should be a make-or-break year for Joe with new owner Tom Gores not a basketball man and it looks like Joe will be out the door soon with the product we have on the court.  He has made a many bad decisions in the past two years or so to put the team in this situation.

• On November 3, 2008 Joe trades Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson and his expiring contract.  Now this move was billed as genius throughout the league because the Pistons would have lots of cap room come the summer of 2010 with all of the big name free agents.  But instead…
• Summer of 2009 Joe signs Ben Gordon for 5 years/$55 million and Charlie Villanueva for 5 years/$35 million, spoiling all of the cap room he made.  Instead of sucking that season for a high draft pick and lots of money to spend on free agents, the Pistons sucked, leading to a high draft pick but had no money to spend on free agents.
• 2010, outside of drafting Greg Monroe was uneventful as they were awful again.
• 2011 brings Gores in and allows Joe to keep his job to rebuild this team.  In the offseason Joe resigns Stuckey, Tayshaun and Jerebko to keep the 30 win team exactly the same.  The only thing right so far is buying out Rip, but that move actually made the team worse as he was the only player on the roster who should play shooting guard.

As this season drags on the only positive we have to look for is the development of Monroe, Jerebko and Brandon Knight as they seem to be the only players of this ‘core’ with the potential to become better players.  The rest are what they are and Pistons fans have to deal with that.

If this team ends up winning more than 10 games this season I would be shocked.  On the bright side there is always college basketball, need to find out who is going to be our #1 pick next season (but please, no players from overseas.)