Twenty-four games into the 2011-12 season, the Detroit Pistons were 4-19. However, they are currently playing some inspired basketball and are 7-3 in the last ten games.  Here is a good piece on what forward Jason Maxiell has provided since moving into the starting lineup.

Sitting at 11-22 right now, I have been very intrigued by this team. They have a nice young core with center Greg Monroe and rookie Brandon Knight. The Pistons also have scorers like Rodney Stuckey and Ben Gordon. This last week was also very impressive, as the Pistons went 3-1, beating the Boston Celtics twice and the Sacramento Kings. But the question remains, can this team make a run in the 2nd half of the season to get in the postseason or was this week a fluke?

For now, I believe this week wasn’t a fluke, however, I feel like they will not make it into the postseason either. They only sit 5 games out of the eighth spot in the East yet this is obviously a rebuilding team with young talent. This past week was hopefully a glimpse into the future. Stuckey had a great week, scoring a season high 36 points against the Kings. In the four games, he dropped 100 points and shot pretty well from the floor.  Not to be out done, Knight contributed  23 points and 10 assists, with no turnovers.

Another storyline that came about this week was head coach Lawrence Frank’s interview with 97.1 the Ticket about whether or not the Pistons organization was concerned about their drafting status. Here’s what he told the Ticket, according to Mlive.com:

“Our job is to give 100 percent, best effort, otherwise we’re stealing money,” Frank said in an interview with 97.1 The Ticket. “As I understand, from a theoretical standpoint, it’s a great draft coming up, so let’s get a lot of ping balls. But as a player or coach, if we think that way, they should fire us. You can’t do it. One, we make a lot of money to go out and do our jobs. Also, for the people that support our team, that would be one heck of an indictment to know that your team wasn’t giving its best effort because they were playing for next year.”

I like this statement from Frank. I know that most fans are worried about getting an impact player like Harrison Barnes or Anthony Davis. But in the drafts, there are never any guarantees. So my hope for the remaining of the year is that the Pistons continue to improve and become a team. Complete teams are the ones who win championships.