The Pistons‘ first postseason appearance since the 2015/16 campaign ended with four straight losses, but the organization will continue to look for ways to win more games. Owner Tom Gores spoke with the media following the sweep at the hands of the Bucks, squashing any notion that Detroit will take one step back in order to two steps forward.
“I just don’t believe in the idea of whatever you want to call it — tanking or losing,” Gores said (via Rod Beard of The Detroit News). “We need a winning culture and let’s just see what happens from there. I don’t think sports is about that. You can’t get on the court and think about losing. I just don’t believe in it … I’m not going to get into that business.”
Gores said that the Pistons need to “make more progress.” Detroit won 41 games this year, up from 39 and 37 respectively over the previous two seasons.
The improvement didn’t come without a price, as team salary was close to the luxury tax this past season. The Pistons already have approximately $112MM in guaranteed salary on the books for the 2019/20 season and they will continue to search for ways to make improvements within the confines of the salary cap parameters.
“I want to win as much as all of us want to win. If I didn’t want to, it would have been easy not to win and not try to get into the playoffs. Of course, we are,” Gores said. “This has never been about our financial situation; it’s about delivering to Detroit. It’s not the way we function and we’re going to do whatever it takes to win.
“We established good culture this year and if you look at the positives, we do have great players and Dwane did a good job navigating some of our young players with Bruce Brown, and [Luke Kennard] did great every step at a time. It’s a process.”
Indeed, it’s a process and is one that just does not happen overnight.
An honorable and practical way to pursue their goal.
Next year a 43-39 mark. A successful season.
He never said this season was a success. He says he isn’t going to try and lose to get a draft pick.
Something went awry in about the second quarter this season for DET.
I recall a year or two ago, Orlando started with a jacked-up pace and wins, but the coach kept talking defense, contradicting the initial plan, and things went wonky. That could have happened in Detroit.
Or, Griffin confused or angered teammates and they said, okay you do it.
The league would be so much more exciting if this was every owners mentality
Agree. Tanking is intrinsically bad for all sports. Each league need to find a way to motivate teams to try their best to win every year. The NFL has come close.