As the NBA’s worst franchise begins to rebuild the rebuild, they’d be wise to look to the Lions-yes, those Lions as a template of what’s possible.

There are no words that I can find that others haven’t already to describe just how toothless things seem for a once proud NBA organization. The Pistons aren’t just bad, they’re lacking a competitive pulse, and are getting blown out more nights than not. This should not happen on a team that has lottery picks from the past four drafts playing on it, and countless other former first round selections in tow. They are no longer trying to tank and they’ve said as much. What makes this especially weird, is that the organization does have some quality pieces to it. But the sum of the parts feels broken, and no one can point to a stand-alone reason for the regression from last year.

Maybe the one pinch of good news an objective observer could glean from this is that Detroiters are uniquely qualified to identify what a story book ending to this saga could look like. How, you might ask? Well all one would need to do is look just over the horizon, towards Ford Field, where the Pistons NFL peers have recently engineered the exact sort of turnaround that sports fans in Detroit are starved for. Here, I offer you the blueprint to the Pistons rebuild, by means of copying off the test answers from the Lions. Yes, buy a lottery ticket, because that is a real sentence in 2023.

Step One: Admit You Were Wrong.

1. One of the hardest things for most people in most walks of life to do is admit, out loud, to others that they were wrong. This becomes drastically more difficult when you enter millionaires and billionaires who are fixtures in the public eye into the equation. But it is a necessary step for the Pistons to take, and one the Lions took just a few short years ago. After Sheila Ford Hamp took over as Owner, she had to admit that the Lions attempt to recreate the “Patriot Way” had failed. When the Lions fired Jim Caldwell, and replaced him with Matt Patricia, it was billed as a move that would allow the team to take the next step towards being a contender. I view Monty Williams hiring this past summer as the Pistons version of hiring Patricia. In both cases, the coach they hired was one of the most sought after candidates in the cycle, and in both cases, the hire largely won the press conference. But it did not take long, in both situations, to recognize that the hire had not been the best fit with the roster in place, which, by the way, in both cases, was much further behind than what the front office was selling the fanbase. Look, Troy Weaver has had some good moments as GM. He has, aside from the covid draft of 2020, drafted fairly well. He has cleaned up the team’s payroll, and has made some savvy acquisitions, namely Jerami Grant, and Bojan Bogdanovic. But he has failed to put a roster (and locker room) around his young players that fosters a winning culture, and promotes an environment of growth and development.With Williams, it is not debatable that he has been a good NBA coach for a long time. He led successful turnarounds in both New Orleans and Phoenix. He has been an assistant in numerous successful organizations. He is well-connected around the league, and has been involved in Team USA for many seasons. Yet, something has been off with the team’s play this season. Despite youth and injuries, this outfit is not as bad talent wise as its record reflects. The questionable rotations, and player management have been well-documented. The bottom line is, when you’re 2-29, it’s not about identifying who’s most to blame, it’s about figuring out the direction to go from here. With both hires, the Pistons have been wrong. They must first admit as much.

Step 2: Bring in a Shared Vision

When the Lions moved on from “Patriots Midwest”, they made the smart move of hiring their coach and GM as a package deal of sorts, and made certain that they had a shared football philosophy. This has made for a great working relationship between the two of them, and has also helped the organization form a clear hierarchy of power in regards to football related