Alex Speers

and seeing how the Spurs were able to absolutely shut down Detroit in the half court.

They held them to 65.6 points per 100 possessions in the half court, which is in the first percentile.

Now, the Spurs are obviously unique, given Wemby's presence.

So it's not like I expect the Pistons to completely stall out in the playoffs.

But I do think the lack of additional creation beyond Cade

is the biggest question mark regarding their ceiling in the playoffs.

The defense is going to give them a floor that will help them overcome some of those issues.

But as of now, when thinking about championship equity, I do think it's worth considering how much of an outlier Detroit would be among recent champions based on their current half-court offense.

And so that is my bet.

But the season isn't over, so we'll check back in at the end of the season and see what their final ranking is.

And part of it is that they have such a defined identity.

Yeah, totally.

Oh, this is the physical Pistons.

They're great defensively.

And I think because of that, because their identity is so well-defined, it's easier to think about them as a contender, like winning the whole thing.

But I still do think that half-court offense will be something really interesting to watch in the playoffs as teams get to see them night after night.

And it's a massive loss because the difference between potentially playing a team like Houston in the first round in a 3-6 matchup versus falling to the play-in and having...

To just get blasted by the Spurs.

And I think those types of matchups would make all of this a lot clearer.

Just how big the difference is between the Lakers right now and some of these top teams in the West.