Pistons owner Tom Gores: ‘We require change’

For Christmas, the Detroit Pistons might just get a lump of coal. Or maybe a deflated basketball. Or something that represents their season to this point.

Entering Saturday’s road game against the Brooklyn Nets, the Pistons had lost 25 straight. Twenty-six in a row is the record for one season, held by both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers. The Pistons stand a good chance to break that mark, with their next game after Saturday also coming against the Nets, at Detroit.

Team owner Tom Gores faced the music, and the media, on Friday. The idea was to give his thoughts on the whole lousy situation.

“I think (the fans) deserve an answer,” Gores told reporters, via James Edwards III of The Athletic.

Yes, they most certainly do. The Pistons hired Monty Williams this past offseason, making him one of the richest coaches in professional sports. So far, the Williams era has been a disaster.

Worse, guard Cade Cunningham is truly the only consistently promising player for the future. Nonetheless, Gores said he believes a turnaround is doable.

“So, as much as this vision feels blurry, to me, it’s the same vision I had at the beginning of the season about a bright future,” he said. “… We have an incredible set of young players. We’ve built ourselves to be flexible and nimble, so we’re not stuck in this problem. We have a problem. We’ve lost way too many games. We’re not stuck in it, though. We’re nimble. We can bounce from this. We have a tremendous amount of cap space.”

That said, even Gores suggested that things can’t stay this way for long.

“We require change,” Gores said. “We’re not doing well. As far as where we were going in getting this set of players and flexibility, I think the work is still there. We have to assess what’s not working. I’m down to Monty and talking about rotations. I don’t normally do that. Monty is so good and knows what’s he doing, he’s open to even talking about it. We do have to change something. I can’t tell you what it exactly is.

“… We’re on it already. We will make changes. We will make them. We don’t know exactly what they’ll be yet.”

General manager Troy Weaver has come under fire from fans, especially when you consider the Pistons have won just four games since February. That’s historically bad at any level of sports.

Gores indicated that, yes, Weaver is being evaluated.

“I expect Troy to find ways to change the makeup of our team and find ways to be more successful,” Gores said. “I do expect him to find ways, and he knows that. If we do nothing to improve ourselves, I’m going to be disappointed. That’s nothing new to Troy. He knows that.”