The Detroit Pistons made a valiant effort to climb up the standing through the middle portion of the NBA season, but as the regular season comes to a close, the Pistons could end up dropping from their familiar perch in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
The Pistons play four playoff teams (Chicago, Atlanta, Indiana and Philadelphia) in their final seven games and if their recent struggles continue, they could slide back down the standings which wouldn't be a bad thing. Taking the NBA draft lottery into consideration, the Pistons could improve their chances at a better draft position to add more talent to their young team.
Detroit is currently one game ahead of New Jersey and just 1.5 games ahead of Toronto and Cleveland in the East, so sliding down to 13th remains a possibility. But don't expect Detroit to lay down in order to lose games as Lawrence Frank will want his young players in Greg Monroe and Brandon Knight to continue to develop and play hard to take advantage of every minute of NBA experience they can get to finish the season.
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