Bill Simmons ranks Pistons 11th 'scariest' team for NBA playoffs
· Yahoo Sports
With only eight games left on the regular-season schedule, the Detroit Pistons sit comfortably in first place in the Eastern Conference and will likely get a No. 1 seed in the playoffs. That should make them one of the scariest teams to face in the postseason, right?
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According to two NBA experts, they don't even rank in the top 10.
In an episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast released on Monday, March 30, The Ringer's NBA analysts Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe each drafted their "scariest" NBA playoff teams from the 20 currently in a playoff or play-in position. Lowe made the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder his top choice, while Simmons chose the San Antonio Spurs.
As for the Pistons, they were drafted at No. 11.
"They have holes that I just worry about with some of the teams that they're gonna have to play," said Simmons. "Like when they play the [Boston] Celtics, the Celtics can throw those two big wings at them, [Jason] Tatum and [Jaylen] Brown, and their wings are Tobias Harris and [Duncan] Robinson and [Kevin] Huerter or Javonte Green."
Lowe then interrupted Simmons to mention Pistons forward Ausar Thompson, who many believe is one of the best young defenders in the league. Simmons waved off Thompson's potential impact, however, saying he would be used to guard Celtics guard Derrick White instead of Brown or Tatum.
"I just feel like there's a physicality with the two wings that [the Pistons] are going to have issues with," Simmons said.
It is worth noting that the Pistons are 3-1 against the Celtics this season, though all four have been relatively close games. Additionally, Brown has scored at least 32 points in all four games against the Pistons while Tatum did not appear in any of the four matchups.
Though this draft was held under the assumption of health (meaning the Pistons would have a fully healthy Cade Cunningham, currently out indefinitely while recovering from a collapsed lung), no mention was made of Cunningham or the team defense the Pistons have showed so far this season. The Pistons currently have the No. 2 defensive rating in the NBA (behind the Thunder) and the No. 3 net rating, best in the East and ahead of the Celtics at No. 4.
With the Pistons and Celtics firmly in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, they likely wouldn't meet up in the playoffs until the conference finals. And if that does happen, only then will this debate be settled – assuming one of the other 10 "scarier" teams doesn't get to the Pistons, first.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bill Simmons ranks Pistons as 11th scariest team on podcast