The past quarter-century for the Detroit Pistons can be surmised in two chapters.
The first chapter covers the first decade, highlighted by the 2004 NBA Championship with coach Larry Brown's team upsetting a Los Angeles Lakers featuring Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal in five games. The Pistons returned to the NBA Finals the following season and reached the Eastern Conference final in 2003 and 2006-2008.
The second chapter covers everything since, which isn't pretty for fans in Michigan or backers at NBA betting apps. Detroit has qualified for the postseason just three times since 2010, all first-round losses. Nine times, the Pistons won fewer than 30 games. That includes 2023-24, when Detroit had its worst season ever at 14-68.
Detroit Pistons Quarter-Century Team Members
There is a happy ending, though. This season under first-year coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons enjoyed a 30-win turnaround and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Some of those players might end up on the next Pistons' quarter-century team, but here are the members of RotoWire's Detroit's team since 200 from your source for NBA promo codes.
Chauncey Billups (2002 to 2008 and 2013 to 2014)
Billups played 17 seasons in the league, but he's probably best known for his time with the Pistons, primarily from 2002 to 2008. During that span, he was a three-time All-Star and was among the to 11 in Most Valuable Player voting three times. The guard also was a two-time NBA All-Defensive second-team pick and the 2004 NBA Finals MVP. In the 2004 Finals, he averaged 21 points and 5.2 assists per game. He also was a team-best 8-of-17 from beyond the 3-point arc as the Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.
Rip Hamilton (2002 to 2011)
The other starting guard on Detroit's All-Quarter Century squad from RotoWire.com is Richard "Rip" Hamilton. He averaged 18.4 ppg in nine seasons in Motown. A three-time All-Star, all during his time in Detroit, Hamilton also led the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage during the 2005-06 season, when he hit 45.8% of his shots from deep. He played 14 NBA seasons in all.
Tayshaun Prince (2002 to 2013)
Prince, who played parts of 12 seasons with the Pistons, doesn't have any eye-popping stats that stand out or would have drawn a ton of prop wagers with legal sportsbook apps had they been around at the time. But that was part of the beauty of those Pistons teams from the Oughts. Those squads weren't superstar-driven. Instead, they were solid players who created a great team. Prince, like Billups and the Wallaces, was a fierce defensive player. He was a four-time member of the NBA's All-Defense second unit and was in the top 13 in Defensive Player of the Year voting in those four seasons, from 2005 to 2008.
Rasheed Wallace (2004 to 2009)
Wallace, the other forward on our list, was the player best associated with technical fouls. TeamRankings.com only has individual Ts dating back to 2007 but Wallace had a league-high 28 that season. In second, Rip Hamilton had 18. A 6-foot-11 post player, Wallace was on the tail end of his career when he joined the Pistons during the 2003-04 season. He was one of the league's top shot blockers during his career and averaged 1.6 per game in a Pistons uniform.
Ben Wallace (2000 to 2006 and 2009 to 2012)
Ben Wallace never averaged more than 9.7 points in a game, but the Hall of Famer excelled on the other end of the court. He won the league's Defensive Player of the Year four times during his first six seasons in the Motor City. In 2001-02, he led the league with 13 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game. He led the NBA in boards again the following season at 15.4 rpg. Not bad for a 6-foot-9 post player who almost always was several inches shorter than his opponents down low. He's the choice for center on the Pistons All Quarter Century team at RotoWire.
It's not surprising that the franchise's five top players since 2000 helped the Pistons win their most recent title. It also shouldn't be a surprise that they did it with defense. The 2004 Pistons were tied with the San Antonio Spurs in giving up just 84.3 points per game. According to Basketball-Reference.com, that's the third-lowest regular season average in the shot-clock era. The 2004 team set a record by holding 36 consecutive opponents to fewer than 100 points, from Oct. 29, 2003, to Jan. 7, 2004. The same Detroit team also holds the third-longest streak, doing it over the final 30 games from Feb. 10 to April 13.
