Detroit Sports: A Sad State of Affairs
There is no single city in the sports landscape that has as little excitement as the city of Detroit has. With the news of Lions franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford being traded to Los Angeles, it signals what probably should have happened a few years ago: a full rebuild.
The Lions are by far the most depressing team in Detroit. While the NFL is probably the easiest league to go from worst to first, the Lions have history to show that they’re probably not going to do that. They are starting with an entire overhaul in their front office and coaching staff. It is a full rebuild and will be that way for at least two years, probably more if we’re being realistic.
The Lions have won only one playoff game in the Super Bowl era, an impressive statistic, and that was back in 1992. ESPN predicted that they will be the worst team in the NFL next season.
The next most depressing team in Detroit has to be the Pistons. The Pistons haven’t won a playoff game since 2008. Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rasheed Wallace were still on the roster then, which was their core of that 2004 Championship team.
After that, it has been nothing but awful signings and draft picks. The Pistons could’ve drafted Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, or Dwayne Wade in 2003, but they got Darko Milicic instead. Ever since then, they seem to be cursed. They drafted Brandon Knight instead of Kemba Walker or Klay Thompson in 2011. Stanley Johnson was taken in 2015 and Devin Booker was picked soon after. Then in 2017, the Pistons drafted Luke Kennard when Donovan Mitchell was picked right after him. By all accounts, Michell had a great workout in Detroit and impressed a lot of people, so it came as a surprise that he wasn’t taken by the Pistons.
Sure, hindsight is always 20/20, but those are just a few draft picks that the Pistons missed on. There could be an entire piece about poor draft picks by the Pistons organization.
Their current roster is a mix of young players and veterans. None of it works. Blake Griffin looks like a shell of himself. He’s averaging 12.1 points per game. The injuries finally took a toll on him it seems. Jerami Grant is playing good ball right now, but everything else around the Pistons isn’t good.
2019 first-round draft pick Sekou Doumbouya is in his second season and he’s averaging 4 points per game. 2020 first-round pick Killian Hayes got injured early on and will still be out for another 5 weeks at the very least. And even he wasn’t blowing anyone away in the little time he has played thus far. General Manager Troy Weaver still has a long way to go to make the Pistons a playoff team, let alone a legit threat in the NBA. Maybe they can get the number one pick in the 2021 draft to help expedite the rebuild.
Now we move on to the more hopeful teams in Detroit: the Red Wings and Tigers. Both are owned by the Ilitch family, who started Little Caesars.
The Red Wings are still feeling the impact of the awful signings and extensions that former GM Ken Holland made. Not only that, the players who were so promising in the AHL have just not taken the next step. Many thought that Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Dylan Larkin would be the guys to take the Wings to the next level. It just isn’t so, unfortunately for the Red Wings. They are decent enough players, but they aren’t taking the league by storm.
Luckily the Red Wings have Steve Yzerman as their general manager now. Yzerman came home to lead the Wings into the rebuild after spending his post-playing time in Tampa Bay building the Lightning into Stanley Cup contenders (and eventual winners).
The best part about the way Yzerman built the Lightning was that he built them for the long-term. They were built to win and for a long time. He made sure not to give the awful signings or extensions to aging players the way Ken Holland did in Detroit. Yzerman scouted and drafted some of the best players in Tampa and wasn’t afraid to cut guys who needed to go.
So while the Red Wings don’t have a lot of hope now, they at least have a few pieces in place and at least have someone like Steve Yzerman leading the way. They will more than likely be back to their winning ways eventually, which is more hope than the Lions and Pistons can give Detroit.
That leaves the Detroit Tigers, the other team owned by Chris Ilitch, and the Ilitch family. The Tigers have been one of the worst teams in baseball for four years now. After 10 years of competing for the World Series, they decided to rebuild. They sold off the top talent they had for prospects in return. Justin Verlander, J.D. Martinez, Justin Upton, and Shane Greene, just to name a few, were players sent to other teams.
In that time, they have built up an impressive farm system. It ranks as one of the best in all of baseball. Baseball is different than every other sport in the fact that there is no salary cap limit. An owner can spend as much as they see fit. And it’s very hard to compete in today’s day in age without spending money on free agents.
Chris Ilitch’s father, Mike Ilitch, was someone who was not afraid to pay whatever to get the best talent in Detroit. He did that with the Red Wings before the NHL put a salary cap on the teams. Before Mike Ilitch died, he was trying everything to win one with the Tigers and had one of the highest salary caps in the MLB.
As of right now, Chris Ilitch has yet to spend real money on any player. They are signing fill-in players. Eventually, you have to start making moves in free agency. He has time to do so, but some question if he will or not.
A lot of the top prospects with the Tigers will make their way to the MLB within the upcoming season or so. Chris Ilitch could make or break whether the city of Detroit has some hope soon by going out and getting some real free agents. And if his passion just isn’t there for baseball like it was with his father, he needs to sell the team to an owner who will spend money to have a winner in Detroit.
There are plenty of sports cities with championship drought that can depress fans. Minnesota/Minneapolis, Arizona/Phoenix, and Atlanta come to mind as depressing cities/states in sports.
The thing those cities have that Detroit doesn’t is actual good teams that are going to the playoffs. Sure, they may not have won championships recently as Detroit has, but at least their fans can enjoy their teams and watch them compete. Detroit doesn’t have that. No one wants to watch the awful Red Wings, Pistons, Lions, or Tigers.
Detroit will have an entire generation of kids who will not see any of their home teams be good. The last time a Detroit team won a playoff game was when the Red Wings beat the Lightning on April 17th, 2016. They ended up losing the series 4–1. None of the four teams look to be close to getting to the playoffs, either. It could be two years until there’s another playoff win in the city of Detroit. Possibly more.
Moral of the story: if you’re a fan outside of Detroit and think you have it bad, think again. Whatever city you’re in, you at least have one team that is good and is fun to watch.
For the Detroit fans out there: as Harvey Dent once said in The Dark Knight, “The night is darkest just before the dawn.” There will be a winner coming your way. One day. Soon. Maybe.
