As the 2023-24 NBA regular season ends Sunday, how would you grade your team's performance?
That question is trickier to answer in a world where playoff results are paramount and often more disconnected from the regular-season performance that we've come to expect. Last year, the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat turned disappointing trips to the play-in tournament into spots in the conference finals (and a win there, in Miami's case).
Still, those results were captivating because they were so unlikely. Even in the topsy-turvy past four postseasons, when No. 1 seeds were more likely to be eliminated before the conference finals, the odds of making the final four as a top-three seed (42%) were still nearly triple the odds outside that range (15%).
Given the way the regular season sets up the playoffs, let's look at how all 30 teams did relative to expectations coming into the season and the injuries they faced along the way -- with the knowledge that another run from the play-in could make these look silly by late May. I've also included my grades from our midterm assessment in January for comparison.
Jump to grades: A's | B's | C's | D's | F
Detroit Pistons
Grade: F
Midseason grade: F
The good news is the Pistons did enough in late January and early February -- accumulating eight of their 14 wins in a 22-game span -- to avoid flirting with adding the most losses in NBA history to their record 28-game losing streak. The bad news is everything else. It took new coach Monty Williams far too long to find a workable lineup to feature promising young guards Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey, with Killian Hayes starting right up until being waived at the trade deadline. (He's yet to resurface in the NBA.) Detroit figured to improve after Cunningham missed 70 games in 2022-23. Instead, the Pistons end the season with the worst record in franchise history.