Since Flip Saunders left as head coach in 2008, things haven't been so rosy for the Detroit Pistons. Throughout the 2010s they didn't win a solitary postseason game, while their first three seasons of the 2020s yielded a paltry 60 wins.
But that hasn't always been the case. The Pistons, winners of three NBA championships in their long history, have boasted plenty of brilliant players and some great teams, most notably throughout the latter stages of the 1980s when the Bad Boys proved a persistent thorn in the side of Michael Jordan as he attempted to win his inaugural title. A decade or so later they again climbed to the top of the mountain, this time with the likes of Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace leading the charge.
So how do those two teams compare? And which other eras have seen the Pistons roll out some of the best lineups in their history? These are the top ten Pistons teams in franchise history, ranked from 10 to 1.
10. 2002-03
The Pistons entered the 2002-03 season on the back of a massively improved season prior in what was coach Rick Carlisle's first at the helm. For the second year in a row, this iteration, led by a handy trio of Ben Wallace – who won Defensive Player of the Year for the second year running – Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, won 50 games, but this time they went deeper in the playoffs than the Conference Semis they'd made the year prior. After just escaping the First Round against the Orlando Magic, the Pistons knocked off the Philadelphia 76ers in six games, but unfortunately their season came to an ignominious end when they were swept by the Nets. Disappointing though that was, something special was brewing in Detroit.
9. 2006-07
Fast forward four years, and this Pistons side was reaching the other side of one of the strongest eras in their history. But getting older though their core may have been, these Pistons were still among the best teams in the league. Wallace was no longer there, but they won 53 games without him to claim the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, before going on to sweep the Magic in the First Round and then knock out Wallace's Chicago Bulls in six in the Conference Semis. But that was as far as they got – after winning the first two games of the Conference Finals against the Cavs, they lost three games in a row and then got blown out in the fourth and were subsequently sent packing.
8. 2007-08
Despite that disappointment the year prior, this Pistons team wasn't quite done yet. In what ended up being their final year under Rick Carlisle, they won 59 games in the 2007-08 regular season, finishing second in the East behind a 66-win Boston Celtics team. Unsurprisingly, it was the Celtics who proved the end of them. The Pistons won their way pretty easily through to the Conference Finals, dropping just three games in the first two rounds of the playoffs, before winning Game 4 against the Celtics to tie that series at 2-2. That would prove to be their final postseason win for more than 15 years, with the Celtics going on to take the series in six.
7. 2005-06
Harking back a couple of years, and the Pistons were still in something close to their prime, with Ben Wallace incredibly winning his fourth Defensive Player of the Year Award in a six-year period. This was the season after a heartbreaking seven-game NBA Finals loss, and the Pistons bounced back with venom, winning 64 games in the regular season. Come the postseason, however, they weren't quite as dominant. They were far too good for the Bucks in the First Round, but came across trouble in the Conference Semis against the Cavs, who took them to seven games. The Pistons managed to escape that series, but a Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal-led Miami Heat proved too much for them, winning the Conference Finals in six.
6. 1986-87
By this season the Pistons had developed into a solid team, but in 1986-87 they truly took a step towards title contention. With Isiah Thomas being joined by names like Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, John Salley and Rick Mahorn, they won 52 games – a tie for the most in their history to that point – before sweeping their way through the First Round of the playoffs. After a 4-1 win against the Atlanta Hawks in the Conference Semis, they met a talented Celtics side, against whom they went heartbreakingly close to beating in seven games. Alas, they lost Game 7 117-114, but disappointing though that loss was they bounced back in kind the next season.
5. 2004-05
After winning the championship the year prior, the Pistons went about as close as you can go to securing back-to-back titles without actually doing it. They won 54 games in the regular season – the same as the year prior – with Ben Wallace again winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award. They the Sixers in five, then the Pacers in six and then the Heat in seven to make their way through to the NBA Finals for the second consecutive year, where they came up against Duncan, Parker, Ginobli and Coach Pop. After a disastrous first couple of games they bounced back to tie the series at 2-2 and then 3-3, but a seven-point loss in Game 7 saw them fall agonizingly short of a second title in a row.
4. 1987-88
The Pistons got one back on the Celtics team which had beaten them in the Conference Finals the year prior in 1987-88. That matchup repeated itself this season, but this time the result went in the Pistons favour, winning in six games. They subsequently took on the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in what would prove to be a memorable series – albeit for the wrong reasons for Detroit. They took a 3-2 series lead, but consecutive losses by a combined total of just four points saw them lose the series in dramatic fashion.
3. 2003-04
Entering the 2003-04 season, the pieces were clearly there for the Pistons, but this iteration of the team hadn't yet made its way out of the Eastern Conference. That all changed this year. It could easily have been different – they needed seven games in the Conference Semis to get past the Nets, but get past them they did before knocking out the Pacers in the Conference Finals. They came up against the Lakers in the NBA Finals, and it wasn't close. The Pistons were way too good, winning in five games with Chauncey Billups winning the Finals MVP as they secured their third title in history.
2. 1989-90
This was peak Bad Boys era, with the Pistons smothering defense leading them to a second consecutive title. After winning the first in franchise history they won 59 games this season, and won three of their four playoff series with relative ease en route to the title. The Bulls were their toughest out, taking them to seven games in the Conference Finals, but that aside they dropped just two games. Isiah Thomas was Finals MVP, Dennis Rodman the Defensive Player of the Year, and the Detroit Pistons clearly the best side in the NBA.
1. 1988-89
This was the year when it truly all began, and where the Bad Boys were at their dominant best. After the heartbreak of the year prior when they lost the NBA Finals in seven games, the Pistons won 63 games in the regular season and then worked their way through the playoffs like they were playing lottery teams. They swept the Celtics in the First Round, then the Bucks in the next, before the Bulls took them to six in the Conference Finals. But the Pistons escaped the only remotely close series of their playoff run before working over the Lakers, sweeping them, too, en route to their inaugural NBA title. Joe Dumars earned the Finals MVP Award for a terrific scoring season, as the Pistons went on to end the career of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with a 4-0 loss in what was Detroit's greatest ever season.
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