The young Detroit Pistons roster had their first taste of playoff intensity as an eight-seed in 2016. The team was swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers, but put on a valiant effort and managed to keep a couple of games within striking range.

Head coach Stan Van Gundy is focused on maintaining their position before thinking of jumping up a few seeds in the Eastern Conference.

“I've said that to our guys, quite honestly, that we'll have to be a little bit better just to make the playoffs again,” Van Gundy told Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. “…We were the number eight team. We don't have a lot of room. So just to get back to where we were will take work.”

A tight Eastern Conference

Only seven wins separated the third seed from the tenth in the East last season, and the free-agency craze has allowed the bottom teams to retool and improve since then.

Philly is not going to win 10 games this year,” Van Gundy said. “They're going to win more games – significantly more games. So that's taking wins from everybody.”

“If you look at what Brooklyn has done lately in their moves, they're going to be able to win more games. A lot of those teams that were out of the playoffs – Milwaukee will be better, Orlando will be better, New York will be better. It'll be harder to put up big victory numbers.”

Van Gundy, who's been dubbed as the “master of panic” before, has very good observations that come with the maturity and experience as a head coach of a team.

How Detroit plans to improve

The integration of forward Tobias Harris, who was acquired from Orlando mid-season, will help the team. He will now have a full training camp and an offseason to mesh with the group, something that did wonders for guard Reggie Jackson prior to the 2015-16 season.

Stan Van Gundy plans to cut into Kentavious Caldwell-Pope‘s and Marcus Morris‘ minutes as well, giving room for young Stanley Johnson to get more playing time and grow into his role.

“I'm optimistic about the year, but I'm also realistic about the fact that we're going to have to be better,” Van Gundy said. “We can't be where we were last year.”