The Detroit Pistons are one of the hottest teams in the NBA, but they struggled mightily in the first month and a half of the season. You could blame a grueling early-season schedule. You could blame an endless transition of learning a new coach’s system for the second consecutive year. If you ask Jalen Duren, though, he might blame himself.
“I think it’s pretty obvious I started the season slow on some soft s***,” Duren told the Detroit Free Press in February. The season’s low point hit Dec. 19. The Pistons surrendered 126 points to the Utah Jazz to fall six games below .