(Photo: Sarah Stier, Getty Images)
Auburn Hills — It sounded like wishful thinking at the time, and now they’ve admitted as much.
The Pistons’ flurry of moves the trade deadline this week were largely underwhelming. “Smaller moves on the sides,” was how Ed Stefanski, the team’s front-office leader, put it Friday. And all the wheeling and dealing had as much to do with the payroll — “We need friendly contracts — we’re not real friendly right now,” Stefanski added — as it did making the playoffs.
But the moves also are acknowledgement that a big part of last summer’s sales pitch to the fan base — or what’s left of it after a decade of NBA irrelevance — was just idle chatter in the end.