pobautista

The Detroit Pistons are NBA draft lottery losers after a season of historic shortcomings — again.

In Sunday's NBA draft lottery, the Pistons fell the maximum slots possible in the current system. The Pistons had the best odds for the No. 1 overall pick, 14%, after finishing 14-68, the worst record in franchise history, in 2023-24.

It is the second year in a row the Pistons have slid from the No. 1 spot to No. 5. Last year, the Pistons lost out on the lottery and a chance to select Victor Wembanyama, ending up with Ausar Thompson at five instead.

The Pistons, Charlotte Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers all fell out of the top four, getting leapfrogged by the San Antonio Spurs at No. 4, the Houston Rockets at No. 3 and the Atlanta Hawks at No. 1. The Washington Wizards, who had the second-worst record (and 14% odds for No. 1) remained at No. 2.

Detroit and their incoming president of basketball operations — who has yet to be hired — will have its work cut out after falling to No. 5. Detroit finished with the worst record in the NBA for the second straight year and reached the low point in franchise history despite having a collection of young talent led by former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham.

All of that for the fifth pick. Woof. Thompson's reaction as the Pistons' representative on the stage in Chicago says it all.

The basketball gods have yet to relent on the Pistons, and fans are resigned to the misery while the rest of the NBA world points and laughs like Nelson Muntz in "The Simpsons."

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Pistons are looking for new leadership after finishing with the NBA’s worst record for the second straight year.

The Pistons announced Monday, a day after finishing the season 14-68, that it will hire a head of basketball operations who will report to team owner Tom Gores.

“This past season has been incredibly difficult and frustrating for our fans, players and our entire organization,” Gores said. “We will continue to invest in our core group of young players and surround them with the right complimentary talent.”

The Pistons are trying to build around Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey — players who are 22 and younger — to restore pride in a franchise that has won three NBA titles.

The team says general manager Troy Weaver, who has a 74-244 record in his four years with the franchise, and the basketball staff will keep their jobs.

“I am committed to doing whatever it takes to build a winning team,” Gores said. “Nothing is off the table. As tough as this season has been, a bright future is available to us. It’s in our power to get this right, and we will. This is a pivotal summer for the Pistons.”

Detroit will hope to get the No. 1 pick overall in the NBA draft, a year after San Antonio won the draft lottery and landed Victor Wembanyama.

The Pistons set an NBA single-season record with 28 consecutive losses, a skid that started in October and didn’t end until late December, under first-year coach Monty Williams and failed to come close to ending a five-year playoff drought.

ATLANTA — The entire bench rose to its feet as Malachi Flynn’s final bucket of the night, a fastbreak layup, fell through the net.

Fifty points.

It’s a threshold most NBA players are lucky to reach. That’s especially true for players like Flynn, who came to the Detroit Pistons at the Feb. 8 trade deadline looking to keep his career afloat. He has only appeared in 31 games this season, with zero starts. His career average entering the game was 5.2 points.

But on Wednesday night, Flynn had fans in State Farm Arena reacting with shock as each shot fell through the net. He followed a 17-point first half with a 12-point third quarter, helping the Pistons battle back from a 22-point deficit. He saved his best for last, though.

He scored 19 points in the final period, including a 3-pointer and layup in the final minute of the game that brought the Pistons within five points, and finished the night 18 of 25 from the floor. Fifty points, six rebounds, five assists, and three steals.

It might be the most unexpected scoring outburst in NBA history — a player who struggled to crack the rotation at his last stop, seizing the moment on a night the shorthanded Pistons, who are playing out the string. According to ESPN, no player has ever scored 50 points with a career average lower than Flynn’s.

Unfortunately, his stellar night didn’t lead to a win. The Pistons fell to the Hawks, 121-113, as their late rally from a 22-point, third-quarter deficit fell short following a rough first half. Even so, his performance led to a feel-good night for a team that was without Cade Cunningham, and much of its core rotation, with just six games remaining in the season.

“We’re all super happy for him because we all know what he’s had to go through,” said Evan Fournier, who arrived in Detroit with Flynn from the New York Knicks in February. “I don’t want to say we wouldn’t give a (expletive) if it was Cade, but it wouldn’t be the same. The fact that it’s Malachi adds more to the story, I think.”

Other than Flynn’s bucket that secured his 50-point night, the biggest reaction from the Pistons’ bench was with 43 seconds remaining, when he stole an inbounds pass from the Hawks but missed the layup, which would’ve brought the Pistons within five points a little sooner.

“When he missed the layup, we were all like, no!” Fournier said. “It was definitely a couple moments that were good in the game, for sure.”

Flynn, the 29th pick of the 2020 NBA draft, spent the first three years of his career with the Toronto Raptors. But he was traded twice this season — first to the Knicks in January as a piece in the OG Anunoby trade before New York flipped him to Detroit a month later. The 6-foot-1 point guard averaged 15.3 minutes in 31 games with Toronto, but only played in garbage time with the contending Knicks.

He has carved out a steadier role in Detroit, thanks to injuries and the team’s need for a true point guard following a flurry of deadline moves. It’s given him a chance to audition his game as he approaches restricted free agency.

“He just works on his game,” Monty Williams said. “He’s in the gym every morning pretty much an hour before practice, maybe more. He works on his game. You saw it tonight. All those shots that he made are shots that I see him work on every day. It wasn’t just that. He had some timely passes that tell you a lot about him as a player. When he saw guys open, he got off of it, and it just speaks to the phrase we use in our program, that reps remove doubt.

“When you put the work in, you can’t count on having a 50-point game. But you can go into a game because you have stacked solid days and have confidence that when you shoot the ball or make certain reads, when you’re in pick-and-roll coverages, and defensively you get out there and fight, you can have these kinds of nights. We’re proud of Malachi and all of our guys in that regard. They just bring it every single night.”

It was Flynn’s first 50-point game at any level. He had an opportunity to cross the threshold in high school, he said, but his coach subbed him out of the game.

“Right now, it’s a little tougher just because at the end of the day, you want to win to be honest,” he said after the game. “That’s always my main goal, to win. It definitely feels good. The guys congratulated me in the back. That also feels good to take in the moment. I’m sure a couple days from now it’ll feel a little bit better.”

With six games remaining in the season, the 13-win Pistons are trying to build some semblance of momentum to take into the offseason. They’re still three wins shy of the franchise record for fewest in a season. It’s been a tumultuous one, featuring a 28-game losing streak that forced a lot of uncomfortable questions about the trajectory of the rebuild.

Flynn’s night, despite the loss, was a bright moment for a franchise that hasn’t had many this season.

“Just a guy scoring 50 is rare and tough, but in that particular setup, I don’t recall seeing a guy doing that,” Fournier said. “I’m super happy for him. I know he’s been struggling this year, being traded and all that. I’m sure he feels amazing right now and I’m really happy for him.”

Filipinos are bringing up a clip of an episode of an old American syndicated nontraditional court show where a man got a tattoo on his forehead after falling for a prank on April Fools’ Day.

This was resurfaced after Taragis, a Pampanga-based takoyaki food brand, gained traction for challenging its followers on Facebook to have its logo tattooed on their foreheads for P100,000.

In the now-deleted viral post, the brand announced that the first individual who would send a picture of their tattooed forehead will win the supposed cash prize.

The post was uploaded on April 1, the same date the global community observes the annual day of jokes and pranks.

Taragis also wrote the following text in its graphic: “Click the photo for official rules.”

Clicking the photo accompanying its Facebook post reveals a full version of the graphic with a colorful text below, which reads: “April Fool’s.”

Basically, someone actually followed through with the "challenge" and had his forehead tattooed 😢

Hopefully the home crowd can help boost our team's chances to win their first game in the qualifiers 🙏🏼

Game threads are in the comments below.

Game threads are in the comments below.

Sorry this took later than usual, I'm currently on the road (or sea, technically speaking) and will be having limited internet connectivity for a week

Game threads are in the comments below.