Isiah Thomas helped lay the culture that drove the Pistons to consecutive NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, and a third in 2004. He's thrilled that they're leaning back into it, and into their opponents.
In Thomas' view, teams across the NBA were "allowed to adopt our style of play and defense" after the Bad Boys bullied their way to the top, until the league and its "dominant media markets legislated and changed perception that everyone can play like the Detroit Pistons -- except the Detroit Pistons."
"And for years," Thomas said on the Restore the Floor podcast, "Detroit tried to move away from that culture, that winning culture that we established. Every time they brought a coach in and the first thing the coach said was, 'We’re going to change the culture of Detroit,' excuse me when I say this, they basically got they ass beat, right?"
That changed when Larry Brown took over the Goin' to Work squad in 2003, said Thomas. Brown brought the Pistons "back to who we were -- defense, rebounding, toughness, block shots, guard -- and you won a championship again."
The cycle repeated itself, said Thomas, "because of the change in ownership" in 2011. It took Tom Gores several years -- and several failed regimes -- to get the right leaders in place, but he's finally done so with president of basketball ops Trajan Langdon and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
Those two have built a roster that reflects Pistons Basketball. From Cade Cunningham to Isaiah Stewart to Tobias Harris, "now you got Detroit players," said Thomas. "You got a culture, and you got players that fit the culture." The Pistons will play their first playoff game in six years Saturday night against the Knicks, with a chance to win their first playoff game -- and maybe their first series -- since 2008.
"The league has never been for Detroit," said Thomas. "So if you’re trying to fit in, you’re going to keep losing. Detroit wins and has won because they chose to go a different direction."
Bickerstaff, like Brown, has embraced this from the moment he arrived. The Pistons, he'll you, are "not your typical NBA team that just runs around jacking threes. We’re a team that decides to get it in the mud, and we’re committed to that. We’re a physical team. We’re a defensive-minded team." Detroit has exceeded all expectations after the worst season in franchise history not just because of the emergence of Cunningham -- but because of the third best defensive rating in the NBA since the new year.
Their fierce, physical style is personified by Stewart. And while Stewart was assessed 15 technical fouls, four flagrant fouls and was ejected thee times this season for crossing the line -- all among the most in the NBA -- Thomas is quick to defend him.
"I love Isaiah Stewart, and Isaiah Stewart has not had a problem with technical fouls. A lot of those technical fouls that he’s received, some of them were well deserved, but some of them came because of what (the officials) thought or perceived he was going to do," said Thomas. "It’s like Rasheed Wallace was getting technical fouls, but let me tell you something: you won a championship with Rasheed Wallace. (Bill) Laimbeer was getting technical fouls. You won a championship with Laimbeer.
"If you want to be a soft, easy team that everyone else can come in and beat, if you want to be nice to everyone and everyone gets to beat you, then Detroit is not the place for you. Isaiah Stewart fits in Detroit. Now, could Isaiah Stewart play someplace else? Probably not. But in Detroit, that’s our guy."
Other highlights from Thomas' interview on Restore the Floor:
On the matchup with the Knicks: "The Knicks’ culture eerily mirrors the Detroit culture, the style and brand of play. The Knicks and the Pistons — I’ve worked and been apart of both organizations — the brand of basketball and the style of basketball that has been instilled in these organizations, you’re getting ready to see mirror images of each other’s culture, and that’s going to be a clash.
"From a point guard perspective, the Pistons are built around Cade as a big point guard, the Knicks are built around Jalen Brunson as a smaller point guard. They play similar styles. They get to the basket. Of course they can shoot the three, but where they do most of their damage is the mid range, below the foul line and -- guess what? -- in pick and rolls. So you’re getting ready to see mirror images of ... a physical philosophy, rooted in rebounding and defense."
How the Pistons can defend Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks' offense: "I’m going to be realistic from a basketball standpoint. The Pistons are really set up defensively to guard against high screen-and-roll. Why? Because Cade is a bigger guard. And then you have Jalen Duren and Stewart who can hedge on screens, they can even switch on screens because they are big enough and they can move their feet.
"When you talk about a smaller guard driving against an athletic big who can slide his feet, now when you get below the foul line, you are really in that big man’s domain if — key word, if — he has the athleticism to keep up with that smaller guard. Cade then, 6’8, can switch out to Towns, who likes to shoot the three. And if they go to post him up, then Cade is big enough not only to body but also wait for the double team to come, and they’re quick enough to rotate.
"So I see this as a very, very evenly-matched series. No team really has a distinct advantage over the other. In their head-to-head competition, they've shown that. The games have always been very competitive, and I see this being a competitive series going possibly seven games."
On Bickerstaff and Langdon reconnecting the Pistons to Detroit: "This is what I want Detroit fans and everyone else to understand: you have never, ever heard a coach come to the Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Lakers and have the audacity to utter the words, ‘We’re going change the culture of the Celtics,’ or, ‘We’re going to change the culture of the Lakers.’ They would get run out of town so fast.
"So when a coach comes in talking about, they're going to change the culture of the Detroit Pistons, our fans rebelled and stopped coming to the games. Now our fans are coming to the games again, we’re winning, because we have reconnected the community back to the culture of what the Detroit Pistons style and brand of basketball is."