Pistons: 10 Greatest Teams in Franchise History, Ranked

Since Flip Saunders left as head coach in 2008, things haven't been so rosy for the Detroit Pistons. Throughout the 2010s they didn't win a solitary postseason game, while their first three seasons of the 2020s yielded a paltry 60 wins.

But that hasn't always been the case. The Pistons, winners of three NBA championships in their long history, have boasted plenty of brilliant players and some great teams, most notably throughout the latter stages of the 1980s when the Bad Boys proved a persistent thorn in the side of Michael Jordan as he attempted to win his inaugural title. A decade or so later they again climbed to the top of the mountain, this time with the likes of Chauncey Billups and Ben Wallace leading the charge.

So how do those two teams compare? And which other eras have seen the Pistons roll out some of the best lineups in their history? These are the top ten Pistons teams in franchise history, ranked from 10 to 1.

10. 2002-03

The Pistons entered the 2002-03 season on the back of a massively improved season prior in what was coach Rick Carlisle's first at the helm. For the second year in a row, this iteration, led by a handy trio of Ben Wallace – who won Defensive Player of the Year for the second year running – Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton, won 50 games, but this time they went deeper in the playoffs than the Conference Semis they'd made the year prior. After just escaping the First Round against the Orlando Magic, the Pistons knocked off the Philadelphia 76ers in six games, but unfortunately their season came to an ignominious end when they were swept by the Nets. Disappointing though that was, something special was brewing in Detroit.

9. 2006-07

Fast forward four years, and this Pistons side was reaching the other side of one of the strongest eras in their history. But getting older though their core may have been, these Pistons were still among the best teams in the league. Wallace was no longer there, but they won 53 games without him to claim the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, before going on to sweep the Magic in the First Round and then knock out Wallace's Chicago Bulls in six in the Conference Semis. But that was as far as they got – after winning the first two games of the Conference Finals against the Cavs, they lost three games in a row and then got blown out in the fourth and were subsequently sent packing.