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| Detroit Pistons: 1970 - 1980 | |||
| Season | W | L | % |
| 1979-1980 | 16 | 66 | .195 |
| 1978-1979 | 30 | 52 | .366 |
| 1977-1978 | 38 | 44 | .463 |
| 1976-1977 | 44 | 38 | .537 |
| 1975-1976 | 36 | 46 | .439 |
| 1974-1975 | 40 | 42 | .488 |
| 1973-1974 | 52 | 30 | .634 |
| 1972-1973 | 40 | 42 | .488 |
| 1971-1972 | 26 | 56 | .317 |
| 1970-1971 | 45 | 37 | .549 |
The win total of the 1970-71 season set an optimistic tone when the team gathered for the ’71-72 season. That tone quickly changed. Bing was lost to a detached retina during the preseason, forcing him to miss 37 games. Bob Lanier and fellow All-Star Jimmy Walker tried to carry the team, combining for 47 points per game. But by the time Bing returned on January 2, the team was 14-24. The Pistons would finish the season 26-56, the fourth worst record in the league.
Another coaching change in October 1972 would produce new optimism for the 1972-73 season. The Pistons replaced Earl Lloyd with former Pistons player Ray Scott. The development of the team’s nucleus and a tension-free atmosphere created by Scott’s presence proved positive on the court. The Pistons finished the season as one of the hottest teams in the league, finishing the season 20-11, for a final regular season record of 40-42.
The success with which the Pistons finished the 1972-73 season would continue in 1973-74. For the first time in the franchise’s 17 years in Detroit, the city was Pistons crazy. The season would be full of highlights: a franchise best 52 wins, new highs for home and road wins, over 300,000 home attendance, an All-Star MVP award for Bob Lanier (24 points and 10 rebounds off the bench), second team All-NBA recognition for Dave Bing, and the NBA Coach of the Year Award for Ray Scott. The club would finish the season with a record of 52-30 but lose a tight, first round, seven game series to the Chicago Bulls.
July 1974 would change the landscape of Detroit sports and the history of the Detroit Pistons for years to come. It was during that summer that Detroit native William Davidson, along with eight other investors, would purchase the Pistons from Fred Zollner for $8.1 million. Mr. Davidson promised the same roll-up-the-sleeves management style that made his Guardian Industries a world leader in glass manufacturing.
Detroit fans hoped that the success of the ’73-74 season coupled with Mr. Davidson’s management style and history of business success would lead the team to the next level. Unfortunately, there was turmoil right from the beginning, when Dave Bing and Don Adams held out of training camp. The discord would lead to another 40-42 record and Dave Bing’s future had been sealed with the holdout. He was traded during the summer of 1975, along with a first round pick, to the Washington Bullets for NBA assist leader Kevin Porter.
Bing’s trade did not sit well with Pistons fans, who never got to see any return on Kevin Porter, who suffered a season-ending knee injury on December 9, 1975. Former NBA Coach of the Year Ray Scott was fired 42 games into the season and replaced by assistant Herb Brown. Brown would lead the team to 10 victories in its last 11 games, completing a 34-46 season and defeating the Milwaukee Buck 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs. The Pistons would lose to Golden State 4-2 in the Western Conference semifinals.
The merging of the NBA and ABA in 1976 allowed teams to draft established stars. The Pistons chose former ABA Rookie of the Year Marvin “Bad News” Barnes (over Moses Malone). The nickname was a result of the many accounts of absences, holdouts and legal scrapes during Barnes’ time with the ABA’s Spirit of St. Louis. Team leaders Bob Lanier, Howard Porter, and a fully recovered Kevin Porter would lead the team to a 44-38 record. Bob Lanier’s late season broken hand would send the Pistons limping into the playoffs and an eventual 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.
The Pistons seemed to be a team on the rise, but the 1977-78 season would mark a down turn. Howard and Kevin Porter and Marvin Barnes were traded. Coach Brown was fired and replaced by GM Bob Kaufman. Bob Lanier’s knee injury with 12 games left in the season ensured the end of the Pistons’ run of four consecutive playoff appearances. More changes, including a league restructuring which moved the Pistons to the Eastern Conference and a new home at the Pontiac Silverdome would mark the beginning of the 1978-79 season.
The Pistons began the 1978-79 season with a new home, a new coach, and a new attitude. The Pistons moved out of the city to the Pontiac Silverdome, with new Pistons head coach and former University of Detroit head coach Dick Vitale. Vitale’s plan was to “ReVITALEize” the franchise with players giving 120%. Unfortunately, Vitale became the first casualty of the new regime. He was hospitalized one week into the season with stomach problems. His overabundance of passion and lack of experience at the professional level forced many to ask if Vitale would even finish the season. He would, leading the team to a 30-52 record, exactly opposite of their record only five years prior.
