Detroit News’ final 2017-18 Pistons grades

Go through the gallery above to view The Detroit News’ final grades for the 2017-18 Detroit Pistons. Click here if you’re having trouble viewing the gallery.

For the second straight season, the Pistons are out of the playoffs, thinking of what could have been, with a 39-43 record, four games behind the Washington Wizards for the No. 8 spot. Again, they were saddled with injuries to some of their key players and find themselves with more questions than answers about their path forward.

There were some improvements in the roster and in the production of some of their top players, but with most of their main rotation players under contract for next season, there isn’t much room to get better, outside of internal development. The trio of Andre Drummond, Blake Griffin and Reggie Jackson is the best hope moving forward and they’re the three highest-paid players on the roster.

Much of the focus will be on team president and head coach Stan Van Gundy and whether he and his staff return next season and beyond. Team owner Tom Gores said they’ll meet next week to lay out the future plans, but whoever is at the helm will be limited in what they can maneuver because of the salary cap and roster situation.

Here are the final grades for the Pistons players and Van Gundy.

rod.beard@detroitnews.com

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