 To the last 16 minutes of the Sportsmax zone for this Thursday, let's slip in a discussion on the NBA now. The Detroit Pistons have broken an unwanted record, racking up their 27th consecutive loss Tuesday night. The most in a single NBA season at defeat tonight against the Boston Celtics will see them tying the NBA's overall losing streak record, which is 28 games lost. The Philadelphia 76ers hold that overall mark over two seasons at the end of the 2014-2015 season on the start of 2015-2016 campaign NBA analyst Alistair Albert joins us to discuss the Pistons and their torrid run of form. Albert, we haven't spoken to you in such a long while. Glad to have you back. All the best for the holidays and the coming 2024 Detroit in real strife. I hope you aren't. No, no, no real strife for me. So there's a lot of strife watching these Pistons play or even watching the highlights because I haven't even taken the time to watch any of their games to tell you the honest, honest truth. I don't think anyone really wants to watch their games because there's nothing inspiring about what they're doing right now. And yes, it's a hard start for them and it's really a level of infamy that they're actually chasing right now, approaching that 28th losing streak that the Philadelphia Sixers had, which was a team that was actually actively trying to lose. You know, they were trying to gather assets and everything in the whole process stage when Sam Hinky was the president of basketball operations there and trying to lose as much games as possible to get as many assets as possible to kind of end up with Joel and Bede and Ben Simmons like they did later on. The Pistons right now should be a team that should actually be progressing and kind of doing a lot more positively. And they're not doing that right now. And there's a lot of conversations to be had about what they're doing, the coaching, the players and what needs to happen moving forward. Yeah, well, I can't ask you to analyze what's going wrong for them because you haven't been really watching them, but you know their roster. So what is it about their roster that is triggering these bad results? The thing is, it's a really young roster. You know, the average age on that roster is about 24 to 25 years old, averaging about five years experience. Kade Khan Han being the best best player on that roster, the rookie of the year last year, averaging 23 points a game, you know, and he's doing his best. You know, he's a he's a player when you see him play. He looks really poised. He looks like he knows what he's doing on the court. He has very good leadership qualities and even coming into the season, you know, during the offseason was Team USA was kind of gearing up for World Cup competition. He was on the select team that was playing against a team that was chosen to go play, play those games. And, you know, all the coaches were raving about him and were actually thinking that he probably should have been on the main roster himself. So Kade Khan Han, you know, is doing the best that he can. Boyan Bogdanovic, you know, is a veteran in this league, nine years in the league and, you know, averaging 20 points a game. And he's been like, you know, a spotter shooter in Utah and other places in his career. And you'd think, you know, with these two as maybe the focal offensive points, they'd probably be able to put up enough points, but they're not. They're like basically last in the league or 29th in the league in points per game. And, you know, the rest of the roster is not kind of picking up the slack. There's a lot of inconsistency in how they, you know, the rosters are being played, you know, guys who are in and out of the lineup and rotations. And, you know, there's just a lot of inexperience and a lot of turnovers and everything going on based on what the statistics say. So there's there's a lot of fixing to do on a very young inexperienced roster, you know, trying to find their way. Yeah, we know there's a lot of there are a lot of highs and lows that that teams will experience over time. I guess one of the most glaring examples would have been the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan. And, you know, since then, they haven't been able to recapture that that kind of of image. But I see where the Detroit missed the Detroit Pistons were very strong in the decades of the 2000s. They were between 2000 and 2007 Eastern Conference champions at least three times. And the times during that period that they weren't Eastern Conference champions, they were like second and third in the East. So for their fans, this must be a turret turret thing for them to digest. They were NBA champions in 04, I think. Definitely, you know, to experience something like that for a franchise that has has seen success, you know, not to not too much in the distance. And, you know, past, although I suppose 20 years ago, it is quite quite some time, you know, thinking about it. I'm getting old, man, I'm getting old. But yeah, you know, they they they're, you know, they they've had some levels of success that, you know, they should be able to try to replicate in terms of roster construction and everything. But of course, the league has moved quite a lot away from, you know, the what they played back in the day. We're having a team like Ben Wallace and Rashid Wallace and Rip Hamilton, you know, Sean C. Billups running the points, you know, that they're here. They within the early 2000s, you know, there was a very deep roster, you know, a lot of interior play, defense and everything. And this team is totally not that Troy Weaver, who's the general manager right now has to be looking, you know, all around the league, scouring to try to see what he could probably do. But, you know, is that probably what he's going to do? Maybe he's going to probably allow the team to continue to tank, not really change the roster, get these guys some opportunities to develop and hope for the best next year. I think the team they should really watch really closely is the Orlando Magic, who last year didn't do really well in their standings and really struggled. And this year, they've kind of done really well, you know, they had a new coach, they tried to get, you know, the chemistry right with the roster, letting guys play through mistakes and they're actually doing really well this year. Maybe that's what's on the cards for the Pistons next year. But this year is just, you know, it's a long season having to try to get past all the losses that they're doing. But, you know, they have hope tonight against the Boston Celtics. Maybe not. Jalen Brown is in plane. Maybe that might help. So let's see what happens. Yeah, in 25 seconds, Alistair, usually in any sport, any team who has gone 27 games without a win, you would be hearing shots from the rooftop for the coach to be fired. Those seem to be quite hushed with Monty Williams at the helm. Why is that? That is the seventh most expensive coach in U.S. sports. The second most expensive coach in NBA, you know, they don't want to get rid of him right now. He just went to the finals about two or three years ago. They think, you know, he could probably turn this around if given the chance. But, you know, it seems like right now it's just not working. So maybe he just needs to go for the season, use the season as an extended, really extended training camp, get the guys into some levels of flow and chemistry and hope that, you know, they could kind of recover next year because this year seems like it's a watch. I don't think they could come back from, you know, how badly they're doing right now. Yeah, I just can't believe that a team is doing this badly and you're not hearing louder shots for the coach to go. And in 10 seconds, the question on our lower third, Alistair, is this the worst NBA team in history? Well, right now it sounds like it looks like it if they hit that record and, you know, they do it. It looks like it. I think they have a lot of good talents on this team, though, in saying that. But I think right now the record says that. And, you know, there's nothing that could probably go against that, to be honest. We're out of time, Alistair. By the way, are you a betting man? Lance loves to go to K-man's part, but I don't think he bets much, if any at all. Are you a betting man, Alistair? Because, you know, if the Pistons beat the Celtics tonight, you could be in for a great payday. A big haul, you know, the Celtics are 17-point favorites tonight. So if the Pistons pull this off, it'll be a huge payday. Not really a betting man, but I wish I was. I'm not giving you or anybody any ideas, but I'm giving you ideas. Shall we go to a break? You guys.