Actually, I think it helps out the team. I don't think theres another team in the league that has played as many total games over the last 4 years as the Pistons. Going deep into the playoffs repeatedly, olympics etc.

Then combine that with the minutes the starters play. I think the break adds practice time giving the coaching staff more room to figure out how to use the bench guys in realtime situations. After a month of play, it may prove to be a positive R&R period.

While all the back to back games are a drag (for the fans), the lengthy off time for this particular team is probably a competitive advantage. If they were a younger less unified group, the off time might be more of a distraction. As it is, they get to play catch up against the W/L records of the NBA's teams, instead of playing "neck to neck" nightly.

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"Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down"...Jimmy Durante

even though we have a ton of back-to-backs, if you look at the number of games played across the league, we have 16 and the most everyone else has around 20

And based on that, we will have to pay-the-piper down the road. I don't think the long layoff was a good thing at all, except for Ben being able to heal up the ankle.