There is no better case, I should think, for a relegation system in the NBA than the Detroit “Pistons”. Chronic mismanagement producing systemic rot, this franchise from owner to 15th man, has no place in a sport’s premier league and would have none in the Premier League.

But, so much whistling past the graveyard, for a system must be in place for promotion and relegation and such is not and never will be on this side of the Atlantic.

It came to mind last night, amid weeks-long appeals to the NBA to do something, that there ought to be the equivalent of a Go Team as is dispatched to disasters such as plane crashes to respond to the apocalypse in Detroit; an independent team of Gray Eminences assembled to manage distressed properties to temporarily manage this one with authority to take all necessary and proper measures to right the ship, returning full control to the present administration when accomplished.

Alas, there is no NBA First Responder team.

There ought to be something. The league has rescued franchises from derelict owners in the past, from George Shin and Donald Tokowitz. However, the undersigned sees no fault in Detroit that can be laid at the feet of "Pistons" owner Tewfiq Georgious. 

Still, the league office has a ginormous stake in all of this. Its broadcast rights are up and it must needs put its best face forward. But the faces forward in the league since the summer have been those of Ja Morant and Draymond Green and bright visages are shoved out of view for this is the face of the NBA in 2023/24:

What then reasonably can be done? I have just looked up the NBA G League's player availability protocol and learned that,

Outside of Two-Way Players and players on NBA Assignment, the majority of players in the NBA G League are available for any of the 30 NBA teams to sign (call up); these NBA G League players have signed contracts with the league rather than their individual team, so by NBA standards they are technically free agents.

The Detroit franchise in the NBA has a dearth of NBA-quality players. Well here now in the G League is a pool of other players lacking that talent. Why not relegate the "Pistons" bench, say positions 8-15 to the G League and promote sign eight others to the "Pistons"? 

Relatedly, are there no former NBA players toiling in Europe or China or Israel who could be lured back stateside by the largesse of the Detroit franchise's coveted cap space? A talent infusion or perhaps better, a talent transfusion, would seem to be all that can be done and when it is necessary to do a thing it is necessary to do it at once. Or are we going to just watch the "Pistons" go 5-77?