Pistons' Van Gundy on 3-15 start: 'We don't have enough talent to overcome lack of effort'

With a roster that was seen as talented but misfit, the Detroit Pistons - coming off a fifth straight losing season - believed the offseason arrival of new team president and head coach Stan Van Gundy would help change their fortunes. 

Right now, that's looking an awful lot like wishful thinking. After falling to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, the Pistons are the losers of nine straight games. At 3-15, they're off to the worst start in franchise history. At this point it seems far-fetched to even expect them to match last season's 29-win total. 

The reasons for this are manifold, from poor roster construction to poor chemistry to poor execution. Andre Drummond seems to have regressed, Josh Smith has been brickier than ever, floor-spacing has been non-existent, and the disaster of an offense is the league's second-least productive unit (only the 0-17 Philadelphia 76ers have been worse). 

After the loss to the moribund Lakers - who have fallen just as far from grace as the once-proud Pistons - Van Gundy offered his own take on the team's struggles. 

"We're really messed up right now, I mean we're really messed up as a team," he said, according to David Mayo of MLive.com. "Lot of dilemmas. Lot of guys feeling pressure or whatever. But we're really not right mentally right now. That's what we talked about. That's got to change before anything else does."

Van Gundy believes the Pistons are a team that will only work "when their minds aren't cluttered."

"The real problem, in my opinion - and I told them this, so I'm not speaking behind their back; I'll never say something to you I haven't said to them - we don't play hard enough," he continued. "There's too many nights - in fact, almost every night - where the other team plays harder and with more energy than we do. You don't deserve to win like that. You don't.

"We don't have enough talent to overcome lack of effort." 

Harsh words for a group of players that are likely already feeling pretty down on themselves. But Van Gundy may not be wrong, and maybe this message will be the wake-up call the Pistons need to shake them out of their malaise and get them back on track. 

"You've got to feel it, you've got to hurt, and then it has to be transparent on the court," forward Caron Butler commented. "You've got to have that action on the court, have some resolve about yourself, and have the right disposition, like this hurts, and I want to change it."