Christmas wish list: What would the four Detroit sports teams ask for this year?
As I looked outside with the snow falling on a winter landscape and Christmas just a few days away, I thought about the Detroit sports landscape, because, of course.
What if, I pondered, all four major Detroit sports teams were granted one Christmas wish? What would they ask for?
A chance to go back and take Tyrese Haliburton? (Hey, Detroit Pistons!) Actually trading some draft picks at the trade deadline to improve your pass rush? (Too soon, Detroit Lions?) Going back and never, ever promoting Al Avila? (Sorry, Detroit Tigers, but that’s the last mean-spirited joke, I promise.) It is the holiday season, after all.
And so here we are. For one Freep article, I'm granting myself the power to hand out Christmas wishes, with one simple rule: No going back in time — I’ve seen "The Butterfly Effect" and "It's a Wonderful Life"; I'm not messing with the space-time continuum — only focusing on semi-realistic (think short-term) changes. (So no, Tom Gores won't be selling the Pistons, either.)
Here's what I think the Lions, Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers would have at the top of their wishlists:
Detroit Lions
We’ll start with the squad who, for now, is in the least need of a Christmas gift. Downtrodden for years, down on its luck time and time again with seemingly good intentions, but no clue how to put it together ... suddenly, it's figuring it all out.
The Lions are coming off one of their most dominant wins of the season, crushing the Denver Broncos in front of a crazy Saturday night crowd at Ford Field. The Lions have been a souped-up version of themselves on primetime, and quarterback Jared Goff said as much after the win.
Which brings us to our very first wish:
This year, the Lions are wishing for Jared Goff to restart his streak of passes thrown without an interception.
What a smart wish, Lions! It couldn’t come at a better time!
Covering the end of last season and the start of this one, Goff went 10 games (and 383 passes) without a pick. That would be more than enough to get the Lions through the final three games of the 2023 regular season .... and potentially, ahem, four postseason games.
Look, the Lions have one of the NFL's most efficient offenses, powered by playmakers at nearly every spot. Amon-Ra St. Brown dominates the middle of the field and is one of the best third-down threats in the league. The one-two running-back punch of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery will wear any team down when used correctly. And then there’s rookie Sam LaPorta, developing into one of the 2023 NFL draft's best values, even as a second-rounder. The first-year tight end had three touchdowns against the Broncos last week and has a chance of snapping Mike Ditka’s (yes, that Ditka) rookie tight end receiving record set back in 1961 (plus marks for catches and touchdowns).
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Really, the only thing that can slow the Lions' offense down is turnovers.
Goff already has 10 picks this year, three more last year. In addition, Goff has had at least one turnover in each of the Lions' 2023 losses.
Sometimes football is complicated, and sometimes it’s not. The Lions can score with just about any team in the league. They just can't give the ball away; maybe Santa has a gift for them, instead.
Detroit Tigers
The Scott Harris front office, though a little over a year, has been defined by low-risk deals designed to surround prospects with veterans on the rebound — think Michael Lorenzen in 2023, or Kenta Maeda and Mark Canha in 2024. But the Tigers could use a breakout star (Spencer Torkelson's near-Silver Slugger campaign aside), which brings us to the Tigers' Christmas wish.
This year, the Tigers are wishing for a breakout season from at least one prospect.
Shoot for the stars, because at this point that feels like what the Tigers are missing.
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Torkelson and Riley Greene are solid. Potentially, if all things break right, maybe even All-Stars. Kerry Carpenter had a quiet breakout run, slashing .278/.340/.471 with 20 homers. And on the mound, left-hander Tarik Skubal showed flashes of dominance and could be a true ace if he can iron out his issues with blow-up innings.
So, who's next? Parker Meadows is already in the majors; Colt Keith, Justyn-Henry Malloy and, to a lesser degree, Jace Jung, are the names to watch out for. The Tigers also have some young arms, of varying experience — Sawyer Gipson-Long, Wilmer Flores and Reese Olson— to pair with the return of Casey Mize. But, with the team sitting out free agency at the plate, much of the onus will fall on the hitters, especially as the Tigers finished 2023 28th in runs scored, 28th in OPS, 24th in home runs and 28th in slugging.
Keith, who hit an impressive .306 across 126 games in Double-A Erie and Triple-A Toledo last year, is the most likely to succeed. If the 22-year-old continues to hit, he should earn the Tigers' second base job. Importantly, Keith hit .306 against right-handed pitchers and .307 against lefties — no constant platoon issues for manager A.J. Hinch.
Henry-Malloy will likely DH with spot-starts in the outfield. He hit .277 with 23 home runs and a .417 OBP, which ranked seventh among 83 players with at least 400 Triple-A plate appearances.
Meadows is an elite athlete with a plus glove; he went through a terrible slump at the plate but he's still just 24.
Jung, the Tigers' first-round pick in 2022, still has another jump to make before the majors, but the collegiate pick (and brother of star Texas third baseman Josh Jung) hit .284 with 14 home runs in 47 games with Double-A Erie last year.
A hit with any of those four prospects would go a long ways toward moving the Tigers — who finished second in the AL Central in 2023 — past the Minnesota Twins in 2024.
Detroit Red Wings
If you had asked the Red Wings what they wanted for Christmas at Thanksgiving, they may have said “Ah, just something small! There really isn’t too much that we need.”
It’s crazy how fast your Christmas list gets shaken up after losing seven of eight games.
This Christmas, the Red Wings wish for more consistency.
Hmm, that seems simple enough. But it may not be such a small ask.
Consistency, consistency, consistency. Control the controllables. Be ready to play every night.
Read these coaching clichés before? That doesn't make them less wrong.
After dropping the first game of the season, 4-3, to the New Jersey Devils, the Wings ripped off five straight wins. They followed that win streak by losing three straight.
After closing October with a win, the Wings started November off with a 2-5 record, including two losses in Sweden. When they returned stateside, they won three games in a row, and six of seven.
That was followed by December's run of seven losses in eight games, including a fall at home vs. San Jose that started with a 4-0 lead and four second-period goals allowed.
"We’ve got to get our game back in order," Lalonde said this week. "We lost our identity a little bit with this stretch. I think it’s on all of us.
"We’ll try to be a little bit better as a group. It’s on us to get this thing in order."
Yes, injuries have without a doubt played a factor. Captain Dylan Larkin missed four games with an upper-body injury, David Perron missed six games for a suspension following his retaliation for the Larkin hit and J.T. Compher missed five games with an injury. More recently, the Wings’ goalies have been ailing, with Ville Husso and Alex Lyon out.
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But good teams don’t have this much variance. If the Wings want to snap their seven-year playoff drought, they need to be more consistent. Help them out, Kris Kringle!
Detroit Pistons
More than anything, the holiday season is about giving back to those in need. And who is in need of Mr. Claus' work more than the Pistons?
We'll even be doubly generous: The Pistons get two wishes this year. (Sorry, Lions, Tigers, and Wings, but you get it, right?)
For their first wish this year, the Pistons wish for a regular-season win in the National Basketball Association.
That’s all, Pistons? Just one more win during an 82-game regular season?
Look, the Pistons have lost 25 straight, all since hitting 2-1 on Oct. 28.
They had the worst record (17-65) in 2022-23; they weren't making the playoffs in a tight Eastern Conference.
But some improvement, and perhaps the occasional upset, didn't seem improbable.
All of that has been thrown out the window in November and December. 25. LOSSES. IN. A ROW.
That has to end. Being on track for the worst record in NBA history has to be taken off the Pistons' shoulders to properly evaluate the young core (and maybe new head coach Monty Williams.
For their second wish, the Pistons wish for a new owner … er, wait, that’s what the LCA crowd wished for Thursday. The Pistons REAL second wish is for a trade partner to help them reconstruct their roster.
As impossible as it may seem when you watch this team play together, they have players contenders will be interested in, so finding a trade partner may not be overly wishful.
Bojan Bogdanovic is a plug-and-play shooter who would make an immediate floor-spacing impact on the right team.
Alec Burks and Joe Harris have decent expiring contracts that could help the Pistons facilitate a trade and enough shooting skills to entice a contender to take a chance.
Marvin Bagley III has developed into a nice backup center and could help a team that’s thin on the front line.
And if the Pistons ever decided they really wanted to shake things up, they could look to trade Isaiah Stewart. The Pistons have tried to make a square peg fit in a round hole — Stewart as a power forward — and it hasn’t always been pretty. But he can guard centers and hit 3-pointers (sometimes), so he has value.
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But the Pistons need to find value on the edges — a team willing to give up on a player with a higher ceiling because they need players ready to make an impact now.
Maybe that's the Warriors, who have a relationship with GM Troy Weaver (hello, James Wiseman); perhaps Weaver could target Andrew Wiggins in exchange for helping them fill some of their holes in the middle (sorry, James Wiseman) and on the outside.
Either way, the Pistons are in dire need of a change. A tweak. Something to allow their young players to thrive.
It might take a Christmas miracle ...but that's what the Freep is here for.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: What would the four Detroit sports teams ask for this Christmas?
