[Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press] Detroit Pistons ripped for 'disgusting' start to season despite collection of talent

National NBA talking heads are just as perplexed with the Detroit Pistons' starting lineup decisions as Pistons fans are, and calls for the Pistons to break up their young core are starting to trickle in.

Kevin O'Connor and Chris Vernon of The Ringer said on Friday's "The Mismatch" podcast they were "disgusted" by watching the NBA-worst Pistons (2-11 and losers of 10 straight entering Sunday's game in Toronto) so far this season, and called on general manager Troy Weaver to facilitate a trade to open up minutes for Jaden Ivey and Marcus Sasser in the over-populated backcourt.

"They have Jaden Ivey, Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson, Jalen Duren. This should be the most fun team to watch of young talent, going up and down the court, giving good teams problems," Vernon yelled in frustration. "This is Monty Williams' fault. They buried Ivey — they brought in Kevin Knox and gave him more minutes than Ivey and he wasn't even on a team (until last week)."

O'Connor agreed with his co-host and said the decisions were stunting the growth of the guards, particularly Cunningham and Ivey. He also said Williams has a proven track record of being slow to make adjustments dating back to his time with the Phoenix Suns.

"If the Pistons were paying any attention to the Suns before paying (Williams) the highest salary in basketball, they'd know this is a thing with Monty Williams," O'Connor said. "He took forever to feed the ball to Mikal Bridges when (Chris) Paul and (Devin) Booker were out. He took forever to adjust in the postseason when the Nuggets were sagging off of non-shooters and then they changed the lineup after Game 3 and won two in a row."

"Monty is not always doing what makes the most sense. He's a good motivator, he's a good man but basketball-wise I think we are seeing some of those issues with Detroit already."

The co-hosts switched their focus to Weaver and the front office after ripping into Williams' early season rotations. They complimented the draft decisions to secure Thompson and Sasser — O'Connor labeled Thompson the Pistons' best player thus far — but said the glut of guards is doing a tremendous disservice to the young players earmarked as future cornerstones of the franchise.

They agreed trading one, whether it be Hayes or Ivey in their eyes, would be the best step forward to allow the players to develop while fixing the rotation and spacing issues.

"They need to break it up with the guards," O'Connor said. "Whether it's trading Ivey or whether it's trading Killian, whatever it might be, they need to break it up to help facilitate the development of those guys and also create a better situation for those players."

Until changes are made, O'Connor and Vernon have labeled the Pistons as their strongest dislike of the NBA season so far. Vernon finished his passionate rant with a sentiment plenty of Pistons fans have shared online in the season's first three weeks.

"It could be a super fun backcourt and they have just F'd this up and I don't understand it," Vernon said.

"They are easily my biggest dislike so far this season — they suck and they're not fun to watch."