What to expect from a Brandon Jennings-less Pistons

All is not lost! Do not despair, Detroit Pistons faithful. The Achilles tendon injury that Brandon Jennings suffered in Saturday night's loss to the Milwaukee Bucks is not going to completely crumble the Pistons' hopes of making the playoffs this season. The team has announced that he will undoubtedly miss the remainder of this season, with Jennings himself having taken to his Twitter with the simple message "6/9 months" (in reference to the amount of time that it will likely take him to return from the devastating injury).

Despite all of that, there is certainly no reason to think that the team has no chance of finishing the second half of the season in the same fashion that they've played the past month. There has been plenty of excitement and energy at the Palace of Auburn Hills, as the Pistons have been one of the NBA's top five teams since Christmas. As has been evidenced by the Pistons' Championship teams of the past three decades, one player cannot win a championship. Therefore, the loss of but a single player – even one who has been as fantastic of a player as Jennings over the past month – isn't something that can entirely cripple a team.

The other factor worth mentioning is that D.J. Augustin is a fantastic point guard, and will certainly do justice to the position in Jennings' absence. He showed his mettle last season, while filling in for injured superstar Derrick Rose for the Chicago Bulls. And there's no reason to think that he won't do the same in Detroit.

Teams also tend to tighten themselves at times of adversity. And when one of a team's stars and catalysts goes down with an injury, oftentimes the remaining members pull together and finish strong. The 2015 Pistons certainly have a team of characters and strong individuals, and will no doubt fulfill this stereotype.

Now is the time, whether you're a bandwagon fan or amongst the faithful few, to stand up and show this overachieving squad that you are a Pistons fan, whether they're missing one of their top stars or not. They did, after all, finish Sunday night's game in competitive fashion against one of the league's top teams.