The Detroit Pistons have four players with the age, skills/athleticism and cachet to be labeled with All-Star upside: Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren.

Those four players have played a whopping … 11 games together in their careers. Take out rookie Thompson, and the trio with previous NBA experience have only shared a court for … 20 career games. Twenty. Seriously.

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This is Detroit’s core as of today. The Pistons’ future will be determined by the development of these four horsemen. There are others on the roster who are good, solid NBA players, but if two of Cunningham, Ivey, Thompson and Duren don’t start transcending into top-25 player status within the next few years, Detroit’s rebuild will likely need a second version (or fifth version depending on who you’re asking).

The problem as of now is that the Pistons are in the midst of a franchise-worst 19-game losing skid, look destined to be the worst team in the NBA, again, and anyone with two eyes can see this roster needs a bit of juice injected into it. On Dec. 15, the majority of the league will be available for trade. Assuming Detroit doesn’t suddenly turn a month’s worth of losing into the alternative over the next five days, it’s my understanding that the Pistons could be active in the trade market in the coming weeks.

The franchise in, arguably, its most delicate state in some time needs to tread lightly, though.

Before the Pistons doing anything too drastic, it’s consequential they find out what they have at home first. Eleven games. That’s how many times Detroit’s four most important players for long-term sustainability have shared the floor together.

Losing sucks. I get it. Losing like this is almost unfathomable. I understand. You know what’s worse, though? Watching another franchise reap the benefits of your losing and talent evaluation just because of outside pressure to need a quick fix. Could the Pistons use a star right now? Of course. They’re likely not getting one without giving up on one of the four aforementioned names, not as long as it has a protected first-round pick owed to the New York Knicks.

Remember Khris Middleton? I know you do. His situation was a bit different because he was a second-round pick of the Pistons in 2012. Middleton, though, was a first-round talent coming out of Texas A&M. A knee injury as a junior had him drop down big boards. After one season in Detroit, Middleton, along with others, was traded to Milwaukee for Brandon Jennings. The Pistons wanted to be better sooner rather than later. They wanted a quick fix. How did that work out for them? Middleton is now a three-time All-Star and NBA champion.

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Remember Spencer Dinwiddie? That’s also a rhetorical question. Like Middleton, Dinwiddie, too, was a second-round pick by Detroit (2014). And also like Middleton, many evaluators considered Dinwiddie a first-round talent out of college, but he suffered a bad ACL injury as a junior and dropped down big boards. When Dinwiddie got to the Motor City, veteran Steve Blake and Jennings were prioritized higher, and Dinwiddie received tough love from head coach Stan Van Gundy. Sound familiar? In 2016, Dinwiddie was traded for Cameron Bairstow, a trivia-question name. Dinwiddie has been an All-Star “snub” and legitimate NBA starter since 2017.

To be fair, I haven’t gotten the sense that Detroit wants to trade one of Cunningham, Ivey, Thompson or Duren. But public pressure is a mother… When you lose like this, everyone believes you should do something, anything, to make it stop. Detroit should not do whatever necessary to appease a fan base that has every single right to have smoke coming out of its nose and ears right now. We’ve seen that movie before. It’s how we got here today.

At this point, the Pistons just need to swallow their medicine, admit that their hopes for this season were a bit premature — especially given that these guys never really have played together — and double down on the players who have the best chance of getting them out of this mess and provide the highest rate of sustainability.

Let me be clear: Detroit should do something. This current team looks and feels broken. Adding another capable veteran would do this team wonders. The Pistons could use another forward. The Pistons just shouldn’t do anything drastic. Detroit should be a year away, at least, from even considering such a move.

Eleven games.

Putting Cunningham, Ivey, Thompson and Duren, once he returns from another ankle injury, in the best positions to succeed should be the No. 1 priority from here on out. Putting players around them that accentuate what they do best is the only way the Pistons will be able to give them a proper evaluation. These four need chemistry. There needs to be some form of continuity. There’s none right now. Ivey struggles to get significant minutes for one reason or another, Cunningham is returning after missing all but 12 games last year, Duren’s ankle hasn’t been kind to him and Thompson is a rookie. On the basketball court, these guys barely know one another.

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Detroit is in its most fragile period in quite some time. One decision could set the franchise back even more. We’ve seen it happen before. Just a few years ago, actually. Remember Blake Griffin?

Things aren’t good right now. At all. But at least the root of the problem is that a bunch of young players haven’t figured stuff out. It’s possible that they never will. That’s the risk of rebuilding around a bunch of teenagers and early 20-somethings, right? It’s still just too soon to jump to that conclusion.

The Pistons need to really figure out what they have at home before they step out.

(Top photo of Cunningham and Ivey: John Fisher / Getty Images)