Last Updated on June 8, 2026 12:54 pm by Mike Passador | Published: June 8, 2026

The Pistons were looking to build off their playoff appearance and first-round exit from 2024-25 but opted to make minimal roster changes, instead relying on internal improvement from a young roster to figure out what the team’s missing pieces might eventually look like. It paid off with the franchise’s first 60-win season in 20 years and the top spot in the Eastern Conference, though the playoffs still put some critical weaknesses on display for the team to address going forward.

How’d It Go?

The Pistons were hoping to maintain the momentum of the 2024-25 season in which they returned to the playoffs and put up a good fight despite a first-round loss to the Knicks. It was a bit of a challenge with backup PG Dennis Schroder and sharpshooters Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley off the roster; Detroit went with a sign-and-trade for Duncan Robinson and signings of Caris LeVert and Javonte Green to round out the bench group. Overall the team was banking on a year of continuity for a young core and continued improvement from those same players to take the next step forward.

Take the next step they did, as the Pistons raced out to a 15-2 start that basically had them in the Eastern Conference driver’s seat all year long. They kept on rolling and entered the All-Star break with a 40-13 record and went with a minimalist approach at the deadline, swapping out Jaden Ivey for Kevin Huerter to add a little more shooting to the mix. Ivey had been surpassed by two-way contract player Daniss Jenkins anyway, so it was a quick fix for an area of need that also took Detroit off the hook for Ivey’s impending restricted free agency and gave them more immediate flexibility with Huerter headed for unrestricted free agency.

The Pistons cruised to the top spot in the East thanks to brilliant seasons from Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren, who were both named to the All-Star team. Their chemistry made that pick-and-roll combo a go-to for the Pistons, with just enough support from the rest of the roster to make Cunningham a little more than a one-man show. Tobias Harris was as steady as ever and embraced being the team’s designated veteran presence while Ausar Thompson was once again an elite defensive presence. Robinson’s shooting fit like a glove and while the LeVert acquisition didn’t exactly pan out, the Pistons still had a strong second unit captained by the heart-and-soul Isaiah Stewart. With a mix of toughness and grit to flank their superstar guard, the Pistons were hoping to make real noise in the postseason.

That didn’t come to pass, however, as the Pistons ended up in a prolonged, 14-game rock fight. Their lack of offensive creators past Cunningham was a huge problem against playoff-caliber defenses. Watching the Pistons try to score in crunch time was brutal; when Harris wasn’t hitting his jumpers you were basically watching Cunningham ram his head against the wall over and over again as long as he wasn’t turning the ball over. Duren shrunk in the spotlight, scoring eight fewer points per game in the postseason. The only thing that saved Detroit from an embarrassing first-round exit was the fact that the Magic offense was even worse. Both teams traded comebacks/collapses (depending on your perspective) where points were impossible to find. Franz Wagner got hurt, paving the way for the Pistons to secure a 4-3 series win after trailing 1-3 through four games. The second round was more of the same, only the Cavs seemed to match Detroit’s lack of care for the ball. The Pistons couldn’t outrun fate for the second series and got throttled on their home floor in Game 7. A great regular season gave way to one of the uglier playoff runs we’ve seen, and the team’s roster issues — and potential coaching shortcomings — were laid bare on the big stage.

Coaching

Hiring JB Bickerstaff was a huge turning point for the Pistons. He gave the team a real identity and some actual spirit in the wake of the disastrous Monty Williams era and the Pistons have made huge gains under his watch. This past season, the Pistons were the top team in the Eastern Conference and Bickerstaff’s scheme produced the second-best defensive rating and net rating in the league. Detroit played hard, relentless defense, and allowed Cunningham to pull all the strings on the other end of the court. It was a great regular season and both Cunningham and Duren have now had career years since Bickerstaff took over.

It wasn’t perfect — it never is — and if fantasy GMs had one gripe with Bickerstaff, it’s that he continued to toy with the minutes for Ausar Thompson. That’s a chicken-and-egg problem given that Thompson’s offense was so limited, but Bickerstaff seemed to have a quick trigger with his elite defender, resulting in less playing time than anticipated.

Still, while Thompson wasn’t able to take a big step forward, a number of other Pistons did. Isaiah Stewart and Tobias Harris both had quality seasons and Daniss Jenkins established himself as a real rotation option. The Pistons haven’t made a ton of splashy moves since Bickerstaff took over but have improved year over year, with developmental gains appearing up and down the depth chart. That has to count for something.

The playoffs were a different story. Bickerstaff’s hands were tied to a certain extent given the lack of shot-creators on the roster, and Huerter’s groin strain meant that nobody in the second unit could space the floor reliably. While a ton of Detroit’s offensive struggles come back to those problems, Bickerstaff didn’t cover himself in glory in terms of scheming up new ways to generate buckets. His big decision was at center, where a struggling Duren continued to hold down the same role night after night. Bickerstaff eventually called the audible to get Paul Reed more minutes, especially in the second halves of games, but never went with the nuclear option of benching his All-Star center. While Duren deserved it with his play, Bickerstaff probably didn’t want to tank his confidence after the worst month of his professional career. Whether changing the starting lineup would’ve resulted in a second-round victory is a hypothetical debate at this point, but Bickerstaff proved just a little too slow to work past Detroit’s offensive problems in the postseason. He got some love in the Coach of the Year voting — deservedly so — but had a tough playoff run, like the rest of the squad.

The Players

Cade Cunningham

PG, Detroit Pistons

ADP: 8.3 / 8.1 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 17/23 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 8/17 (8/9-cat)

Cunningham took a big step forward last year thanks to a better-constructed Pistons roster and got even better this time around, maintaining all of that momentum and then some. He earned a spot on the All-NBA First Team and was the driving force behind Detroit’s climb up the standings. Fantasy-wise, Cunningham couldn’t quite live up to his ADP because of losses in points, rebounds, 3-pointers, field goal percentage and free throw percentage, but he still managed to post first-round value when you were able to ignore his turnovers. He was that good, and set new career-highs in both assists and blocks. Cunningham double-doubled in over half of his appearances (38 games) and managed to provide second-round value in terms of total output even when you factor in his 11-game absence for a collapsed lung in late March.

The sun, moon and stars of the organization, Cunningham faced even more pressure in the playoffs when it was apparent that nobody else on the roster was capable of scoring without massive amounts of help. Opponents were able to sell out on stopping Cunningham and while that led to lots and lots of turnovers — some of the back-breaking variety — it’s difficult to lay all the blame at Cunningham’s feet given his lack of help. He averaged an absurd 32.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 0.9 steals, 0.9 blocks and 3.0 3-pointers per game in the first round vs. Orlando and brought Detroit back from the brink after they faced a 3-1 series deficit, headlined by a 45-point masterpiece in Game 5. The second round was tougher sledding as the Pistons couldn’t quite keep up with a deeper Cavs attack, and while Cunningham had some huge games it was not enough to get over the hump. He simply ran out of gas after carrying his team through the first 13 games of the playoffs and floundered with 13 points in a Game 7 loss. While the end to the season was disappointing, the Pistons can rest easy knowing that Cunningham has another level to his game in the playoffs.

Jalen Duren

C, Detroit Pistons

ADP: 55.6/66.8 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 32/22 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 45/32 (8/9-cat)

Duren put together a fantastic season in his fourth campaign, earning his first career All-Star nod and putting together an All-NBA effort. He produced new career-highs in points, rebounds and steals per game to go alongside vastly improved free throw shooting and a huge spike in shot volume. Duren’s chemistry with Cade Cunningham was evident and he was able to feast on lobs and easy looks around the basket. The pick-and-roll looked like a cheat code at times as Duren could basically outjump and finish over his opponents throughout the season, racking up a ton of easy points to go with the expected rebounds and strong FG%. A burgeoning face-up scoring game led to a few additional buckets here and there as well. It’s a great stat set and Duren’s growth as a scoring threat fueled a big jump up the rankings. If you could stop time there, Duren would be ready to sign a max contract this summer.

But time stops for no man, and Duren had a nightmare playoff run that cost him millions in future earnings with each passing day. Last postseason was tough for Duren but you could chalk it up to lack of experience and a bad matchup with Karl-Anthony Towns but this was a different beast entirely. Duren got roundly outplayed by Wendell Carter Jr. and the Pistons largely won the first round despite Duren’s lack of contributions, and in the second round he was a ghost against Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. Duren should’ve had the size and strength advantage against all three of those players and none are good enough shooters to force him to play outside the paint. He finished his 14-game playoff run averaging 10.2 points on .514 shooting and ended up benched down the stretch in favor of Paul Reed on multiple occasions. Duren’s regular season was great but the playoffs showed how hard it is for players of this archetype — he’s not a great rim protector, can’t really shoot and can’t create his own shot. That didn’t matter very much for fantasy purposes but Duren’s postseason embarrassment should be an inflection point one way or another when it comes to the next phase of his career.

Ausar Thompson

SG, Detroit Pistons

ADP: 79.5 / 104.0 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 69/68 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 108/97 (8/9-cat)

Thompson was one of the very best defenders in the league last season but he was unable to turn his real life impact into the appropriate fantasy value. His third season wasn’t much better than his second and while Thompson did get a bump in playing time, his significant limitations on offense meant that he was capped at a still-modest 26.0 mpg. JB Bickerstaff was a little stingy with the minutes here but at the end of the day, Thompson can be played off the floor by disciplined teams and that is always going to put a ceiling on his fantasy appeal. Despite that, he was a top-100 guy who managed to lead the league in steals. The defensive output was immaculate but Thompson couldn’t do much on the other end of the floor and his shot volume didn’t change despite a career-high in minutes. It wasn’t a total wash — Thompson jumped about 50 spots in the per-game rankings in punt-FT% builds — but there was across-the-box improvement baked into the equation. He failed to deliver on that front and while Thompson was an elite source of defensive stats, he was drafted to be more than just that. The Pistons probably feel the same way. Being an elite specialist can land you in the middle rounds of the fantasy rankings but it’s not a rewarding way to meet your ADP, and managers who did draft Thompson with visions of a multi-category push can’t be happy with what they got.

Tobias Harris

SF, Detroit Pistons

ADP: 118.0 / 109.8 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 118/99 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 139/110 (8/9-cat)

This is just a sneak peek of the Season Wrap. The entire roster is covered, as well as the Fantasy Star, Letdown, One to Watch and One Burning Question for this team. You’ll need to have an Ethos 360, All-Sport or NBA FantasyPass membership. Click here to learn more and sign up! Premium Access Required

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Mike Passador

Mike graduated from Boston University’s Dual Degree Program with a BA in Economics and a BS in Business with Concentrations in Marketing and Operations Management. He is a faithful supporter of Toronto sports and the Detroit Lions and is always ready to be let down. Tweet to him @Mike_Pandador, but if you badmouth Jose Calderon you might get blocked.

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