If ever a 44-win team was worth celebrating, it was the 2024-25 Detroit Pistons. They were the second team in NBA history to triple their win total from the previous season. Entering their first-round series against the New York Knicks, team president Trajan Langdon told reporters it was “pretty funny” to be in the playoffs as the No. 6 seed, having told everybody to be patient before the season started.
The Pistons went from a laughingstock to a legitimate threat to advance. They fell to the Knicks after Jalen Brunson’s dagger 3 in Game 6, but all four games they lost seemed winnable in the fourth quarter. Perhaps more importantly, they accomplished exactly what Langdon said he wanted at the outset: They established an identity based on toughness, they improved as the season went on and their young players learned what NBA games with real stakes feel like. Their reward for all of this? Increased expectations. This time, if they finish as the sixth seed in the East, no one’s going to be impressed.
The state of play
Last year: Detroit matched its previous season’s win total (14) on Dec. 26, but it was still four games under .500 at the end of the calendar year. On New Year’s Day, Jaden Ivey broke his left fibula, which would sideline him for the rest of the season, but the Pistons filled that hole by nabbing Dennis Schröder at the deadline. From Jan. 1 onward, they went 30-20, with the league’s fifth-best defense. Cade Cunningham earned his first All-Star and All-NBA nods, Malik Beasley was the runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year and J.B. Bickerstaff was the runner-up for Coach of the Year. They won their first playoff game since 2008, and they might have won their first series since then if just a couple of things had gone differently.
The offseason: Schröder signed a generous contract with Sacramento, Tim Hardaway Jr. signed a minimum contract with Denver, Lindy Waters III signed a minimum contract with San Antonio and Beasley’s career has been put on hold because of a gambling investigation. Detroit revamped its wing rotation by acquiring former Michigan Wolverines teammates Caris LeVert (signed for two years, $28.9 million) and Duncan Robinson (acquired for Simone Fontecchio in a sign-and-trade on a three-year, $48 million deal with only the first year guaranteed). The team also re-signed Paul Reed (two years, $10.9 million) and added Javonte Green on a partially guaranteed minimum deal.
Las Vegas over/under: 45.5 wins, per BetMGM
The conversation
Pistons believer: Last year was a nice, unexpected treat, but this one is going to be so much sweeter. I’m ready for a full season of Ausar Thompson terrorizing opposing ballhandlers, sneaking into the paint for dunks and making plays you can’t teach. I’m ready for Jaden Ivey to remind everybody how much he’d improved as a shooter before his injury. (He made 45.2% of his catch-and-shoot 3s last year!) I’m ready for another All-NBA season from Cade Cunningham, obviously, and I’m ready for Ron Holland III to take a step forward. I’m even ready for Duncan Robinson and Jalen Duren’s dribble-handoffs, which I think will really open up the offense. Between internal improvement and the sorry state that the East is in, why can’t the Pistons win 50-plus games? Let’s go!
Pistons skeptic: Um, any thoughts on the loss of Beasley? I know he was cold for a lot of the Knicks series, but he was a vital part of last season’s turnaround. The dude launched 15.6 3s per 100 possessions and made 41.6% of them. Only two other players got 3s up that frequently: LaMelo Ball (who shot just 33.3% from deep) and Stephen Curry (who shot 39.7% and is the best shooter who has ever lived). Everybody credited Detroit’s front office for finally putting Cunningham in a healthy offensive environment, but A) the offense was respectable, not great, and B) it has now lost its best floor spacer. I don’t think Robinson is going to score at the volume that Beasley did, and, unless Ivey increases his 3-point volume and maintains the percentage you cited, I don’t think he’ll have a ton of off-ball gravity. LeVert doesn’t have the gravity that Hardaway did, either, and opponents are going to fully ignore both Thompson and Holland on the perimeter.
Pistons believer: Hey, we don’t know what’s going to happen with Beasley. Maybe he’ll be back. If not, though, shoutout to him for having the best season of his career in a Detroit uniform. You’re right that he was an important part of the team. That said, he was not solely responsible for Cunningham’s improved efficiency or the 2024-25 Pistons being “respectable,” as you put it, on offense. Cunningham played almost exactly half of his minutes with Beasley and scored slightly more efficiently without Beasley on the floor. Even if Beasley were not caught up in a gambling scandal, I’d be pleased with Detroit effectively swapping him, Hardaway and Schröder for Robinson, LeVert and a healthy Ivey. Robinson is a more effective (and more willing) screener, driver and passer than Beasley. LeVert may not have Hardaway’s gravity, but Hardaway was never going to ease Cunningham’s playmaking burden the way LeVert will. Ivey is flat-out better than Schröder, who was always a stopgap anyway.
Pistons skeptic: It’s not like the Pistons went into the offseason wanting to swap Beasley, Hardaway and Schröder for Robinson, LeVert and a healthy Ivey. They were going to re-sign Beasley until the gambling investigation got in the way. Also, you left out Simone Fontecchio! He’s gone, too, and he could have been helpful, if only because he doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be effective. Going into the summer, I was hoping that the front office would address the halfcourt offense, which, per Cleaning The Glass, ranked 19th last season. Robinson should fit in nicely, but I worry that the overall offense will take a step back, not forward, because of the way the roster is constructed now. If he or Tobias Harris has to miss any time, the spacing is going to be rough.
Pistons believer: I, too, wanted the front office to address the halfcourt offense this summer. And it did! The main problem last season was that the team was too dependent on Cunningham: with him on the court, the Pistons had the equivalent of a top-10 halfcourt offense; with him off the court, they scored in the halfcourt at about the same rate as the No. 23-ranked Jazz did. This is why LeVert was a home run signing, and it’s why I’m more interested in how Robinson helps their overall offensive flow than whether or not he can duplicate Beasley’s individual numbers. It feels like I need to remind you that shooting isn’t everything — this team is built on defense, physicality and the transition game — and Schröder shot 30.2% from deep with the Pistons anyway. I also probably need to remind you that Thompson is an obvious Most Improved Player candidate who will be a full-fledged star this year or next. His natural progression might be more important than any of the moves they made.
Pistons skeptic: Shooting is definitely not everything. It is pretty important, though! Even if you assume that Ivey’s going to remain at least a reliable spot-up shooter, there are still big questions about how the young players fit together because Thompson and Holland are nowhere close to that. I wonder, too, whether Cunningham’s pull-up 3 will ever become a real threat. To be clear, none of my concerns — which also include Detroit’s propensity to foul and turn the ball over — preclude it from being a likable team that wins more than half its games and is a tough out in the playoffs, just like it was last season. I just fear that, in the short term, the ceiling isn’t much higher than that.