Detroit enters 2026-27 with the East’s No. 1 seed from last spring still fresh in the building, but with a Game 7 loss to Cleveland still sitting in the film room. The Pistons won 60 games last season, their first trip to that mark in 20 years, before the Cavaliers ended their run in the conference semifinals on Detroit’s home floor. Now comes the harder assignment: proving the climb from 14 wins in 2023-24, to 44 in 2024-25, to 60 last season was not the high point.
Cade Cunningham remains the center of the operation, and Detroit’s ceiling again is tied closely to his partnership with restricted free agent Jalen Duren. The two produced an All-NBA-level combination last year, but Duren was still unsigned as training camp neared. His situation is the club’s most urgent remaining piece of offseason business.
The roster around Cunningham has changed. Isaiah Stewart, Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert are out, removing Detroit’s third-leading scorer in Harris and its leading shot-blocker and defensive backbone in Stewart. John Collins arrives to help absorb some of that frontcourt load, while Gary Harris, Isaiah Joe and Taurean Prince bring perimeter experience. Detroit also added Ebuka Okorie and Ugonna Onyenso to the group.
The immediate question is whether the new rotation can preserve the Pistons’ bruising interior identity while fixing the spacing issue that followed them into the playoffs. Detroit made only 902 3-pointers last season, 28th in the NBA, and was beaten by 5.0 points per game from behind the arc, the league’s fifth-worst margin. Its outside shooting improved somewhat during the postseason, but the Pistons no longer controlled the paint as completely as they had across the regular season.
The paint was Detroit’s foundation
No team leaned into the lane more effectively than Detroit did on most nights. The Pistons finished plus-14.2 points per game in the paint, the second-largest advantage recorded in the 30 seasons for which the league has tracked the category. They took 56% of their shots in the paint, second-highest in the NBA.
Duren was at the heart of that pressure, with 96% of his attempts coming in the paint. Ausar Thompson was similarly direct, taking 89% of his shots there. Among 182 players who logged at least 500 field-goal attempts, Duren ranked second and Thompson sixth in paint-shot frequency.
Detroit defended the area just as well. Opponents took only 47% of their attempts in the paint, the ninth-lowest rate in the league, and converted 54.2% there, the NBA’s third-best opponent mark. Replacing Stewart’s rim protection while keeping that structure intact will be one of the camp’s first practical tests.
Joe could be the swing piece for the other end of that equation. In four seasons with Oklahoma City, he cleared 40% from 3-point range each year, but rarely received extended floor time. He averaged fewer than 22 minutes per game and started only 36 times in 296 appearances. Last season, he hit 181 threes in just 1,507 minutes, ranking 30th in the league in makes. Only Stephen Curry, with 190, and Klay Thompson, with 202, made more triples while playing under 1,600 minutes.
Joe enters his seventh NBA season with a real chance at a bigger workload. If Detroit gives him consistent minutes beside Cunningham and its rim-running frontcourt, his shooting can change the geometry of possessions that too often ended with the Pistons having to win the same battle at the rim twice.
Thompson’s own contract remains another preseason item. Detroit is expected to finalize a five-year, $155 million extension for the All-Defensive First Team selection, shortly after his twin brother Amen Thompson landed a maximum contract in Houston. Ausar’s versatility remains vital, particularly with Stewart gone and the Pistons reworking their frontcourt combinations.
Early dates that will measure the new group
Detroit opens the season Oct. 20 at home against Boston in the first game of the NBA’s opening-night tripleheader. It is a quick measuring stick: the Celtics and Pistons were the East’s top two regular-season seeds a year ago, and both reshaped their rosters after earlier-than-expected playoff exits.
The Sixers visit Nov. 4 after adding Finals MVPs Jaylen Brown and LeBron James. Detroit swept Philadelphia in last season’s series, but the matchup carries a different weight against a dramatically altered Sixers roster.
On Nov. 24, the Pistons see Orlando for the first time since overcoming a 3-1 first-round deficit to beat the Magic in seven games. That meeting comes during Emirates NBA Cup group play. The Cleveland rematch is set for Jan. 18, opening the league’s MLK Day slate and bringing Detroit back to the opponent that ended its season.
Then on Feb. 3, Detroit hosts the champion Knicks in the second NBA Pioneers Classic. The event matches last season’s best regular-season team in the East with the conference’s top postseason club while honoring Chuck Cooper, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton and Earl Lloyd, the pioneers who broke the NBA’s color barrier in 1950.
For Detroit, those dates will not define the season by themselves. The larger work starts in camp: settle Duren’s deal, sort Collins into the frontcourt, find enough shooting around Cunningham, and make sure a 60-win team has not traded away too much of what made it difficult to play against.
