For all that the Pistons did this summer to try and separate themselves from last season’s Tour de Fiasco, there is still a “Work in progress” sign hovering over Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit.
That is to be expected, though. New president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon wasn’t going to fix this overnight. The roster needed a change, and so did the culture. If anything was apparent last season, it was that years of losing — historically bad losing, to be clear — caught up to players who never learned how to win in the first place. In just a few months on the job, Langdon has made strides. He’s added veteran shooting in the form of Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. That trio will give Cade Cunningham an uncluttered workspace like he hasn’t seen in the NBA. With them comes lineup versatility. With them also comes a roster that, unlike the majority of last season, will feature players who have won at a high level, and, well, are far more than just fringe NBA rotation players.
Offensively, Detroit, which had the 27th-ranked net rating last year, should see major improvements.
However, in case you forgot, there is still another side of a basketball court, and the Pistons’ offseason hasn’t addressed a defense that wasn’t much better than its offense a season ago. The new additions aren’t known for what they do on that end — though calling Harris a bad defender would be unfair. As the roster currently stands, Ausar Thompson and Isaiah Stewart are the only two players most hoop nerds would consider above average defensively. Simone Fontecchio comes in around average as a defender. That’s about where the 2024-25 Pistons’ list of plus-level defenders in the projected rotation stops. So, for Detroit to take a significant leap in the months ahead, internal growth is a must.
“Defense is just wanting to do it,” Langdon said. “You do have to have the ability, but, at the end of the day, you have to have the desire, passion and want to play defense. Defensively, it’s about holding everyone accountable with the work every single day. You have to be systematic in doing so, of course, putting guys in the right position and teaching them day in and day out, especially when we have the group that we have.”
Langdon said he has talked to Cunningham about morphing into more of a “two-way player.” Cunningham has the chops to be, at least, solid on that end more often than he has been. The team needs Jaden Ivey to start figuring things out defensively. It really needs Jalen Duren to take steps in the right direction as a defender sooner rather than later. These names and this side of the floor are what will allow the Pistons to reach their potential next season, whatever that potential is.
The one name Detroit added this summer to potentially boost its defense won’t log a single minute next season. New head coach J.B. Bickerstaff had success in Cleveland the last few years because of what the team was able to do on defense. In Bickerstaff’s four full seasons running the Cavaliers’ sideline, the franchise had a top-10 defense three times, including the league’s best defense during the 2022-23 season. Bickerstaff even found a way to have a successful defense with a roster that featured Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland (having Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley really helps, but that is still not a particularly easy feat). If anyone can get the likes of Cunningham, Duren and Ivey to turn a corner on that end, whether individually or through team schematics, he now resides in the Motor City.
“What I think you see is that system matters also,” Bickerstaff said last month. “There might be guys who aren’t great individual defenders but can become great team defenders. They might just have a foot-speed limitation or whatever it is … you just don’t know. The teaching of (defense) and taking the time matters. The more reps you get at it, matters. We’re going to spend a ton of time repping things out, trying to keep it as simple and clean as we can, but give guys the opportunity to get great at doing the same thing over and over again. Through that, they’ll improve.
“That is our philosophy on development. There is defensive development, as well. Most of the time, people only care about the offensive development, right? They spend all their time working on step-back shots, between-the-legs and all that, but they don’t spend any time working on rotations or being in the proper spots. That is something we’re going to really, really handle.”
At the very least, because of how the Pistons addressed their offense this summer, they should be entertaining to watch and easier on the eyes. However, they won’t be taken seriously until the defense starts to see progress. And, unless there are significant roster changes between now and the start of the season, there’s some growing up to do.
(Photo of, from left, Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
