In A Bit Of A Surprising Twist, The Detroit Pistons Are Legitimately Good This Season And Should Absolutely Be Taken Seriously

Dustin Satloff. Getty Images.

There have been a lot of awesome storylines through the first half of the NBA season. We've seen the Cavs and Thunder establish themselves as legit wagons, the Rockets have taken a leap and sit in the 2 spot in the West, the way the Magic survived their disaster injury situation to still have a top 4 seed, the list goes on and on.

Well, one of the best stories of the first half of the season has to be what's currently taking place in Detroit. Coming off their massive road win over the Knicks at MSG last night

as you can see in that tweet the Pistons have now won 10 of their last 12. They're 7-1 since the calendar turned to 2025, and over the course of this run they've

- Tied OKC for the most wins in the NBA (10)

- Own the 7th ranked offense

- Own the 5th best TS%

- Had wins over PHX/ORL/SAC/LAL/MIN/NYK

On the year, they now sit at 21-19. How much of an improvement is that over last year? Well, in 2024 the Pistons won 14 games…..total. Remember this shit?

They had 1 win from October 30th to January 12th! Safe to say things have changed quite a bit.

To help put some additional context to their first half, at this moment in time the Pistons currently have more wins than: MIL/MIA/ATl/CHI/PHI/LAL/SAC/PHX/GS

How many had that on their bingo card to start the year?

Looking even deeper, when you see how they've done against teams .500 or better (12-13), that is more wins than: ORL/MIL/MIA/ATL/LAC/LAL/SAC/PHX

Again I ask, how many expected that?

Those 12 wins are also the same amount as teams like NYK/IND/MEM/DAL/GS.

A lot of the teams I just mentioned are playoff teams/contenders/supposed contenders. 

So what's different? For starters, JB Bickerstaff is doing what he usually does. He's not perfect, but he's a damn good "rebuilding coach". When he showed up in MEM back in 2017-18, that first year they went 15-48. In Year 2? 33-49. Not great, but it's a massive improvement. When he went to CLE, the Cavs went from 22 to 44 to 51 to 48 wins. Sure they didn't get over the hump in the postseason, but given where he started to where they were by the end of his tenure, they were better.

Year 1 in DET, he's off to a 21-19 start. At this current pace, the Pistons are around a 43 win team, which would be their highest total since 2015-16 when they won 44. Given how they look right now, I think it's fair to expect them to win at a little bit of a better pace barring any sort of injury.

Coaching is just half the battle though. Anyone who watched the Pistons these last few years would tell you that the main thing they needed was shooting. The spacing around Cade was dogshit which only made things tougher for him and them as a whole offensively. In today's NBA you need spacing and in order to get that spacing you need shooting. 

So what did they do? They brought in Malik Beasley for a 1/6M deal and he's rewarded them by shooting 40% from deep 9.4 (!!!!!) attempts. Tim Hardaway Jr, who they traded for over the summer, is shooting 38% on his 5.6 3PA. Cade's 3PT shooting has jumped from 35% to 38% on 6.5 3PA. This isn't even accounting for Jaden Ivey who is now out for the year, who was shooting 40% on 5.1 3PA. 

The point is, through both internal development and low-risk offseason moves, the Pistons have drastically improved their spacing and shooting and the results speak for themselves. Cade is off to a legit All Star caliber season and the Pistons are not only competitive, they're winning! 

This season, the Pistons as a team are taking 37.1 3PA a game, shooting 36.9% on those shots. That percentage is good for 11th in the NBA. 

Last season? The Pistons took just 31.7 3PA (27th) and shot 34.8% (26th). As a result, they were not competitive, and they were not winning.

So just add it all up. Better coaching, better spacing and shooting, the best player making an All Star leap, and what you have is a team that deserves your respect. At the very least, it's not completely insane to start talking about their Play In/Playoff chances, and this is where things get really interesting.

As of today, they sit in 8th, tied in the loss column with the 4 seeded Magic. It certainly feels like seeds 4-9 are going to come down to the wire, here H2H tiebreakers are going to be the deciding factor. These are the teams that are in that range: ORL/IND/MIL/MIA/ATL

How have the Pistons done against those teams?

vs ORL: 1-1

vs IND: 1-1

vs MIL: 0-2

vs MIA: 2-1

vs ATL: 1-0

They have 1 game left against ORL, 2 more against IND, 2 more against MIL, 1 more against MIA, and 3 more against ATL. Given how they've been playing, is it crazy to think they can win the majority of these H2H series? I certainly don't think so. It's not like any of those teams are separating themselves, everyone is around the same winning percentage, so I don't think it's insane to suggest that not only can the Pistons finish top 6, but everything we're seeing from them right now suggests top 4 isn't totally out of the question at this moment in time. 

Think of how insane of a sentence that is based on what we all watched last season. That rules. 

Not to get too ahead of myself, but the Pistons are also projected to be one of the teams this summer with legit money to spend. As of now, they sit 6th in projected cap space for the summer. There's a world where they have a competitive year this season, make the Play In/playoffs and have a good showing, and then add in legit pieces this summer based on what they feel they need. Maybe that's more shooting. Maybe that's big man depth. The point is, as a destination things suddenly look a whole lot more appealing.

I know I say it all the time, but the Pistons season only reinforces my stance. You should be watching the NBA. The teams that you may have thought were awful and not worth your time are showing you it's actually the exact opposite, and it's not just the teams at the top of the conferences. Teams like the Pistons, Kings, Hawks etc are all playing good basketball that might not be getting the headlines but are putting up a solid product every single night. 

It's good to see the wins finally start to follow, so consider me IN on the Pistons playoff chances. I think we're finally seeing that young roster take the leap that many have been waiting for, and when that happens everyone wins.