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…
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