Detroit Pistons: Bickerstaff Faces Tough Rotation Decisions

With the 2026 preseason finally under wrap, the Detroit Pistons coaching staff had the difficult task of taking the information gathered from the exhibition stage and translating it to the regular season. For Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, that task appears “obviously not easy,” though it’s a good position to be in for a team that won 60 games last year. 

From a rotation standpoint, Detroit made a concerted effort in the offseason to bring talented players into their two-deep so that the Pistons could endure a long, arduous 82-game regular season campaign. Injuries are unpredictable, so Bickerstaff preferred to have an in-house answer should an ailment pop up mid-season. 

“That’s the sacrifice that we talk about that comes into play when we’re doing what’s best for our team,” Bickerstaff told Omari Sankofa II. “It’s our responsibility as coaches to make those tough decisions, and they are tough. Through training camp, preseason, you said 13. I see 18. We’ve got guys that I believe can help us in different ways, so we’ve got to make some tough decisions.”

As a result, the Pistons made sure to sprinkle some playing time around to their youngsters with four exhibition games on the docket before they actually began to count, and rookie point guard Ebuka Okorie made the most of his preseason opportunities. In his debut against the Phoenix Suns, Okorie sealed a last-second victory for Detroit with a clever left-handed scoop shot on their last possession, then the former Stanford floor general guided the Pistons into the winner’s circle against the Toronto Raptors on Friday night. 

Overall, Okorie has looked ahead of schedule according to the Detroit coaching staff. The Pistons are entering the season with Daniss Jenkins as their back-up point guard, but Okorie looks too talented to keep off the floor. Bickerstaff tends to bring his rooks along slowly so as to not overwhelm the first-year players, but Okorie might not need that long of a development process based on his preseason returns. 

Now, Jenkins served as a huge asset for the Pistons off the bench last season once Marcus Sasser was unavailable in the early going, but the former G-Leaguer became an instrumental piece to Detroit’s success once again when Cade Cunningham went down with a collapsed lung in March. At the time, Jenkins helped lead the Pistons through the tail end of their regular season schedule, then Cunningham returned to take over just before the postseason began. 

But with Okorie in the mix, both players could feasibly serve that role in high-pressure situations. Okorie led the ACC in scoring as a true freshman last year, while Jenkins cut his teeth on the Eastern Conference’s top squad with two rounds of playoff experience under his belt. Both players have distinct strengths that underlie their value in Detroit, so Bickerstaff is faced with a difficult yet favorable task as he figured out the minutes breakdown for the Pistons backcourt ahead of their season opener against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 3 pm.