The Detroit Pistons were wheeling and dealing this offseason to produce an even deeper team than they had last season
Last year, the Detroit Pistons were not like other teams in the Eastern Conference during the regular season. When other teams would rest their stars and exercise liberal load management, the Pistons pressed forward with their business-like approach and pushed for a win each game.
That formula paid dividends 60 times for Detroit before reaching the postseason, which secured the Pistons the top seed in the East. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was in the running for Coach of the Year with his star player, Cade Cunningham, finishing in fifth for Most Valuable Player, and the team sent a pair of players to the All-Star Game for the first time in nearly two decades.
Overall, the 2025-26 campaign saw the Pistons take a large step forward, but they will have to follow a different script to win games this season after flipping the roster and retooling over the summer. With Tobias Harris now in the Western Conference, Detroit will have a new starting power forward in Motown for the first time in two seasons, and his name is most likely John Collins, a 28-year old stretch four who averaged over 13 points and five rebounds per game for the Los Angeles Clippers last year.
From a stylistic perspective, Collins offers a more versatile profile than Harris did when taking into account his lob threat and extended range behind the three-point line, so the big man’s addition to the Pistons should help open up their half-court offense. Collins is an aggressive offensive rebounder who runs the break, and his skill set could help open up the playbook for Detroit moving forward.
But outside of Collins’ addition, the Pistons completely reworked their bench during the offseason with veteran role players who all share one very important trait. On the trade market, Detroit made deals to bring in Isaiah Joe, Taurean Prince and Gary Harris, and each of those three scorers connected on three-pointers at a 40% rate last season. Since the Pistons ranked just No. 17 during the regular season in terms of long-range percentage, it was obviously a point of emphasis to add some perimeter gravity to the mix moving forward, and each of those three players has a reliable outside shot.
To start out, the prevailing notion is that Joe, Prince and Harris will start out on the bench, and their playing time could be passed out in that descending order with the former Oklahoma City Thunder shooting guard receiving the most playing time of the bunch. However, Prince has already been active during the summer months in open run workouts with Cunningham and Ausar Thompson, so the crafty wing is already working to adjust to his new teammates as quickly as possible.
Zooming out even further, the Pistons re-signed Kevin Huerter to a three-year deal this summer and also brought back Javonte Green for another go-around, so Detroit has worked to build a roster that’s loaded with depth and experience. Ron Holland is returning for his third season as a pro, and Paul Reed is slated to receive a bump in playing time with Isaiah Stewart on the Memphis Grizzlies. The end of the bench, though, is where the Pistons may have found an edge during the summer.
In the draft, the Pistons made deals to land point guard Ebuka Okorie in the first-round and center Ugonna Onyenso in the second-round, and the former could challenge Daniss Jenkins for a back-up point guard role by as early as mid-season. Onyenso, on the other hand, is on a two-way deal, so he’s slated to duke it out with Tolu Smith for the third-string center job at the start of training camp.
But keeping with the theme of quality depth, the Pistons signed Elijah Harkless to a two-way deal during the offseason as well, and he’s a tenacious on-ball defender on the perimeter who has an untapped shooting touch at the pro level. Harkless is the type of savvy, low-risk pickup that can really benefit a team in the event of an injury, so his role on the squad could end up as a high-reward addition.
Similarly, Isaac Jones is a big man who played with both the Pistons and the Motor City Cruise last season, but Detroit knows that they can bump Jones into the rotation in a pinch if need be.
With players covering more space on the court per game than ever before, the Pistons are making sure that they have a laundry list of quality depth that can contribute over the course of an 82-game season.
