With a new season on the horizon, Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke about how the team should look offensively this year
Over the past two seasons, the Detroit Pistons have staked their claim as one of the tougher teams in the NBA with a priority on rim protection defensively and scoring near the bucket on the other end.
Under head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, those principles have been paramount to the team’s improvement, but the Pistons are going to head in a slightly different direction offensively during the 2026-27 campaign.
During the offseason, Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon brought in John Collins, Isaiah Joe and Taurean Prince to shore up the squad’s perimeter shooting, which stood as a missing link to Detroit’s offensive balance last year. But with those 40% three-point shooters in the Motor City, the Pistons should present a new dynamic for the Eastern Conference to toil with.
“We try not to come back into a new season doing the exact same things that we’ve done in the past,” Bickerstaff said after practice. “This year, we’ve made some changes offensively, things we feel like will make us harder to guard, but then the threat of shooting on the back end of it exaggerates it. So, we’ve made some tweaks. It will be pretty easy to see once we get out there, but again we feel like it’s going to make us harder to guard on that end.”
Now, the Pistons are not expected to completely turn their back on the identity that’s sparked their rampant success over the last couple years. Detroit still aims to field a rigid defense that causes ample turnovers, and the group wants to continue taking high-percentage looks near the rim whenever possible. But on top of those focus points, the Pistons should be able to test teams from downtown in a way that they were unable to a year ago.
Duncan Robinson is no longer the long 40% shooter from beyond the arc in the Motor City, and he’s going to have competition from Joe at the two. Collins is projected to serve as the team’s starting power forward with Tobias Harris now on the San Antonio Spurs, and Prince offers quality depth on the second unit anywhere from the two to the four.
As Bickerstaff alluded to, each new season brings new challenges in the modern NBA, and the Pistons are experiencing that reality with Jalen Duren’s contract negotiation. So far, the team has been unable to work out any kind of deal with the 22-year old All-Star, and the big man was noticeably absent from Media Day earlier in the week. Still, the Pistons are excited to welcome Duren back into the building as soon as his contract situation is resolved, but it’s taken longer to do so than anyone would have predicted.
Once Duren reports to camp, then Bickerstaff can truly begin demonstrating how he wants the Pistons to look on the court this season with so many new role players working their way into the mix before their first pre-season game against the Phoenix Suns in Detroit on Oct. 5.
