The Detroit Pistons made small yet calculated offseason moves to bring shooters into the Motor City
Now that training camp is less than two weeks away, many of the Detroit Pistons have already returned to the Great Lakes State ahead of organized team workouts and are back in the gym themselves. Earlier this week, Paul Reed posted a clip with Daniss Jenkins and Ron Holland II on the court, so it looks like the Pistons are nearly ready to start firing on all cylinders.
Though Reed, Jenkins and Holland are returning from a second round playoff appearance and a 60-win regular season, the Pistons are welcoming a handful of new players to the squad. Over the offseason, Detroit added John Collins, Isaiah Joe, Taurean Prince and Gary Harris through the trade market while acquiring Ebuka Okorie and Ugonna Onyenso in the draft, and it should not go unnoticed that Elijah Harkless joined the squad on a two-way deal as well.
With all of those incoming pieces, the Pistons are going to resemble a much different outfit on the court, especially without Tobias Harris and Isaiah Stewart on the team. Both veterans were instrumental in establishing the team’s culture and building chemistry, so that element of the locker room could take some time to mesh together before it eventually finds its stride.
When looking ahead to the 2026-27 campaign, the Pistons have several question marks that immediately pop up, such as how Collins will replace Harris’ trusted mid-range game? Can the Pistons remain defensively rigid in the low post without Stewart patrolling the paint? These are areas that Detroit will need to work through during live action.
From a zoomed-out perspective, ESPN surveyed the Pistons’ offseason activity in order to forecast where the Central Division team will finish at the end of the year, but Pistons Roundtable is far more bullish on the Motown squad.
“All-NBA center [Jalen] Duren seems likely to return in restricted free agency, but Detroit traded Stewart -- its longest-tenured player -- and effectively exchanged Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert for John Collins and Isaiah Joe, respectively,” Zach Kram wrote for ESPN. “That seems like a moderate downgrade, all things considered, and the Pistons didn't acquire significant scoring and playmaking help for Cade Cunningham.”
While the Duren situation is a work in progress that no one expected to take this long, the rest of the roster was brought in with a fairly specific intention to improve the Pistons’ perimeter shooting after a lackluster performance during the playoffs. Both Collins and Joe offer that quality in spades, and they’re both quite a bit younger than the players they’re replacing in Detroit. From a strict two-for-two comparison, Joe is a much sharper three-point shooter than LeVert has ever proven to be, and Collins possesses an inside-out dynamic element to his offensive game as a stretch four with above-the-rim leaping ability.
Although neither Collins nor Joe was suited up for the Pistons yet, they look to be quality additions on paper. Both have legitimate postseason experience in the past, so they’re battle-tested in that realm as well, which is important considering Detroit’s goals for the upcoming season.
