The Pistons could make some noise with its young, talent-laden squad this year

With the Pistons regular season opener just over a week away, Detroit is raking in superlatives in anticipation of what could be a statement season. So far, star point guard Cade Cunningham has looked peerless in his preseason performance, and the Pistons have a lot of young, talented pieces around him to work with for the 2025-26 campaign. 

As such, many across the association are taking stock of what the Pistons offer and are finding that Detroit might have the chops necessary to compete with the elite in the Eastern Conference. With Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren expected to play major roles this season, the Pistons are a young, energetic and defensively-sound group that has the makeup to challenge the top squads in the East. 

Recently, ESPN writer Tim Bontemps broke down the NBA into several tiers that weighed the quality of each team’s top trio of young stars. Bontemps was rather optimistic in his assessment of the Pistons, situating the Detroit team at Tier 4 as an Ascendant Young Team along with the Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic and San Antonio Spurs. What is of note is that only four teams in the entire NBA were ranked in tiers above Tier 4, so the Pistons are in sound position to contend according to Bontemps. 

“Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham, Ron Holland, Ausar Thompson

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A year ago, there were massive questions about the Pistons' roster. They began with Cunningham, and whether he was capable of being the kind of star leader a franchise needs to become a factor in the playoffs. Cunningham responded with a brilliant campaign, earning All-Star and All-NBA honors for the first time while leading Detroit back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Questions remain about the rest of the roster, but there are several intriguing young players such as Holland, Thompson, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, who could all fill the remaining core spots around Cunningham. Bontemps obviously included Holland into the trio for Detroit this season, which is a nod to the extended role that the second-year forward is projected to play this year. 

Last year: Cunningham, Holland, Ivey”

As Bontemps touched on, Cunningham put together a dominant fourth year in the league as he pushed the Pistons to the playoffs. Now, the workload should be distributed more evenly this season with the return of Ivey, and Thompson has worked a lot on bringing the ball up the floor and running the offense over the offseason. Those two developments should help spread the weight around a bit more evenly for Cunningham this year, though he’s expected to be ball-dominant and to fill up the stat sheet in any case. He’ll just have a bit more help operating the offense and can play a bit more freely.

The Pistons still have two more preseason games to test out different lineup combinations and to round the team out before opening up the regular season with a Wednesday, Oct. 22 game against the Chicago Bulls. 

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