Langdon: Detroit Pistons’ Daniss Jenkins To Receive Standard NBA Contract Before Monday’s Game

Entering the 2025-26 regular season, second-year guard Daniss Jenkins had modest expectations surrounding his future with the Detroit Pistons, and despite his technical status as a two-way player– which is on the verge of shifting– Jenkins rapidly blew the ceiling off of those perceived expectations.

At the start of the year, Jenkins helped stabilize the Pistons when Cade Cunningham, Caris LeVert and Marcus Sasser were all out with injuries in early November and helped prolong Detroit’s eventual 13-game winning streak. Jenkins started at point guard before sliding over to shooting guard once Cunningham returned, and the speedy, cerebral ball handler began to show how reliable he could be for the Pistons.

From that point on, Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff began slowly entrusting Jenkins with more and more responsibility, and the young floor general has become one of the league’s greatest feel-good stories of the season. In fact, Jenkins has acclimated to the NBA level so quickly that he’s already used up all of his 50 games as a two-way player before Detroit must convert his contract to a standard pro deal– in just 51 total games for the Pistons. 

But before Detroit took the court against the Knicks on Friday night, Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon spoke with the media to provide a reassuring update on Jenkins’ contract status after he was held out of the Pistons’ game against the Washington Wizards on Thursday, Feb. 5.

“Everybody knows this is his 50th game, his last game on his two-way,” Langdon said on Friday. “So, we’re having conversations with his agent about what that looks like going forward and we’ll convert him over the weekend and he’ll be a roster player in our game in Charlotte– at least that’s the goal, that’s the hope for the weekend after this game.”

Against the Knicks, Jenkins put together another impressive performance against the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 squad with 18 points, four rebounds and three assists in what was a whopping 118-80 victory for the Pistons. While the rest of the NBA might just be familiarizing themselves with what Jenkins can provide in pressure-filled moments, Langdon and the rest of the Pistons’ organization could see his development occur in real time. 

“Kudos to him,” Langdon said. “He worked his butt off all last season, playing a ton of games for Motor City. We saw his improvement during the year, and I think everybody saw how he played in the Summer League in Vegas and he just continued to improve, working not only with his own trainers but with our staff and with his teammates, through the summer, had a great camp and he’s just continued his trajectory of getting better when the opportunities come.”

This season, Jenkins is averaging 8.2 points and 3.3 assists per game, but his impact is deeper than those counting stats articulate. The Pistons were searching for a consistent point guard to reliably run the second unit when Cunningham needed a breather for about 15-18 minutes per night, and neither Sasser nor Jaden Ivey looked suitable for the task at hand. But Jenkins’ emergence has allowed for Detroit to maintain a level of continuity from their first unit to their tenacious group of hungry bench players who have been integral in the Pistons’ ascension to first place in the East.

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