The Detroit Pistons: A Season of Transformation and Triumph
When you think of the Detroit Pistons, what comes to mind? For many, it’s the grit and grind of the “Bad Boys” era, a time when the Pistons were synonymous with toughness and tenacity. Fast forward to the 2024-25 NBA season, and the Pistons are once again making headlines, but this time for a remarkable turnaround that has the league buzzing.
Let’s dive into the heart of this transformation, where a blend of youthful exuberance and veteran wisdom has created a unique chemistry that’s hard to ignore. The Pistons’ team plane has become a symbol of this new era, often turning into a dance party after victories. Leading the charge are rookie Ron Holland and third-year center Jalen Duren, aged 19 and 21, respectively. These young guns are the DJs of the team, curating a playlist that spans generations and keeps the vibes high.
Among the players, there’s a special moment when a request for an old-school hit like “Family Reunion” by The O’Jays comes in. That’s when 32-year-old Tobias Harris takes center stage, showcasing his dance moves to the delight of his younger teammates. “He hits his little one-two every now and then,” Duren shared with ESPN. “We really might have put some youth into him.”
Harris, who is a decade older than most of his teammates, is in his second stint with the Pistons and just completed his 14th regular season in the NBA. The reunion was part of an effort from first-year Pistons president Trajan Langdon to bring in some veterans to mix with the team’s collection of lottery picks. Those young players affectionately refer to Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr, and Malik Beasley as “uncs” — the uncles of the team.
“Him and Beasley pulling out little unc moves we like to call it,” Holland told ESPN. “They got a little handshake they got going on.”
But Beasley, ever the cool cousin, clarified, “I’m not part of the unc crew. I’m still that cool cousin that’s a little bit older.”
Harris just shakes his head, knowing full well the role he plays on this young team. He’s not even the oldest Pistons player — that title belongs to Hardaway Jr, who is 33. But Harris knew what he was getting into when he signed a two-year, $52 million contract with the Pistons, a team that entered the season with an average age of 24.3 years old, the fourth-youngest team in the NBA. The young team was also coming off a 14-68 season, one of the worst the league has ever seen.
“There’s a lot of talent here, kind of just need a few adults in the room,” Harris told ESPN. “Guide these guys a little bit, and really boost their confidence up, boost the professionalism, morale of the whole team, and see where they could take us.”
And take them he did. The Pistons were a league-worst 14-68 in 2023-24, including a record 28-game losing streak. They surged to 44-38 this season and claimed the No. 6 seed in the East — the franchise’s first season with a winning record since 2015-16. They are the only team in NBA history to triple their win total from the previous season, and no team had ever won fewer games in one season and went on to make the playoffs in the next in league history.
On Monday, the Pistons won a playoff game for the first time since the 2008 Eastern Conference finals, beating the New York Knicks 100-94 at Madison Square Garden. It snapped a streak of 15 consecutive playoff losses, also the longest in NBA history. Their first-round series, a destination that seemed impossibly distant just a season ago, returns to Detroit on Thursday night (7 p.m. ET, TNT) tied at 1-1.
“It feels like it’s been a two-to-three year thing, but for us to have done it so quickly, it’s just a testament to the group of people that we brought into the building,” Cunningham said last week.
“The guys that have been around, we’re super thankful for that. Now it’s about trying to find ways to win the championship.”
Langdon’s Vision and the Veteran Influence
Langdon smiled and shook his head when he looked back on his approach. When he first took the job to run Detroit’s basketball operations last May, making the playoffs — especially as one of the top six teams in the East — wasn’t even among his wildest ambitions.
Shortly after the Pistons’ cleaned house — general manager Troy Weaver stepped down and then the team dismissed former coach Monty Williams after the first year of a six-year, $78.5 million contract — Langdon began devising a plan to make the team more competitive, and fast. He believed the pieces were in place to do so. He began by hiring Bickerstaff, who had been fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers after a disappointing second-round playoff exit. Langdon knew him as a no-nonsense leader who could establish identities and roles — a clear focus after Williams had used 36 different starting lineups in 2023-24.
Three days later, the Pistons traded for Hardaway, a volume 3-point shooter who had just helped the Dallas Mavericks make the 2024 NBA Finals. He joined a roster that ranked 27th in offense, 27th in 3-point attempt rate and 26th in overall 3-point percentage.
Later that same day, Langdon signed Beasley, another volume shooter, to a one-year, $6 million deal after he had shot 41.3% from deep on nearly seven attempts per game with the Milwaukee Bucks. Two days later, he added Harris, who was fresh off a disappointing end to his stint with the Philadelphia 76ers.
“The main thing was trying to put together some people around these young guys that could help them develop,” Langdon told ESPN. “It’s not only the on-the-court and between-the-lines that I thought was important, but also the character, the experience and the postseason experience.”
Harris, who previously played with Detroit from 2016-2018, has embraced his role, mentoring his younger peers about life off the court, helping them manage their finances, diets and sleep schedules. But he has also been a major contributor on the court, finishing the regular season averaging 13.7 points and 5.9 rebounds per game over 73 games, before upping his play in the playoffs, posting an average of 20.0 points and 9.5 rebounds through the first two playoff games.
“I think it’s amazing to have somebody like that in your locker room on your team,” Cunningham said. The other vets have been instrumental too. Hardaway started 77 games during the regular season and shot 37% from 3 on nearly six attempts per game. Beasley set a franchise record with 319 made 3-pointers, ranking second in the league this season. He joined Anthony Edwards, Klay Thompson, James Harden and Stephen Curry as the only players in NBA history to make at least 300 3s in a season.
“This group has definitely been a blessing to be around,” Beasley told ESPN. “I’ve been a part of teams where I came in the gym and I don’t want to be there every day. I come in here, no matter what I got going on in my life, I feel like these guys bring me energy, they bring me life.”
The Defensive Edge and the Road Ahead
Langdon says he first saw a spark during training camp — the competition level was high, he remembers — but it was a December trip out West, during which the Pistons beat the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings, that he began to lift his own expectations on this season.
After a 10-6 January, the Pistons ripped off an eight-game win streak sandwiched around the All-Star break, culminating in blowout victories over the LA Clippers and Boston Celtics. It was the longest win streak by the Pistons since 2008 and moved them into the top six in the Eastern Conference.
“That was probably the first time I was like, ‘Oh, we’re beating some pretty good teams,'” Langdon said. “We have a chance to compete, be as competitive as we’d like to be. But playoffs still wasn’t in that thought process at that point.”
Langdon was focused, still, on changing the culture, turning process into results after so much losing. Before this season, Cunningham had never played on a team that had a winning record deeper than five games into the season.
“When you’re losing, it compounds every single day,” Harris said. “Coming in, I could tell that was something that happened for them last year. To see their excitement, like, winning is fun, how can we get some more of that?
“I had very high expectations for this team and this group, and I knew that with the pieces that we were bringing in as well, that we could make something happen. So could you say it was a little gamble? Yeah, from a team that hadn’t won that much. But I was very confident that this team was going to be better than a lot of people expected.”
Embracing the Past, Building the Future
Isaiah Stewart pointed toward the ceiling at the Pistons’ practice facility at the championship banners from 1989, 1990 and 2004 hanging over the court. It was a few days after the Pistons forward had returned to the court following a two-game suspension for his involvement in a brawl with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The meaning of his gesture was unmistakable — and intentional. Despite being ejected several times in his five-year career for his roles in various skirmishes — or perhaps because of them — he has become known for a style of play that was a hallmark of the Pistons’ glory years, when the Bad Boys terrorized Michael Jordan and the league in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
“You talking about Detroit value,” Stewart told ESPN. “You got to have that grit, physicality.”
Detroit finished 10th in defense this season, the team’s first top-10 finish in seven years. The Pistons also ranked in the top 10 in offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding and rebounding percentage, second in transition points, and fifth in the most points off turnovers.
Stewart is holding opponents to 43% shooting in the paint as the closest defender, the second-best mark in the NBA. Teammate Ausar Thompson, who missed the start of the season while recovering from a blood clot, ranks second in the league in field goal percentage allowed and total steals since Jan. 1.
“We know that even a lot of the older Pistons guys come to the game, they watch, they got our backs,” Thompson tells ESPN. “I feel like we try to compliment them by kind of playing their style of ball. We don’t necessarily have a thousand superstars on the team, so just everybody come in and do their piece, and everybody go as hard as possible and bring that Detroit energy.”
The connection to the past is intentional. It’s something Bickerstaff wanted to foster with his young players.
“Those who come before you are extremely important,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s what we’ve done is try our best to pay respect to those who come before us and emulating what’s been successful for this organization in the past.”
That defense complements the dynamic offense Cunningham provides. The former No. 1 pick averaged a career-best in points per game (26.1), assists per game (9.1), effective field goal percentage (52%) and 2-point field goal percentage (52%), making him the favorite to win the Most Improved Player award. Detroit is shooting 53% off Cunningham’s passes this season, sixth-best among players with at least 500 assists, according to ESPN Research.
“Sometimes you get lost in the shuffle of what happened last year,” Harris said. “But he’s a great leader for this group. His voice is impactful in the locker room and he’s a real deal and what he brings to the table night in, night out.”
But when the Pistons clinched their playoff berth with a win late in the season against the Toronto Raptors on April 4, and they all boarded the plane back to Detroit, there was no dance party, no music blaring, no real celebration to speak of.
Inside the quiet plane, the Pistons recognized their accomplishment but acknowledged there was still more work to be done.
“We’re still hungry,” Stewart said. “Yes, we’re thankful and we’re proud of ourselves for putting ourselves in this playoff setting, but, man, we some dogs. We want more. We don’t want to just be happy to be in the playoffs. We want to go do some things.”
Originally Written by: Jamal Collier
