The Detroit Pistons brought in John Collins as their headline offseason move, but the first real test may come on the defensive end. That’s where the Clippers ran into trouble last season, and it’s the same issue Detroit now has to manage.
Collins gives the Pistons something they needed: a proven scoring threat. He shot 40 percent from 3-point range and has built his reputation as an offensive weapon.
Detroit was looking for a trusted No. 2 option, and Tobias Harris filled that role in the playoffs before leaving for San Antonio. If Collins can give the Pistons 17 to 20 points per game while shooting better than 55 percent from the field and 40 percent from deep, that would be the ideal version of this move.
He did that in Atlanta for two straight seasons, though he hasn’t put up those numbers on a winning team since 2021.
The concern is everything that comes with him on the other end. Collins has averaged only 58 games per season over the last seven years, and availability matters as much as production here.
Detroit got steadier night-to-night play from Harris, who was on the floor every game. Collins has to stay healthy, and he has to hold up defensively if this is going to work.
That’s where the warning signs get loud. Collins struggles defending in space, off the ball, and at the rim.
The Clippers played him 27.1 minutes per game and eventually sat him late because the defensive problems kept showing up. Their defense posted a 116.9 rating with him on the floor, which was 0.5 points per 100 possessions worse than when he sat.
That number would have landed firmly in the bottom ten defenses in the league, a group filled with tanking teams.
Head coach JB Bickerstaff is already the guy who has to figure out how to cover for him. The Clippers tried to hide Collins too, and they never found a scheme that fixed the issue. Even his rebounding dipped to the worst per-36 numbers of his career last season, another sign that the fit never really settled.
This isn’t a brand-new problem, either. Collins was a high-end offensive player in Atlanta, and that production helped mask the flaws. Once the scoring slipped, the defensive cracks became a lot harder to ignore.
Detroit’s frontcourt setup could be where this gets tricky fast. A Collins and Jalen Duren pairing raises real questions because both have defensive shortcomings.
The Pistons can point to an elite perimeter defense, but the paint could turn into the pressure point. Opponents shot 69.8 percent at the rim against Collins and 63.6 percent against Duren.
Duren’s issues are already familiar to Pistons fans, but Collins brings his own problems. He can’t comfortably handle perimeter matchups or protect the basket, which means he has to be hidden on a weaker option and hope opponents don’t attack him directly. His defensive estimated plus-minus was negative-0.7 from Dunks and Threes, the same mark as Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram, two players widely known for poor defense.
The Pistons rode the NBA’s second-best defense to the top seed in the Eastern Conference last season, and they’ve already accepted some spacing concerns with Ausar Thompson and Duren because the defense has been strong enough to absorb it. Collins could make that balancing act tougher. Now it falls to Bickerstaff and his staff to make the pieces fit.
The Clippers already found out how messy this can get. Detroit is next.
In Other News...
Pistons Are About To Gain Two Trade Chips Worth Watching
The Pistons added a couple of familiar veteran pieces when they took on Taurean Prince and Gary Harris in the multi-team sign-and-trade that sent John Collins on his way, and even before training camp fully gets rolling, their long-term value looks tied more to the trade market than the rotation. Both players give Detroit some experienced depth, but the bigger appeal may be that they are movable contracts on a roster still shaping its next phase.
Detroit has more immediate business to handle, especially with contract extensions for Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson on the table, but Prince and Harris could become useful chips when the front office starts looking for flexibility. For a team that may need salary-matching help later, those deals give the Pistons another layer of optionality, and the timing of when they can be bundled in a trade will be worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Still Face A Bigger Risk Than The Jalen Duren Standoff
Jalen Durens contract situation remains one of the lingering items on Detroits offseason checklist as camp draws closer, but it is not the only roster issue hovering over the Pistons. The bigger picture is that the front office is still trying to steady its relationship with Duren while keeping the focus on a younger core, rather than jumping into a costly star chase that could reshape the teams future.
That caution looks even more deliberate when measured against the kind of swing-for-the-fences move Detroit passed on with Anthony Davis. Davis is extension-eligible, has not played for the Washington Wizards because of injury concerns, and the Wizards plan to discuss an extension with him during the season, which only adds to the kind of long-term uncertainty Detroit seems intent to avoid right now. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Face A Risky Kyrie Irving Debate That Could Change Everything
A speculative three-team trade idea has put Detroit in the middle of a familiar kind of NBA debate, one where upside and instability sit right next to each other. The proposal would reshape the Pistons roster in a hurry, with the conversation centered on whether adding Kyrie Irving would be worth the cost in depth, rotation balance and future flexibility.
The attraction is obvious for a team looking to accelerate its timeline, especially with another veteran piece in the mix, but the price tag in players and draft capital makes the whole exercise hard to ignore. Even as the idea percolates, the real question for Detroit is not just what it would gain, but how much of its present and future it would be willing to sacrifice to get there. [Read more 🡒]