The Pistons didn’t land the headline-grabbing star plenty of people were waiting for, and that’s why their offseason has felt underwhelming to some. But when you strip away the disappointment and look at the moves one by one, Detroit quietly made a series of upgrades that should leave the roster more dangerous on offense and better prepared for the postseason.
The biggest change comes with John Collins stepping in for Tobias Harris. Harris brought a shot-making skill the Pistons will miss, especially his ability to create his own look against almost anyone.
That matters, because Detroit still doesn’t have another reliable self-creator. But the fit is different now, and that’s where Collins wins out.
With Jalen Duren pending and Ausar Thompson already giving the Pistons two non-shooters, Harris’ mid-range and post game only added to the spacing crunch. Collins, by contrast, lives mostly at the arc or at the rim.
He’s a legit 40 percent 3-point shooter and even better from the corners, and he brings a vertical threat Harris didn’t. He’s also more athletic and a better defender, and he doesn’t need the ball to be effective.
That makes him a cleaner fit, and one that could put him in a great spot to thrive.
Detroit also got more offensive juice in the swap involving Taurean Prince and Paul Reed for Isaiah Stewart. Stewart meant a lot to the Pistons defensively and was the emotional center of the team for years, but his offense never pulled its weight.
He set screens, and that was about the extent of it. He could shoot, but not enough to force anyone to care, and he wasn’t a real roll threat.
Prince won’t come close to matching Stewart’s defense, but he gives Detroit something Stewart never really did: a backup four who can stand in the corner and hit 3s. Reed taking Stewart’s rotation spot changes the equation too, and together those two should give the Pistons more production from those backup minutes than they were getting before.
Caris LeVert is out, and that one feels like a straight cleanup move. LeVert became the easiest target for frustration last season for good reason.
Injuries kept him bouncing in and out of the lineup, and when he did play, the numbers weren’t pretty: 40 percent shooting overall and 33 percent from deep. Even worse, he didn’t deliver the ball-handling creation Detroit needed, instead coughing it up too often and settling for difficult shots.
Joe is a different kind of piece altogether. He’s far more efficient and doesn’t bring LeVert’s theoretical creation, but he’s one of the best spot-up shooters in the NBA.
That’s the tradeoff, and it’s one the Pistons should gladly take.
Ebuka Okorie may not be ready to walk into the rotation and change everything right away, and the most realistic expectation is that he fills the kind of spot-minute role Marcus Sasser had. Sasser was dependable and handled himself like a pro, even at a young age, and he was always ready when needed.
But his game was limited to one real strength: shooting. If Okorie develops the way the Pistons hope, he could offer more as a playmaker, as a driver, and at the foul line.
That makes this one more of a push in the short term, though Okorie has a chance to become the more meaningful player later in the season and beyond.
The offseason may not have delivered the splash some expected, but Detroit’s collection of swaps should leave the team harder to handle offensively while giving up only a modest amount on the other end.
In Other News...
Pistons Just Got A New Reason To Worry About Ausar Thompson's Price
The market for young wing talent may be climbing faster than the Pistons would like. Houston is reportedly moving toward a long-term deal for Amen Thompson, and the number being discussed could push well past the kind of price Detroit had hoped to keep in mind as it works through its own future with Ausar Thompson. Both Thompsons are eligible for extensions before the season, which matters because it would take them out of restricted free agency next summer and give their teams more control over the timeline.
For Detroit, the timing is especially tricky. Ausar has already become a key defensive piece, and the Pistons have made extending him a priority, but those talks have been slowed by the ongoing negotiation with Jalen Duren. The longer that lingers, the more the market around comparable young players can shift, and Houstons move on Amen only adds another layer of urgency for a front office trying to manage multiple big decisions at once. [Read more 🡒]
Cade Cunningham May Finally Get The Help Detroit Offense Needed
Detroits offense looked good enough during the regular season, but the playoff version ran into a familiar problem: once opponents packed the paint, the spacing just wasnt clean enough to keep everything flowing. That is why the addition of Isaiah Joe matters so much. He gives the Pistons another proven perimeter threat to place alongside Duncan Robinson, and that kind of shooting gravity can change how defenses have to guard Cade Cunningham and the rest of the half-court attack.
For Cunningham, the benefit is pretty straightforward. Less congestion around the lane should mean fewer crowded possessions, more room to work, and a little less of the burden that comes with having to create against set defenses on his own. The Pistons have been looking for ways to make their offense easier to sustain when the pressure rises, and adding another reliable shooter is the kind of move that can quietly reshape the entire structure around their primary scorer. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Suddenly Face One Big Question About Cade And Duren
After a historically rough 2023-24 season, the Pistons are at least looking at a much brighter long view, with Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren expected to sit at the center of whatever comes next. Detroit still has future first-round picks to work with, which gives the front office real flexibility as it weighs whether to keep adding young talent around its core or use that capital to chase more established help.
The bigger question now is how the roster around Cunningham and Duren gets shaped before that next leap arrives. There are already important decisions taking form with the young group on hand, and Detroit has to sort out which pieces fit a rising team and which ones might eventually be better used as trade currency. [Read more 🡒]