The Detroit Pistons get their 2026-27 season started at home against the Boston Celtics, and the 3 PM ET opener sets up an intriguing contrast right away. Boston made one of the offseason’s bigger moves by sending Jaylen Brown out and bringing in Paul George, while Detroit stayed quieter, choosing to tweak the roster instead of swinging for a major addition.
Even with Brown gone, the Celtics are expected to look a lot like the Celtics. Their offense is built around volume from deep, and that formula isn’t changing just because one name came off the roster. Boston was third in the league last season in both 3-point attempts and makes, and they’ve become one of the league’s clearest examples of how overwhelming a barrage of threes can be.
That style is exactly why they’re so hard to deal with. No lead ever feels fully secure against Boston because they can erase it fast from the perimeter. Detroit, meanwhile, lived on the opposite end of the spectrum last season, finishing 29th in the NBA in both 3-point attempts and makes.
The Pistons were 12.5 attempts per game behind the Celtics from long range, and the gap shaped both teams in different ways. Detroit’s approach worked in the regular season because it helped them dominate points in the paint, but once the playoffs arrived, the offense bogged down and they didn’t have a counterpunch.
There’s no sign the Pistons are about to flip into a full-scale volume-shooting team overnight, and they probably won’t be launching 42-plus threes a night the way Boston did last season. Still, the preseason pointed to a shift. Detroit averaged more than 35 3-point attempts in its four preseason games, about five more per game than last season’s number.
That still wouldn’t push them into the league’s upper tier, but it would move them toward a more workable balance. The Pistons don’t need to toss out what they already do well. They just need enough perimeter threat to keep defenses honest and clear more room for Cade Cunningham to operate.
The new pieces on the roster should help with that. John Collins, Isaiah Joe and Taurean Prince each averaged more than 14 3-point attempts per game last season, and that kind of shooting should bring Detroit closer to the volume it needs for a more complete offense.
So while these teams went in different directions last year, Detroit’s offseason additions at least create the possibility of a middle ground. Boston still looks like the team to beat, but the Pistons may finally have a little more versatility - and a chance to turn the Celtics’ biggest strength back on them.
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Pistons May Have A Duncan Robinson Problem They Can't Ignore
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That is why the trade chatter around Robinson feels a little more complicated than it might on the surface. If Detroit decides to move him, the front office may need a scoring guard or wing coming back to make the deal worth the hit on offense, especially with Robinson playing such a useful role in keeping possessions from going stale. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Offseason Aggression Was Bigger Than Fans Realized
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Detroits approach was more aggressive than many fans realized, with the front office reportedly checking on what it would take to land the veteran scorer. No deal came together, and the Pistons ultimately held onto their young core while still leaving the door open to adding experienced help around it, a sign the franchise is trying to balance patience with urgency. [Read more 🡒]
Marcus Sasser Is Reopening A Pistons Debate Fans Know Too Well
Marcus Sasser has a way of making the Pistons backcourt questions feel familiar again. In Dallas, he logged 24 minutes and scored 17 points for the Mavericks against the Rockets, and he did it while matching Kyrie Irvings minutes, a reminder of the kind of burst he can bring when he gets a real run. For Detroit fans, it lands as another look at a player who never got much room to breathe with the Pistons even though he tended to perform well when called upon.
The decision to move on from Sasser and keep other guards around him, including Daniss Jenkins, was always going to invite second-guessing because Jenkins offers more as a facilitator while Sasser is built more for scoring punch. Nights like this do not settle the argument, but they do keep it alive, especially for a team still sorting out what it wants from its guard rotation and how much value it can place on a player who can create offense in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]