The Detroit Pistons enter the stretch before opening night with one obvious offensive question hanging over everything: who eases the load on Cade Cunningham?
Detroit opens the NBA season against the Boston Celtics on October 20, and while the offseason was supposed to sharpen a few priorities, training camp arrives with some of the biggest issues still unresolved. The roster has been upgraded in spots, but the team is still sorting out a secondary scorer for Cunningham. At the same time, the contract standoff with Jalen Duren has become a stalemate that has left both sides planted in place and plenty of people uneasy.
There is reason for optimism on the perimeter. The Pistons have added a more dependable three-point presence and better spacing, giving head coach J.B.
Bickerstaff more to work with. The real challenge now is making those pieces fit quickly enough to matter from the jump.
A lot of that hinges on Isaiah Joe. Detroit will need to generate clean looks early and get Joe comfortable as a new long-range weapon.
He can create his own shot and move without the ball, which makes him especially important in the opening stages of the season. The way he pairs with Duncan Robinson could end up being one of the more important offensive connections on the roster.
If that tandem works, it should force defenses to step out and create more room for the Pistons’ bigs. That would open the door for John Collins, Ausar Thompson and Duren to attack with more space around them.
And if all of that clicks, Cunningham stands to benefit the most. Instead of grinding through every possession with defenders crowding him, he could have a little more room to operate and a little less burden on his shoulders.
Detroit’s defense carried the team to 60 wins and finished second in the league, but the offense never quite reached championship level. Cunningham still produced, even while dealing with injury issues that sidelined him for the back half of the regular season, but he did not get much consistent help. Duren, in particular, was part of that problem, and that backdrop helps explain why the two sides are now locked in a contract dispute.
The Pistons have enough talent to matter again in the Eastern Conference, but the bigger question is what happens if they make the playoffs. That’s where the pressure rises, and where the offense will have to prove it can hold up.
Boston should be a useful early measuring stick. For Detroit, it’s a chance to see how much progress has really been made before training camp turns into the real thing.
In Other News...
Pistons Linked To Young Bucks Guard They May Struggle To Land
The Pistons search for another source of secondary scoring and playmaking has naturally led them toward the trade market, and Milwaukee guard Ryan Rollins has surfaced as an intriguing name. After a breakout season, Rollins looks like the kind of young backcourt piece that fits Detroits timeline, giving the front office a reason to at least monitor whether a deal could be possible if the Bucks ever become open to moving him.
The problem is that Milwaukee has little obvious incentive to part with a player who is just starting to show real value, which makes any pursuit difficult before it even gets off the ground. Some speculation has already centered on what it might take to pry him loose, and the broader question for the Pistons is whether the price would be worth it when the asking point could be steep enough to test how aggressive they want to be. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons May Need An Unlikely Answer To Their Tobias Harris Problem
Replacing Tobias Harris was always going to be about more than swapping one frontcourt name for another. John Collins brings a different skill set to Detroit, but he does not naturally fill the same role Harris did as a self-creator, which leaves the Pistons needing help elsewhere if they want the offense to keep its balance when the minutes get a little more improvised.
That is where Daniss Jenkins enters the conversation, and in a way the team probably did not anticipate when the offseason began. He is expected to take on a larger role with Cade Cunningham off the floor, and Detroit will need him to turn last seasons promising penetration into more reliable scoring and creation. Jenkins showed he can get into the lane, but the next step is making those drives count in the paint, which could end up being a bigger part of solving this roster puzzle than anyone thought. [Read more 🡒]
Jalen Duren Idea Would Force Pistons To Rethink Their Identity
The Pistons have spent recent seasons trying to build around a young core, and Jalen Duren has been part of that foundation in the middle. So when The Game Theory Podcast floated a speculative sign-and-trade framework, it naturally landed as more than just offseason chatter. The idea centered on Detroit shifting from its current interior-first look toward a different kind of lineup balance, one that could better fit the evolving shape of the roster.
At the heart of the concept is the kind of player Detroit has been linked to in theory for a while, a stretch five who can open the floor, plus another creator who can ease some pressure on the ball-handlers. Even so, the discussion also underscored how dramatic a move like this would be for the Pistons, because it would ask them to rethink both their identity and the role Duren has played in it. For now, it reads as a thought exercise more than a realistic transaction, but it is the sort of idea that tends to linger because it touches on so many of Detroits biggest questions. [Read more 🡒]