The New York Knicks are coming off a 2026 NBA Championship run, and the Detroit Pistons were one of the few teams that could point to a regular-season answer. Cade Cunningham led Detroit to a sweep of the eventual champions, even though the two teams never met in the playoffs. But with the Eastern Conference loading up this offseason, the Pistons may not be positioned to turn that into anything bigger.
That’s the problem for Detroit: the rest of the East looks ready to come at the Knicks from every direction. Toronto, Miami, Philadelphia and Indiana are all heading into next season with upgraded rosters in one form or another.
Cleveland reached the Eastern Conference Finals and appears poised to add LeBron James in free agency. Boston, even without Jaylen Brown, should still be able to field a top-level team.
Unless Detroit has a major trade waiting in the wings, a step backward feels more likely than another leap forward.
The conference race is getting crowded, and the Pistons are not the team that should make New York lose sleep. Indiana is set to get Tyrese Haliburton back after the Achilles injury that kept him out last season. Toronto is also expected to bring Kawhi Leonard back to the place where he won Finals MVP in 2019, once things are sorted on the legal front.
Detroit’s offseason moves haven’t exactly changed the equation. The team effectively turned Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart, Caris LeVert and draft capital into Isaiah Joe, John Collins, Ebuka Okorie, Gary Harris and Taurean Prince.
Cunningham is still the headliner, and he’s already a top-10 player in the league. But last season made one thing clear: in an era built on parity, a fully heliocentric offense is not enough.
The Pistons appear set to run a similar type of team back in 2026-27, even if the names around Cunningham look different. That leaves New York with plenty to worry about once the rings come out at the start of the season, but Detroit doesn’t project as one of those threats.
In terms of overall scoring variety, the Heat, 76ers, Celtics, Pacers, Cavaliers, Raptors and Knicks all look better equipped to challenge defenses than the Pistons. Cunningham may be the best player in that group compared with what Philadelphia or Cleveland can offer right now, but the broader threat those teams bring is still greater than what Detroit showed in the postseason.
There’s still a chance this all looks smarter later. Cunningham is only 24, and the situation around Jalen Duren’s contract still needs to be worked out. Pushing the window back a couple of years could end up being the right call.
Even so, losing only matters if it serves a purpose. Teams tanking on purpose don’t mind the losses when they come. The Pistons, though, may be headed for 30 to 35 surprises this season.
In Other News...
Jordan Clarksons Knicks Return Says Plenty About This Offseason Plan
Jordan Clarkson is headed back to New York on a minimum-salary deal, a move that says as much about the Knicks offseason priorities as it does about the veteran guard himself. According to his agent Rich Paul and ESPNs Shams Charania, Clarkson will re-sign for $3.9 million, with the contract carrying a cap hit of about $2.45 million, a structure that gives the Knicks needed flexibility as they try to keep their books in order.
It also brings back a familiar piece of the rotation from the Knicks championship season, when Clarkson handled a bench role and gave the group another proven scorer off the sideline. The return points to a front office focused on preserving roster balance and staying below the second tax apron, and once the deal is official, New York will be sitting with 13 players on standard contracts and only a slim cushion left to work with. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Fans Can Only Laugh As Celtics Turn On Mitchell Robinson
Mitchell Robinsons move from New York to Boston already carried enough baggage for Knicks fans to keep an eye on it, but the early returns have added a little extra theater. After signing a three-year deal with the Celtics, Robinson has been trading back-and-forth comments with Boston fans on social media, turning the usual welcome posts into a small online sideshow that has only sharpened the reaction from afar.
For Knicks supporters, the whole thing is easy to laugh at because Robinson had previously said he tried to stay in New York before the split. Now he is trying to settle into a new setting with a team that thinks it can use him, even if the fit comes with familiar questions about his game and whether Boston can get the most out of him. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Just Watched An East Rival Get A Lot Scarier
The East just got a lot more complicated for the Knicks, and the ripple effect starts with a blockbuster deal that sent Paul George and draft capital to Boston while reshaping the balance of power in the conference. For a New York team that enters the season as the reigning champion, the message is clear: the path back to the top is going to run through a deeper, more dangerous group of contenders than it did a year ago.
Philadelphias roster now carries a different kind of weight, and the Knicks have to account for that when they look at their own title defense. What had already been a crowded race in the East suddenly feels even tighter, with another rival adding the kind of talent that can swing a playoff series and force New York to prepare for a tougher matchup if these teams cross paths again. [Read more 🡒]