How the Pistons made the NBA’s most drastic turnaround: From record losing streak to first place in two years

This time two years ago, the Detroit Pistons were 20 defeats into a losing streak that would ultimately reach an NBA-record-tying 28 games. The mood was so bad during that stretch that Cade Cunningham was fighting back tears as he walked off the floor after their 25th consecutive loss, and they ultimately finished 14-68. It was the worst season in franchise history. 

There are no tears in Detroit these days. The Pistons are 19-5, which is good for first place in the Eastern Conference, and only the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder have a better record overall. Their 13-game winning streak from Oct. 29 through Nov. 24 tied a franchise record, and this is the latest in a season they’ve been atop the East since 2005 — coincidentally the last time they made the Finals. 

“The biggest thing is we’re still hungry. Not everybody here went through [the 28-game losing streak] with us, but the guys who were here truly understand and still feel like we’ve got a lot to prove,” Jalen Duren said late last month. “We’ve still got a lot more room to grow. It’s gonna be fun man, I think it’s gonna be a hell of a ride as we continue to go through this season and improve and show the world, because I think people still don’t believe in us. As we continue to prove them wrong, it’s gonna be a fun ride.”

Before the Pistons return to action on Friday night against the Atlanta Hawks after nearly a week off due to the NBA Cup, let’s take a closer look at how they went from worst to first in two years. 

A ‘conscious decision’ to keep the young core together

The Pistons made their first big leap last season when they won 44 games, made the playoffs for the first time since 2019 and pushed the New York Knicks to six games in the first round. Instead of cashing in their chips over the summer to bring in a star and expedite their rebuild, they decided to operate in the margins. 

They added Duncan Robinson, Caris LeVert and Javonte Green to give the locker room a few more veteran voices, but empowered their young core to lead the way. 

“There was a maturation point for us. We made a conscious decision this summer to give our young guys an opportunity to continue to grow,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said prior to the team’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 22. “Some people may have made a jump and decided to package some of the young guys and go get older players. We felt like our young guys deserved an opportunity to continue to grow together.”

The Pistons’ faith in the likes of Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson has paid off, but their early success hasn’t quieted the trade talk. If anything there have only been more questions about whether they’ll go star chasing ahead of the deadline if they have a real chance to win the East. 

Shams Charania reported earlier this month that the Pistons are one of the teams interested in Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis, but Omar Sankofa of the Detroit Free Press threw cold water on that idea Thursday. 

Late last month, Marc Stein, reported that the Pistons’ thought process from the summer hasn’t changed. 

“The early indications are the Pistons are not in that mode. There has been very little tangible, bankable trade talk about the Pistons,” Stein said on a recent episdoe of the All NBA Podcast. “I don’t think at this point there’s any discussion about the Pistons doing anything dramatic.”

Cunningham is operating at an MVP level

Cade Cunningham is almost certainly not going to win MVP this season — no one is going to take that honor from Nikola Jokić or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander any time soon — but he’s worked his way into the conversation. Per Caesars, he has the fourth-best odds (+5000) behind only Jokić, Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Dončić. 

Cunningham was recently named Eastern Conference Player of the Month for November, and is averaging 27.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 9.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game — all despite the fact that he’s only shooting 29.9% from 3-point range. Thus far, he’s either scored (577) or assisted (421) on 998 of the Pistons’ 2,849 points (35%). 

On a per-game basis, Cunningham is creating 47.5 points, and has a chance to break his own Pistons record. (Historic numbers via Pistons broadcast.) 

Cunningham is 11th in the league in scoring and second in assists, and has a real chance to become the eighth player in league history to average at least 28 points and nine assists for a season. When Cunningham is on the floor, the Pistons have a plus-8.5 net rating, and when he sits, they have a minus-0.6 net rating. 

If all that wasn’t enough, Cunningham also leads the Pistons in minutes by a significant margin (36.4 per game, no one else at even 32). Cunningham is running the show in Detroit, but he isn’t satisfied. 

“I’ve felt like I was in more of a rhythm than this, for sure, Cunningham said late last month. “Still coming, still working, things that I could sharpen for sure, shots that I wish would have fell, or whatever. I’ve definitely felt more in rhythm than this, and that’s the exciting part. There’s still so much more to get. There’s some low-hanging fruit that I could get right now that would help me take my game to another level too.”

‘JD is different’

Cunningham has been the Pistons’ best player for a few years now, but the team has been searching for a true No. 2 option to play alongside him. It just might be Jalen Duren, who is off to a tremendous start this season. 

“We put a plan in place this summer for him and he out-beat the plan,” Bickerstaff said. “The work that he put in, the time that he put in, it was two-a-days, it was in the weight room, it was working with different people with different levels of experience. Then you saw him when we started to get together in September, when they were playing pick-up and you were just like, ‘JD is different.'”

Duren is putting up a career-high 18.8 points per game, 11.5 rebounds and one block on 65.5% shooting from the field. He’s one of just nine players in the league averaging a double-double — one of five putting up at least 15/10 — is the Pistons’ second-leading scorer and leads the team in rebounds. 

While Duren has long been an imposing presence in the paint and a strong rebounder, he’s now much more skilled on the offensive end, thanks in large part to extensive work with assistant coach Vitaly Potapenko. Everyone still loves the emphatic alley-oops, but it’s no longer a surprise when he grabs a rebound and goes coast-to-coast or weaves around the defense in the halfcourt. 

Bickerstaff also praised Duren’s growth on defense, which he said has been the “biggest step” for the fourth-year big man. “He’s improved as a defensive rim protector and understanding when to be early to a spot and how to anticipate movement,” Bickerstaff said. “And that’s helped keep him out of foul trouble also.”

In Duren’s 613 minutes this season, the Pistons have a staggering plus-14.5 net rating. In the 504 minutes that Duren and Cunningham have played together, their net rating is slightly higher at plus-14.8. 

Duren, who did not come to an agreement on a rookie extension with the Pistons during the offseason, is going to earn himself a major payday next summer if he keeps this up. 

Coming up clutch

Seventeen of the Pistons’ 24 games have been “clutch” contests, which is defined as the score being within five points during the final five minutes. Only the Mavericks have played more clutch games than the Pistons, who have been excellent in close contests. 

The Pistons’ 13 clutch wins lead the league, and their .765 winning percentage in clutch games trails only the Thunder and San Antonio Spurs among teams with at least 10 clutch games. In games decided by three points or fewer, they are 4-2, which is tied for the most such wins in the league. 

Cunningham had some uncharacteristic miscues in the Pistons’ recent narrow defeats to the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, but he’s been the driving force behind their late-game success.  

“I relish the moment for sure. I think it’s the responsibility of it that I appreciate so much and try to make the most out of,” Cunningham told reporters after sealing the team’s win over the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 18 with two clutch buckets in the final 90 seconds. “My team trusts me with the ball, they want me to go make plays. So in moments like that, I feel like it’s my opportunity or my job to go make a play.”

Cunningham’s 79 clutch points are second only to Gilgeous-Alexander, and his 12 clutch assists are second only to the Hawks’ Jalen Johnson. In 57 clutch minutes he’s 24 of 45 (53.3%) from the field and 30 of 35 (85.7%) from the free throw line, and has only turned the ball over five times. 

“It’s like you feel safe, you feel good,” Pistons forward Isaiah Stewart told The Athletic about trusting Cunningham. “You know the ball is in the right person’s hands with the game on the line. He’s never afraid of the moment, and he believes his shot is going in every time.”

Continuing a defensive legacy

During the preseason, Ausar Thompson told CBS Sports that he wants to continue the legacy set by the Bad Boys and the Goin’ to Work Pistons, who used elite defense to bring championships to Detroit. 

“The culture they built all those years back, I feel like it still stands. Not only for the Pistons but the city of Detroit,” Thompson said. “I feel like every team that comes from here, every successful team, is going to be built off that identity.”

Thompson has backed up his talk, and his effort sets the tone for the rest of the group. “He’s an absolute menace on the ball. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like that,” Duncan Robinson told CBS Sports late last month. Thompson routinely picks up fullcourt, and is tasked with guarding the other team’s best scorer, no matter if it’s a small guard like Tyrese Maxey, a powerful wing like Jaylen Brown or a rangy power forward like Kevin Durant. Thompson is “probably going to be the best defender in the league in less than two years,” Duren said recently. 

With Thompson lead the way, the Pistons have been one of the best defensive teams in the league. They’re athletic, they’re physical, they’re relentless and they won’t back down from a fight. In fact, they’re often the ones looking for a confrontation. Here’s a look at where they rank in some key defensive metrics. 

• Defensive rating: 111.3 (4th)
• Opponent field goal percentage: 44.6% (2nd)
• Opponent turnover rate: 16.6% (3rd)
• Deflections per game: 20.4 (7th)
• Loose balls recovered per game: 6.5 (1st)
• Opponent restricted area field goal percentage: 61.7% (2nd)

Since the turn of the century, only three teams have won the title while finishing outside of the top-10 in defensive rating: the 2023 Denver Nuggets, 2018 Golden State Warriors and 2001 Los Angeles Lakers, all of whom had generational offensive talents that could make up for defensive lapses. 

It’s fair to have questions about the Pistons’ offense given their reliance on Cunningham and poor spacing, but they have the defense necessary to win in the playoffs.