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    Detroit Pistons: Coaching carousel and brilliant moves that are changing the franchise’s fate

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    Detroit Pistons
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    The Detroit Pistons have remarkably turned around their coaching and overall situation in just two NBA seasons.

    The Detroit Pistons have achieved an incredible turnaround in the past two years. Once a legendary franchise, they had been in serious crisis for years and failed to assemble a competitive team. Since the 2004 Championship generation, results simply hadn’t come, leaving little reason for celebration in a city with a deep basketball culture.

    One move that was supposed to change a lot happened on June 2, 2023, when the signing of coach Monty Williams was announced — a man with a stellar reputation. The season before, Monty was officially named Coach of the Year for his outstanding results with the Phoenix Suns. He had led the Suns to the Finals for the first time since 1993, the era of Charles Barkley.

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    Although he didn’t manage to win in the Finals, losing somewhat “easily” to the Milwaukee Bucks despite having an advantage, Monty Williams was a highly valued coach. Later, when things began to “slide” in Phoenix, he was replaced — not long after being named the league’s best coach. A true NBA paradox.

    Riding the wave of his success and that award, Monty Williams managed to secure an incredible contract. He signed a six-year deal with the Detroit Pistons worth $78.5 million, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in the world. Many were skeptical about the length and amount of the deal, knowing how quickly things can go downhill in the NBA while contracts must be honored.

    And that’s exactly what happened in Detroit. Monty Williams’ tenure would go down as one of the worst in NBA history. The numbers and negative records were relentless: during Williams’ first year as Pistons head coach, the team lost 28 straight games, the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history. They also became the thirteenth team in NBA history to have a winless month, going 0–15 in November. After a season with the worst record in the league, his dismissal was inevitable.

    The Pistons’ management fired Monty Williams after one season, but the $60+ million contract remained “active.” It became the now-famous story of how Monty “squeezed” Detroit — the team still owed him around $50 million over the next five years, which they have reportedly been paying even though he hasn’t coached for three seasons.

    Everyone viewed the Pistons as massive losers with no hope. Yet the front office faced a crucial decision: who would be the new head coach? Choosing was not easy after the Monty Williams fiasco. The NBA often recycles a small pool of “proven” candidates.

    The choice fell on JB Bickerstaff, who had previously coached the Cleveland Cavaliers and achieved some positive results, lifting the team, though he hadn’t made a deep playoff run. Notably, he is the son of Bernie Bickerstaff, the legendary NBA coach — who, at the time, also worked with the Pistons as a Senior Basketball Advisor. Bernie’s career included coaching Seattle, Denver, Washington, and Charlotte. Father-son coaching connections are not unusual in the NBA, but this hire was under particular scrutiny given the prior Williams debacle.

    It turned out that JB Bickerstaff was the man to bring change and end the losing culture. Skeptics were quickly proven wrong. In his first year on the Pistons’ bench, last season, he led Detroit to the playoffs. By December, the team had already won more games (15) than the previous Pistons squad had in the entire season. In March, he was named Coach of the Month. The results were remarkable — they became the first team since the Charlotte Bobcats to triple their win total from the previous season, and the first to do so considering a full season (Charlotte’s was a lockout-shortened year).

    In the playoffs, Detroit’s young team made a strong impression. Their series against the New York Knicks was a spectacle for old-school basketball fans. Every game was full of intensity, contact, and scrappy play. It was hard to tell whether the atmosphere was hotter at Madison Square Garden or in traditionally hostile Detroit.

    In the end, the more experienced and higher-quality Knicks prevailed. Led by the incredible Jalen Brunson, New York narrowly took the series 4–2. It marked the end of Detroit’s season in first round of the playoffs, but it was a clear sign that they had returned to relevance and bigger things were ahead.

    Those “bigger things” became evident at the start of the current season. Now, in January, the Detroit Pistons are convincingly first in the Eastern Conference with a record of 35-12. Detroit Pistons rank as the second-best defense in the NBA by defensive rating, trailing only the reigning champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder. In other words, defense, something deeply rooted in the franchise’s culture – is once again their identity. JB Bickerstaff has been appointed head coach of the All-Star Game, which in itself carries no competitive significance, but this nomination traditionally reflects a coach’s success in the first half of the NBA season and serves as recognition for the results achieved.

    Cade Cunningham has fully established himself as the team’s first star, and it can be said that he is very close to “superstar” status in the league—if he isn’t there already. His numbers this season are impressive: 25.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 9.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 45.7% shooting from the field. Alongside him, Jalen Duren also deserves a mention. The young center has made tremendous progress and is now a reliable presence in the paint, averaging 18 points and 10.7 rebounds. There have been some tensions and speculation about disagreements between him and the Pistons’ front office regarding the contract he is seeking, but it seems obvious to everyone that letting him go would be a major mistake.

    There are also young names like Ausar Thompson, who is still very much a work in progress and yet to fully showcase his potential. Jaden Ivey, the explosive guard, is one of the players who hasn’t quite shined within the current roster, and he could become one of the trade options in the coming days. In a situation where he would be given more freedom, it feels like he could truly break out.

    That very trade topic is highly relevant in Detroit these days, as the NBA trade deadline approaches. This team will no longer be satisfied with just a first- or second-round playoff appearance. No—the goal is clear: coming out of the Eastern Conference, reaching the NBA Finals, and fighting for a championship ring. But is this roster capable of doing that without additional changes and moves? That’s for the front office and coaching staff to evaluate.

    There is no shortage of big names being linked to the Pistons—Anthony Davis, for example. Will Detroit make a blockbuster move, part ways with a young player and perhaps Tobias Harris, who has become a very positive veteran presence and a source of experience? Still, if his contract can be used to land a true “big fish”… who knows. It all depends on how the front office is thinking, and we’ll find out very soon.

    There’s also one more intriguing name “behind the scenes” worth mentioning, someone we may hear more about if the Pistons decide to pull off a trade bomb. Trajan Langdon, a former player for the Cleveland Cavaliers and CSKA Moscow, became the franchise’s President of Basketball Operations in June 2024—shortly after the Pistons parted ways with GM Troy Weaver and a month before JB Bickerstaff was named head coach. Langdon gave an interesting interview to The Athletic a few months ago about “resetting” the franchise. It’s clear that he is a figure whose credit will only grow if the Pistons truly achieve the ultimate success—an NBA title.

    So far, he has mostly made solid signings and decisions. There is one move, however, that fans continue to criticize: letting Tim Hardaway Jr. go last summer, after which he signed with the Denver Nuggets, while Caris LeVert was brought in as a kind of replacement. LeVert hasn’t exactly made a strong impression in this jersey, and together with Jaden Ivey, he forms a bench backcourt duo that fans clearly want to see upgraded.

    Still, overall, everything the Pistons have done over the past season and a half, with JB Bickerstaff at the helm and changes in the front office, deserves praise. Following this team for the rest of the season will be a real pleasure, especially in the playoffs, when the NBA truly comes alive and everything “catches fire” in playoff series featuring Detroit. And if those series end up being against historic rivals like the Knicks, as was the case last year—it would be pure spectacle. Pistons fans have endured an incredible period of suffering, and it finally feels like the time has come for them to genuinely hope again and enjoy watching their team.

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