The fathers of the Pistons' success

It's more complicated than you think.

Good morning. The All-Star Break is ending in a few hours! Let's basketball.

It's remarkable that the Detroit Pistons are on track to go from 14 wins to 60 wins in two years. Remarkable. Consider the Oklahoma City Thunder's famous 2-year rise between 2022 and 2024, where they went from 24 wins to 57 wins. Detroit started deeper in the hole and may get further up the mountain. It's simply an extraordinary turn of events.

Success has many fathers. We need to deal with the fact that Troy Weaver largely built this roster: four of the top five players in minutes played for Detroit this season are holdovers from Weaver's 14-win team. (The exception: Duncan Robinson, of course.) Weaver was also run out of Detroit on a rail, widely considered the worst GM in the league (non-Kings division) and is a target of derision in his current home of New Orleans, where he and (Pistons legend) Joe Dumars executed one of the most heavily criticized trades in modern history (non-Nico Harrison division) this past summer. (Weaver and Dumars cannot received sufficient criticism for that deal; the limit does not exist.) Weaver drafted Cade Cunningham, which was not rocket science: Cade was an A+ prospect out of Oklahoma State and a consensus No. 1. A year prior, Weaver drafted Isaiah Stewart at No. 16, which has turned out to be an inspired pick. In 2022, Weaver drafted Jaden Ivey at No. 5 (it didn't work out) and Jalen Duren at No. 13 (one of only four players in that draft to have any All-Star nods under his belt, a tremendous pick). In 2023, Weaver picked Ausar Thompson at No. 5 (great pick) and Marcus Sasser at No. 25 (the rare non-lottery '23 pick who can be a legit rotation player on a very good team, excellent pick). Troy Weaver drafted his tail off. And yet he stands as one of the symbols of Detroit Pistons failure.

Success has many fathers. Trajan Langdon took over for Weaver in the 2024 offseason, just after the 14-win season. (He came from the Pelicans. The ties are strong.) He got Monty Williams out of there (an easy decision despite the gobs of Tom Gores' money owed to the coach) and led a search to land freshly available J.B. Bickerstaff. He drafted Ron Holland, flipped Quentin Grimes for Tim Hardaway Jr. and three seconds, signed Tobias Harris, signed Daniss Jenkins, re-signed Simone Fontecchio, signed Malik Beasley. The Pistons looked pretty solid, so at the deadline he used latent cap space to pick up Dennis Schroder and some second-round picks. After the team's heroic first-round loss to New York, and not holding rights to their own first-round pick, Langdon flipped Fontecchio for Robinson to add shooting in the wake of the Beasley gambling scandal, brought back Paul Reed and Jenkins, sign-and-traded away Schroder for a second and signed Caris LeVert. At the deadline he traded Jaden Ivey for Kevin Huerter, Dario Saric and a low-value pick swap.

This is all to say that little of this screams off the page. The Harris signing was mildly pilloried at the time, and no one ever seems to believe in THJ in the summer. Robinson seemed like toast (much as Huerter seems now). Any GM hired in 2024 would have jettisoned Monty if given permission by the boss. But put it all together and there we have it: Trajan Langdon took over a 14-win team and two years later might have a 60-win team.

Success has many fathers. Bickerstaff probably deserves more credit than he gets, and that's also a credit to Langdon, who could have gone with a less well-known option. (Sean Sweeney, James Borrego and Micah Nori were the other known candidates.) In Bickerstaff's first full season with the Cavaliers, they won the equivalent of 25 games. (It was a COVID-shortened season.) Two years later, they won 51. Let's call that the Bickerstaff Turnaround: the dude has taken two young teams and built legitimate winners of them at two straight stops. Of course, Cleveland's roster over those years add first Lauri Markkanen and then Donovan Mitchell. The standings improvement was a bit more telegraphed than in Detroit. That allowed Cleveland's front office to discount Bickerstaff's contribution in some way (though the team improved again once he was replaced by Kenny Atkinson), which allowed Detroit to scoop him again.

It seems unlikely any other team will be able to scoop up Bickerstaff any time soon.

Success has many fathers. The basketball world never gave up on Cunningham, even when his rookie efficiency was horrendous, when he missed 70 games his sophomore season and when he presided over a 28-game losing streak. (He played in every single one of those games. That'll build some character.) Cade never reached the level of distrust that fellow can't-miss No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero is at now, for example. Cade's individual statistics amid that horror season two years ago were good and improving; on paper, it's All-Star level performance. The uptick in production the following season – last year – was rather modest. But of course the team performance went through the roof, and Cunningham was rewarded with an All-Star nod and a third team All-NBA honor. He was an All-Star again this year and will certainly make All-NBA, possibly even first team, if he hits the games minimum (he's only missed six so far). By most individual metrics, Cade is marginally better in this potential 60-win season than he was in the 14-win season. But that margin for a high-end player is really important, and the individual metrics don't account for his leadership, his presence, his grit and largely his defensive improvement.

Success has many fathers. These incredible Detroit Pistons have a coterie of contributors, none more important than Weaver, Langdon, Bickerstaff and Cunningham. As we hand out the righteously and rightfully earned laurels, don't forget any of them, even if it goes against what we thought we knew about someone's ability.

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Defense is the cleanest path to quick success, because building a credible defense is cheaper and less reliant on extraordinary talent. See: the Pistons, the Suns, the Heat ... just this season. And so it's a common habit of mine, particularly when the Kings are about to have a coaching opening, to look through the coaching staff of the top defenses. And someone I totally forgot about this.