The Detroit Pistons won 60 games last season, which was the third most in the NBA, despite the fact that they had one of the league’s lowest payrolls.
If you look at the team payrolls for the 2026-27, the Pistons are at or near the bottom depending on which source you use and how they calculated options and cap holds.
Even after signing Jalen Duren, the Pistons won’t be too high over the salary floor for an NBA team and nowhere near the ceiling, which makes them a rarity.
The Pistons were the only team in the bottom 10 in payroll that made the playoffs outright last season, and most of the teams in that space are among the worst in the league.
We’re talking Nets, Bulls, Grizzlies, Jazz, Bucks, Wizards-level of bad, so Detroit stands out as the one cheap team that is actually winning games, but it won’t stay that way forever.
The Pistons payroll is about to swell, but they are still in great shape
The Pistons’ payroll is set to come in well below the 1st tax apron, which is set at $209 million for next season. Even factoring in Duren’s eventual contract, the Pistons will be under the first apron.
If they can keep Ausar Thompson’s extension reasonable as well, the Pistons still won’t hit the first tax apron this season and would still have plenty of room to make a splashy move at the trade deadline.
And they may need to, as things will get a lot more expensive after that when they have Cade Cunningham on a max deal followed by two guys earning in the 30+ million range per season.
The good news is that the Pistons are entirely flexible, as they don’t have any bad money on the books, nor any long-term contracts for anyone other than Cade Cunningham, so even though there will be raises starting next season, the payroll will actually decrease because the Pistons have mostly expiring deals.
But it’s going to get more challenging for Trajan Langdon to continue to put a deep roster out there with three big salaries at the top, so he can’t let this trade deadline pass by without making a move, as it may be one of his last chances.
The Pistons are right where most teams want to be, as they are already very good, but haven’t gotten into financial deep waters yet like so many teams in the Eastern Conference that have expensive rosters with no flexibility.
This should give Detroit the advantage at the deadline as they will be in a better position to take on a star player.
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