The Detroit Pistons are 31-10 and have 5.5 games between them and the next closest team in the Eastern Conference, yet few in the national media see them as a true contender and the odds makers still have the Knicks as the most likely team to come out of the East.
The shorthanded Pistons destroyed the Knicks in their last matchup and have won three of four against the second-seed Celtics, yet most agree they need additional scoring if they want to be a real threat in the playoffs.
Zach Kram of ESPN recently summarized the national media consensus around the Pistons in one sentence: “Detroit has the East's best defense but ranks 26th in 3-point makes and could really use another scorer at the trade deadline.”
Who knows, he may be right, but people who are watching this team consistently know they’ve been doing just fine without prolific 3-point shooting and the extra scorer they need might already be on the roster.
Pistons are showing there is more than one way to win
The modern NBA has given itself over to the idea that the only way to win is by shooting 3-point shots and getting dunks at the rim, though the most consistent marker for championship basketball has been defense.
Yes, the Pistons could use another shooter or two but find me the team in the NBA that doesn’t have some kind of flaw. The Pistons lean into what they are good at, which is dominating the paint, playing elite defense, and using it to generate transition buckets.
That may be harder to do in the playoffs, but teams that rely heavily on 3-point shooting are also putting all of their eggs in one basket. The Pistons don’t rely on all-or-nothing 3-point offense, so are less apt to get completely derailed by a bad shooting night, since they don’t shoot that many of them anyway.
The Pistons are still 2nd in the NBA in net rating at +7.4, even without launching a ton of 3-point shots. Even in 2026, there is more than one way to score and more than one way to win a basketball game.
Champions obviously have to be good on both ends, but even the Golden State Warriors, the team that started the 3-point fetish, relied on elite defenses. They were 2nd in the league in defensive rating in 2021-22 and only 13th in offense, right about where the Pistons are now.
The only champion in the last six seasons to finish outside of the top six in defensive rating was the Denver Nuggets in the 2022-23 season, who were 11th.
The scorer may already be on the roster
We are halfway through the season, so I can understand those who are ready to give up on the Jaden Ivey and Caris LeVert experiment, as the two are barely averaging 16 points combined and have been bad as a duo.
But they’ve also been hurt, and in the case of Ivey, trying to come back after missing nearly a year with a devastating injury, which isn’t easy.
Ivey could be the scorer they need eventually, and it seems unlikely they are going to find a surefire upgrade without unloading serious assets, which Trajan Langdon seems loath to do.
He’d rather be patient and see what this core can do, as right now they are washing the Eastern Conference and have barely been at full strength this season.
It may backfire in the end, and the Pistons may come up short, but Langdon can then make decisions from a more informed space.
It’s easy to look at the Pistons and see a flaw that could be fatal, but that’s only if you ignore all the things they do well and the context of their current roster.