How Detroit’s New Bad Boys climbed from the NBA’s cellar to rule the East | Detroit Pistons

IIn Detroit, black-eyed Susan grew up along isolated highways and in vacant lots. It passes through gravel and broken glass. It survives the heat that cracks the earth and the winters that freeze it. When the wind bends its stem, it snaps back into place.

Its petals are a dirty yellow, the shade of anxiety, orbiting a bruised center. With black eyes, signaling he can take a punch. This is the kind of flower Pistons legend Dennis Rodman would wear in his hair. Hard to kill. Just like the Detroit Pistons.

It was the perfect symbol during their dark three-season streak (2021-24). They finished the 2023-24 season 14-68, the worst record in franchise history. They went without a victory for an entire calendar month. They lost a record 28 games in a row, and Monty Williams, hired to stabilize a rebuild, lasted only one season before being run out of town. The organization hit rock bottom with an 82-game public elegy.

To understand what happened next, remember what Detroit was like in its heyday.

At the turn of the century, the Pistons were the kings of the East in late May and early June. The 2004 championship team beat a Lakers team built on the power of Hall of Fame stars: Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton and Karl Malone.

The Pistons beat them with defense and collective strength: five fingers forming an iron fist. The only bullies to dethrone Shaq and Kobe in the final.

After the 2004 title, they sniffed at young players, while their second pick in the 2003 draft, Darko Miličić, continued to haunt their chances of winning a second chip. Detroit made the playoffs twice between 2011 and 2023 and was swept each time. Their three title banners continued to collect dust.

Cade Cunningham was taken first overall in 2021. Then a series of consecutive picks at No. 5 brought in defensive demons: Jaden Ivey in 2022. Ausar Thompson in 2023. Ron Holland in 2024. It was clear that Detroit had individual talent, but not the leadership to make it a team. After Williams was fired, JB Bickerstaff took over the team in the summer of 2024. While head coach in Cleveland, he remembered games against Detroit as two teams fighting in the mud for a knife. The Pistons played hard. They just couldn’t finish.

For Bickerstaff’s first training camp, he had to burn the loss out of their pores. Bickerstaff believed Detroit could anchor itself on defense and toughness like previous eras had done, but in the modern game. That approach matched that of Trajan Langdon, who took over basketball operations in 2024. Langdon valued structure and consistency. He had played in a disciplined system at Duke and worked in the front office of the San Antonio Spurs.

Langdon’s first question was about Cunningham. After years of defeats and coaching changes, did he still believe in Detroit? Reflecting on that 28-game losing streak, he revealed how differently he views the game: “When we had that streak, we were talking about championship, believe it or not…To be where we are now, it’s cool. But it’s just one step in this process. We have a long way to go.”

Cunningham grew up in Arlington, Texas – concrete, beige, unromantic. He learned early on to build something from nothing.

Some pieces were already in place. Jalen Duren was a powerful interior presence who could rebound and finish in pick-and-rolls. Isaiah Stewart brought energy and defensive versatility. Thompson displayed defensive instincts as a rookie, able to guard multiple positions and apply pressure all over the court. The defensive potential was evident from the jump.

Langdon knew his young kinetic core needed guidance from a veteran. So he began adding veterinarians who didn’t need to learn professional habits. In the season following the 14-win collapse, Detroit won 44 games and returned to the playoffs. But the defense! After ranking near the bottom of the league in defensive efficiency, the Pistons clawed, snarled and creaked into the top tier. Midway through the 2024-25 season, Detroit has risen to second in defensive rating. This offseason, Langdon added Duncan Robinson, Caris LeVert and Javonte Green, while seeing huge growth from Daniss Jenkins and Paul Reed.

As the NBA has progressed, the Pistons have embraced the physicality of the past. They send out waves of players who accept contact and challenge everything, like a piranha stripping you to the bone.

They currently sit atop the Eastern Conference as the projected No. 1 seed. Cunningham solidified his place as the best goaltender in the East. No one else can match his combination of defense, IQ, size and board. This season, he is a top-three MVP candidate, averaging 25.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists. He leads the league in total assists (508), and his numbers intermittently quantify the offense. With Cunningham on the floor, Detroit is outscoring teams by 10.2 points per 100 possessions, or an on/off swing of plus-7.2. The Pistons can imbue their enemies before strangling them with their own weaknesses.

As Cunningham’s pick-and-roll partner, the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Duren produces 18.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per night on a 63.4 percent shooting rate. Almost everything he does happens on the edge. His 7.3 field goals per game are mostly dunks, putting him among the league leaders with two points. Almost all of his attempts come within 10 feet – meaning the last thing defenders see are his pearly whites before the ball is pushed through the cylinder.

The Pistons score 60 points in the paint per game and have topped 70 several times during their midseason surge. Duren’s rim finishing and offensive rebounding are central drivers. But like all great Pistons teams of the past, their weakness lies in shooting. They are 22nd in three-point percentage (34.9%), 27th in attempts (31.8) and 28th in makes (11.1) per game.

Pistons fans have seen it many times: 6 of 31 in Denver, 7 of 36 against San Antonio, 6 of 27 against Cleveland. When sharpshooter Duncan Robinson doesn’t have it, the offense has no other release valve. Now Cunningham sees two or three bodies on the nail, and the half court gets bogged down in contested pull-ups or late saves. Detroit can win the possession game, but in the playoffs, this inability to consistently generate and convert volume threes can cause an upset.

The midseason trade of Ivey for Kevin Huerter raised their floor but lowered their ceiling. Now, when Cade has an ineffective night, the Pistons don’t have a reliable secondary shot creator to stabilize from the perimeter.

And that brings us back to Bickerstaff. His regular season resume has been solid with a 343-342 (.501) overall record and an excellent 88-52 (.629) in Detroit thus far – but his playoff history raises legitimate questions. He owns a 9-19 playoff record (.321), including a 2-4 mark in his first playoff run in Detroit last year. Most notably, he was coached by Tom Thibodeau to back-to-back playoff runs with the Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons.

Like the Pistons in recent years, black-eyed Susan gets stepped on as soon as she hits the ground running. As long as the stem holds, it survives. Detroit has survived three of the worst seasons in NBA history. Now they are looking to get their lick back.

Inside the locker room, the phrase “New Bad Boys” is bandied about – a nod to the brutality of the championships of the early 1990s. Sometimes, that edge spills over. On February 9 against the Charlotte Hornets, that was the case.

Duren and Charlotte’s Moussa Diabaté met under the rim, breath for breath — first a push, then a swing. Bodies invaded the track. Miles Bridges doubled toward the scrimmage. Then Isaiah Stewart – “Beef Stew,” Detroit’s resident enforcer – came off the bench and into chaos, as if summoned by the ghosts of the franchise.

Because at that moment, time flew by. In its denouement, Stewart’s punch no longer belonged only to him. It was Rodman’s, Bill Laimbeer’s, Ben Wallace’s. Dozens of Pistons players smashing through time and into the mouths of their opponents. Likewise, the team name is stitched on their jerseys; their identity is engraved in the marrow of the players who wear it.

Just as during Malice at the Palace two decades earlier, suspensions were pronounced. Stewart won seven games, mainly for coming off the bench to fight and, of course, for his reputation. Duren received a two-game suspension for starting the fight. Even without their two biggest dogs, the Pistons’ rise continues.

Since the beginning of March, Detroit has led the East. Two years earlier, they had been synonymous with defeat. Like black-eyed Susans growing through broken glass, the Pistons took the blow, spat out blood-soaked teeth, and remained standing. Now it’s Detroit’s turn to fight back.