by Mike Whitaker
Detroit – The Detroit Pistons enjoyed one of the greatest turnarounds in NBA history, improving from a poor 14-68 record in 2023-24 to 44-38 in 2024-25.
The Pistons also returned to the NBA postseason for the first time since 2019 against the Milwaukee Bucks, though their series against the New York Knicks ultimately resulted in a four games to two loss.
Still, there’s no denying that the emergence of Cade Cunningham as a true star in a League dominated by star power is an encouraging sign for the future of the Pistons. But what does the future hold for pending free-agents like Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr., Paul Reed and Dennis Schröder?
On Wednesday morning, Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon met with media members at the team’s official practice facility in downtown Detroit and implied that one or more of the aforementioned players could be elsewhere in 2025-26.
“Maybe some of them don’t want to come back, maybe some of them get bigger offers elsewhere,” Langdon explained. “It takes two to tango with our free agents and they have decisions to make. All of them were great for us. I think they’d all be great for us coming back here in terms of what they did for us and how they fit the roster that we have. I can’t give you an answer of which ones because again, it takes both sides to come together on a deal.”
When asked about the possibility of adding outside talent to give Cunningham more talent to work with, Langdon delivered a message of patience.
“I’ve always said ‘stay patient’ and I’m not going to change in that regard,” Langdon said. “We’re going to listen to calls, we’re going to see opportunities. We’re always going to look at avenues to get better that we think make sense for us to improve. A big thing for us this summer is going to be to develop the guys we have – the young guys we have that are 19 to 22, 23 years old and have them continue to grow. If those guys take steps, we get better.
“That’s what we’ve focused on and putting people with those guys that can make them better,” he continued. “It was a pretty good formula this year, so we’ll look at everything out there.”
While some Pistons fans may not like Langdon’s apparent hesitancy to get aggressive in the offseason, they can take comfort in the fact that their team’s 30-win improvement under the tutelage of coach J.B. Bickerstaff (who ultimately came in second place in NBA Coach of the Year voting) has set them up nicely for future success.
