This East lead hasn’t come easy for the Pistons’ young core

WHEN CADE CUNNINGHAM scanned the locker room following a November win during a franchise-record 13-game winning streak, he spotted big man Isaiah Stewart, the longest-tenured member of the Detroit Pistons.

«That guy,» Cunningham said quietly, «Is a winner.»

One year before Cunningham joined Detroit as the No. 1 pick in 2021, Stewart was one of the very first draft picks made by former general manager Troy Weaver, the well-regarded executive hired away from the Oklahoma City Thunder and tasked with restoring the Pistons franchise. Stewart fit the blueprint of what they were attempting to build: an undersized, tough center and a throwback to the «Bad Boys» title teams of 1989 and 1990.

But in Stewart’s first four seasons, the Pistons went 74-244. He showed promise as a rugged defender in those years, enough so that teams would inquire about a trade. The Pistons never budged. And Stewart, despite the mounting losses, was flattered by the interest but kept his focus on helping lead the next phase of Detroit’s rebuild.

«I know I can’t be replaced,» Stewart told ESPN recently. «I don’t say that to be arrogant, but I know I resonate with the city. I was here in the trenches, setting the culture when nobody didn’t give a f— about Detroit.»

That franchise’s loyalty to Stewart and its roster has paid off. And two seasons after amassing the most consecutive losses in NBA history, the Pistons (17-5) are atop the Eastern Conference at the quarter mark of the 2025-26 season.

Led by the league’s best young core outside of Oklahoma City — Cunningham, Stewart, Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey and Ausar Thompson are all under 25 — and guided by early Coach of the Year contender J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons claimed their conference-leading 17th win on Dec. 1. They didn’t accomplish that until Jan. 1 last season, and not at all during their woeful 14-68 campaign in 2023-24.

The same team that once couldn’t finish games now finds comfort in clutch time. The same players who once found creative ways to lose are now spearheading impressive wins. And even when they’ve been stretched by stressful situations, the Pistons have yet to do more than bend.

Yes, Detroit Basketball is absolutely back.

FRUSTRATION VIRTUALLY DRIPPED off Cunningham as he walked down the long and lonely hallway to address the postgame media. He looked like a man who had aged years during the eight weeks the Pistons went winless during the first half of 2023-24, not the precocious guard tabbed to resurrect the proud franchise.

«We’re not 2-26 bad,» he said following the team’s loss to the Utah Jazz on Dec. 21, 2023, Detroit’s 25th of a league-record 28 straight defeats.

«No way.»

The Pistons seemed rudderless. First-year coach Monty Williams had received a record contract after his impressive run with the Phoenix Suns, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn’t the right fit to guide a team reliant on so much youth.

Cunningham was routinely asked in quiet moments, «Why you?» a question with the underlying implication that he was shouldering all the responsibility when the blame had so many authors.

He would often shrug, or stare into space, and reply: It has to be me.

«Maybe we assessed some things wrong,» Pistons owner Tom Gores told reporters the following day. «I’m apologizing to the fans. … we have to right the ship.»

It’s almost impossible to juxtapose that saga’s imagery against the joy that has been permeating lately throughout Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena, where late-game woes have been replaced by clutch performances.

The Pistons are 12-4 in clutch time this season, holding their opponents to a league-best 33.7% shooting when games are within five points in the final five minutes or in overtime.

And only Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo scores more points in the fourth quarter than Cunningham’s 9.5 per game.

«Time and time again, he does the job when we need him to do it most,» Bickerstaff said Monday after Cunningham buried back-to-back buckets in the final minute to drop the Atlanta Hawks.

«He embraces that role.»

UNDER A SIGN that reads «The Dawg Pound» sit Stewart and Duren’s adjacent lockers. And depending on the night, one of the two big men will control the auxiliary cord.

If it’s Stewart, you’ll hear reggae rap or Afro beats, a nod to his Jamaican roots. If it’s Duren, anything from mid-’90s R&B to ’90s rap — from Maxwell to Gang Starr — will fill the room. (Keep in mind Duren wasn’t born until 2003.)

That old-soul connection to Bickerstaff has been key to Duren’s breakout season, with the 46-year-old coach challenging the fourth-year center over the summer to improve his on-ball skills and get in optimal shape. Duren has always drawn comparisons to Chris Webber, a player Bickerstaff’s dad, Bernie, coached in Washington. Now, Duren is evolving into a modern version.

«When I first came in, people had me pegged as a pick-and-roll, dunker’s spot, lob threat, which is understandable,» Duren told ESPN. «But I got a lot more to my game, I’m excited to show it. I can do it consistently, be comfortable with it and not think about it. That’s what has helped me take this next step.»

Bickerstaff took a serious approach to Duren’s development over the summer, working him out for two weeks and building a rare level of closeness that wasn’t lost on the big man who just turned 22 last month.

«That was the first time since I’ve been in the NBA where that happened,» Duren said. «I don’t know if he knows how much that meant to me, [but] that showed me how much he cared about me.»

Stewart, once one of five centers on the roster, was an early believer in his pairing with Duren, whom the Pistons drafted two years later with the belief that he was their center of the future.

«Me and him on the court together, we cause havoc,» Stewart said in mid-November. «I know a lot of guys in the league don’t want to face that.»

The numbers didn’t always bear that out. Two seasons ago, neither were floor-spreaders — Duren was a vertical spacer with ballhandling potential, while Stewart was a more old-school bruiser. Lineups featuring the duo were minus-3.5 points per 100 possessions. (Add in Cunningham, and the trio was minus-2.1 — not a level that spelled promise for the future.)

But not only did Weaver relent, resisting offers from top contending teams, so did new GM Trajan Langdon when he took over in 2024. Now, Duren and Stewart help anchor the NBA’s third-ranked defense, along with Thompson, who profiles as one of the league’s top perimeter defenders.

Duren averages 11.5 rebounds in just 29 minutes, trailing only New York Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns among East leaders. Stewart, who comes off the bench, has held opponents to just 44% shooting at the rim on five attempts a night — tied for stingiest in the league with San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet. The Duren-Stewart duo is now plus-11.5 points per 100 possessions. With Cunningham that drops slightly but to a formidable plus-10.1.

Stewart, who is expected to be in Defensive Player of the Year conversations, goes after everything and is fifth in blocked shots at 1.9 per game (2.9 per 36 minutes). He has also developed into a confident 3-point shooter (40.9%), as keeping him on the court with Cunningham and Duren no longer kills the Pistons’ spacing.

But Stewart, for his part, knows where his impact is felt the most. Consider last week, when the Pistons dropped back-to-back games against the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, after which Stewart stood at his locker to address the media.

«I have to get us back on track,» he said. «I have to set the tone defensively. We’ve had some slippage.»

Three days later against the Hawks, he sent away five shots in a 99-98 old-school win.

A MEASURED APPROACH has defined Langdon’s tenure since he took over the Pistons’ front office. After all, it would have been easy to trade off the young players given all the losses they had compiled.

But early on, Langdon established that the thought never truly crossed his mind. Perhaps the biggest endorsement came from Williams, who was bought out of his then-record contract before Langdon came aboard.

«Getting background on the players from Monty, it all aligned with what I thought was important,» Langdon told ESPN. «I think letting it breathe a little bit and seeing what we had from myself and my group’s assessment, I didn’t want to rush to judgment. Because what we were going to build was going to be different from the predecessor.»

«I think the fear is, if I trade something away that I don’t know what it is, I’m going to regret it.»

They’re well-positioned for the future, even though they weren’t able to come to terms with Duren and Ivey before the October deadline on rookie deal extensions. Duren is lining himself up for a huge payday in the summer, with league executives telling ESPN it could be in the range of Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun‘s five-year, $185 million contract signed in October 2024.

The temptation for the Pistons is to get greedy and truly cement themselves among the elite in the East with a significant personnel move.

The last time the Pistons had a franchise-record winning streak was 2003-04, when they won a title that June. The Indiana Pacers, a rival with the league’s best record, broke their 13-game winning streak that season. The loss was so drastic, it was the catalyst for the Pistons to acquire star forward Rasheed Wallace weeks later, highlighting a need the winning streak couldn’t mask.

Today, things are more ambiguous in the East, with no team being far and away superior. Ranking near the bottom in 3-point volume and middle of the pack in accuracy, those needs would certainly be a reasonable target should the Pistons look for help before the Feb. 5 trade deadline. (The Pistons have a $14.1 million trade exception they can use.)

But Langdon doesn’t believe there’s enough evidence to support such aggression roughly a quarter through the season. There’s «not enough information,» he said.

«I’m always pushing my group, whether it’s from an analytics or personnel standpoint, on how can we get better? Can that happen internally? Or do we need to do something, add something, to get better?

«There’s obviously [the risk of] what those things cost and how they can hamper your future.»

A nine-day Western swing that runs through Christmas is ahead, immediately followed by a home-laden January schedule where they’ll leave Detroit once over a 20-day span. Those two stretches could give answers to Langdon’s yet-to-be-revealed information.

«I wouldn’t [say] that I’m aggressive right now,» he said.

But if a deal comes along that solidifies the Pistons’ elite standing in the East — and moves the franchise even further from the dregs of its grueling years-long rebuild — would Langdon jump at the opportunity?

«Opportunistic, sure. Always opportunistic. «If there’s something out there that we feel can make us better, we’ll take a strong look.»