The Detroit Pistons are off to their best start since the “Goin’ to Work” era midway through their 2025-26 season.
With a 31-10 record and the top spot in the Eastern Conference, quite a lot has gone right for the Pistons under second-year coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
But the Pistons being one of the top defensive teams in the league and seeing impact performances up and down the roster hasn’t made for a finished product, yet.
There’s still plenty of things that needs to go right and some key decisions the franchise has to make that will have major implications on the end of this season and potentially years to come.
Here are four questions the Pistons still need to answer at the midway point of the 2025-26 season.
What kind of move are the Pistons going to make at the trade deadline?
Perhaps the biggest question for the Pistons and possibly the future direction of the franchise is what happens at the upcoming Feb. 5 trade deadline.
The Pistons are in a very strong position as buyers with Tobias Harris’ large expiring contract that could be dealt alongside some first-round draft picks — which Detroit has control of for the next seven drafts — to bring in an impact player.
The allure to add a high quality player like Brooklyn’s Michael Porter Jr. or Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. might be enough to see president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon jump at the chance for his first big move.
But, that might not be the path for a Pistons front office that has focused on internal development and adding around the margins.
That thinking has the Pistons over five games in front in the Eastern Conference and playing some of the best team basketball in the NBA.
There’s a perfectly reasonable argument that the Pistons shouldn’t push their chips in at this point when they’re just starting to build for the long run.
With a $14 million traded player exception still in their back pocket, Detroit could focus on a less expensive player like a Bobby Portis (Milwaukee) or Corey Kispert (Atlanta) to keep bolstering the group for the playoffs.
This is the first time Langdon and the Pistons will need to show their hand a bit about how aggressive they want to be with the team’s current level of success.
What‘s the plan for Daniss Jenkins?
The Pistons seem to have struck gold with former undrafted free agent and two-way guard Daniss Jenkins.
After limited exposure in the NBA last season, Jenkins has exploded onto the scene and proven to be a reliable point guard off the bench (7.4 PPG, 3.3 APG, 41 3P%) for Detroit when Cade Cunningham has been out or resting.
Averaging 15 points and 7.2 assists over his six starts, when Jenkins has been given time he’s been great and outplaying his two-way deal. It’s almost time for the Pistons to make a choice.
Jenkins has been active for all 41 games the Pistons have played this season, approaching the limit of 50 that two-way players are permitted to be with their NBA teams.
Crucially, two-way players are also not eligible to play in the postseason, either. It’s hard to imagine the Pistons having Jenkins on the team and not want him at least available for the playoffs.
It’s likely Jenkins will be converted to a standard contract once his 50 games are up — there’s not much point in doing so before as a two-way deal means the Pistons own Jenkins’ exclusive NBA rights.
The only wrinkle at this point, it appears, is timing as he will hit that 50-game mark on trade deadline day. Any other business the Pistons do will affect the space the team would have to sign Jenkins to a deal.
When will the Pistons start narrowing down their rotation?
Detroit’s depth has been its strength this season as numerous injuries have barely impacted results. The Pistons have managed to win games without four starters and seen their typical starting group miss 33 combined games this season with very little drop off.
The goal is making the playoffs and doing damage when they get their after last season’s first-round elimination.
The question is at what point does Bickerstaff begin shrinking his rotation. In last year’s playoff series the Pistons essentially ran eight deep, which doesn’t seem likely this time around.
At times this year, the Pistons have run about 13 deep and seen strong contributions down to the last man.
Bickerstaff has claimed he’s not too concerned about narrowing down that group yet saying recently “we play the guys that contribute to winning and that’s everybody.”
However, the Pistons’ final game of the first half of their season against the Boston Celtics gave what might be a pit of a preview for how he’s thinking.
In a tightly-contested matchup the Pistons would win 104-103, Bickerstaff ran with just 10 players, despite the entire roster being available. Marcus Sasser, Paul Reed and Jenkins were the odd men out.
Detroit was aided in the fact that foul trouble was relatively limited so they didn’t have to reach much further down the bench in a game where you’d want your best players on the court as much as possible.
Nothing should be set in stone and there’s still an important deadline to get through, but the Pistons will need to start keying into what that ideal rotation looks like.
Are the Pistons going to stay put with shooting?
The Pistons’ weakness this year has clearly become taking shots away from the basket.
They’re 7th in the NBA in shooting from the field, but rank 19th in three-point shooting and 29th in free-throw percentage.
These haven’t often kept the Pistons from winning, but if they’re going to be a real postseason contender, it seems like adding more sharp-shooting help would be beneficial.
The Pistons recently saw what tough free-throw shooting can lead to as they nearly coughed up a fourth-quarter lead to the Phoenix Suns by missing 6-of-10 foul shots in the final two minutes of the game.
Duncan Robinson’s been great from deep, shooting over 40% for the first time in five years, but the rest of the team hasn’t been as strong.
Jaden Ivey’s shooting 4% worse from three compared to last season and Cunningham nearly 3%, despite his All-Star numbers.
The Pistons may not need to make a big move, but not bringing in someone to try and stretch the court more and the potential for impact makes off the bench might limit just how effective their offense can be come playoffs.
The aforementioned Portis is shooting an NBA-best 47.4% from three, the Charlotte Hornets could move Collin Sexton’s expiring contract while he’s shooting 37% from three and 87% from the foul line.