By Jacob Richman, Tribune News Service
DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons made it through the NBA trade deadline, but had one important piece of business left before they move forward to the back half of the season.
Two-way guard Daniss Jenkins has emerged as a crucial part of the Pistons’ rotation and Friday night’s game against the New York Knicks will serve as the 50th and final matchup he can be active for as a two-way player.
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff [signaled his certainty that Jenkins would be around](https://www.mlive.com/pistons/2026/01/pistons-coach-has-no-doubt-about-two-way-guards-future-in-detroit.html) well after hitting the 50-game mark and president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon is expecting the same.
Langdon said the team is engaged in discussions with Jenkins’ agent about the path forward and the team hopes to convert him over the weekend and be a rostered player for Detroit’s game against the Charlotte Hornets on Monday.
“Kudos to him. He’s worked his butt off all last season playing a ton of games for Motor City,” Langdon said during a press conference on Friday. “We saw his improvement during the year and I think everybody saw how he played in the Summer League in Vegas and he just continued to improve, working not only with his own trainers, but with our staff and with his teammates through the summer.
“He had a great camp and he’s just continued his trajectory on getting better when the opportunities came, he’s taken advantage of it.”
Jenkins, 24, has quickly risen to being a top option behind Cade Cunningham at the point guard spot since going undrafted out of St. John’s in 2024.
After playing in just seven games last season, Jenkins asserted himself as a rotation player this year and took advantage of a series of injuries to the roster that saw him break out with a 24-point performance against the Washington Wizards in November and make seven starts to this point in the season.
He’s reached a level of trust from his team and coaches that Bickerstaff will often play him next to Cunningham when the team needs a scoring burst.
Jenkins is now playing high-leverage minutes for the top team in the Eastern Conference and being converted to a standard contract is an important milestone in his young career.
“For me, this was my goal. Being undrafted, you obviously wanna work and get that first contract, get to that standard contract just to show that,” Jenkins said in January. “I’ve been saying that I belong in this league, a long time ago when I did my first Summer League, and I knew it’d come true. I just needed an opportunity, and that’s what this organization gave me, so I’m just looking forward to the day.”
The Pistons will need to open a space on the roster in order to convert Jenkins to a standard contract. Recently-acquired big man Dario Saric seems a likely candidate as he’s not been with the team since being traded to Detroit.
Jenkins’ deal will assuredly run through the end of the season, but discussions could also lead to a multi-year deal that keeps him in Detroit for longer.
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