The Detroit Pistons have undergone one of the biggest turnarounds in professional sports over the last couple of seasons.
In the 2023-24 season, the team finished with an abysmal 14-68 season. The year before that wasn’t even much better, as they finished just 17-65.
However, over halfway through the 2025-26 season, the Pistons are sitting at 40-13 and are easily in first place in the Eastern Conference. The turnaround has been remarkable, and players like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff deserve a ton of credit.
Cunningham and Duren did a ton of losing when they first entered the league, and Duren recently explained why the team is so motivated to keep winning.
“It’s kinda like being broke and then getting money,” Duren told Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press. “You never want to be broke again. That’s really what it is, bro, is understanding what that bottom felt like and never wanting to go back because we all have basketball pride and we all want to be the best in what we do. Knowing what that bottom feels like again, it’s never wanting to be back.”
Duren certainly knows what it feels like to be at the bottom. The team got a taste of success last season when they made the playoffs, but ultimately ended up losing in the first round to the New York Knicks.
While the team is much improved, there is still plenty of work to be done. The Pistons have not won a single playoff series since the 2007-08 season. After having the best record in the Eastern Conference all season, it would be incredibly disappointing to go home empty-handed once again.
Duren is averaging a career-high 17.7 points per game to go along with 10.4 rebounds. The Memphis product earned his first All-Star selection thanks to his impressive campaign and has evolved into one of the game’s best centers.
Speaking of being broke, Duren definitely won’t have to worry about that again either. The big man is in the final year of his four-year, $19 million rookie deal in 2025-26. Duren will be a restricted free agent after the season and it’s expected that the Pistons will hand him a max extension.
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