“We’re not 2–26 bad — no way are we that bad,” Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham said Dec. 21, 2023, after the Pistons lost their 25th straight game, falling to 2–26 on the season.
Cunningham, the first overall pick in the 2021 draft out of Oklahoma State, scored 28 points and 10 assists in the loss to the Utah Jazz — who were playing without four of their top seven scorers.
“I think we can turn this around,” Cunningham continued. “We can play a much better brand of basketball.”
Cunningham, the franchise’s cornerstone, implored a sense of reassurance for what was on pace to be the worst season in NBA history.
“Don’t jump off the boat,” Cunningham said after the loss to the Jazz. “Right now is the easiest time to stand off and be on your own, but we need to continue to lean on each other and continue to push each other and hold each other accountable more than ever now.”
Following the loss, the Pistons went on to lose three more games in a row before finally besting the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 30, 129–127. Altogether, the Pistons lost 28 games in a row, an NBA record for a single season, and became the 13th team to have a winless month in NBA history, going 0–15 in November. They did not win a game for over two months.
The Pistons finished the season 14–68; it was the lowest win total in franchise history, and they finished with the worst record in the NBA. In Cunningham’s three-year tenure, Detroit’s highest win total came in his rookie season, when they went 23–59.
Prior to the 2023-24 season, the Pistons inked former Phoenix Suns Head Coach Monty Williams to a six-year, $78.5 million contract, the largest coaching deal in NBA history at the time. After a league-worst season, the Pistons fired Williams while still owing him $65 million on his contract.
Also on the way out after the 2023-24 season was General Manager Troy Weaver. In his place, the Pistons hired Trajan Langdon — a former NBA player with front-office experience for the Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans — to become the president of basketball operations.
Langdon was handed a sinking franchise. On top of the futile numbers in the win column, the Pistons’ reputation was decimated. The franchise hadn’t made the playoffs since the 2018-19 season and hadn’t made it to the second round since 2007-08, when they lost to the Boston Celtics in the Conference Finals.
In the 2023-24 season, the Pistons had the eighth-youngest team in the league. Langdon prioritized signing veteran players to reestablish the culture the Pistons were once known for.
In the 1990s, amid the depths of Eastern Conference Finals battles with the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls, the Pistons ravaged the league with a physical, borderline dangerous, style of play. Specifically against the Bulls, the “Jordan rules” were implemented — a set of team standards that forbid Jordan from elevating and going toward the basket. If he did, he was getting fouled. Hard. This became the Pistons’ identity.
Fast forward three decades, the Pistons had lost the style of play that once defined them. Seeking to create a new identity, Langdon brought in forward Duncan Robinson via a sign and trade with the Miami Heat, forward Tobais Harris and guard Malik Beasley in free agency, and traded for guard Tim Hardaway Jr. from the Dallas Mavericks. These players were not on max contracts or future All Stars, but they could be reliable night in and night out.
Langdon has won in the margins; Cunningham and Harris are the only Pistons averaging north of $17 million per season. He has found consistency and talent toward the bottom of the cap sheet, which gives the franchise more flexibility in the future.
Led by Cunningham and a plethora of new rotation players, the Pistons finished the 2024-25 season 44–38, the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, a 30-win turnaround from the season prior, the sixth largest turnaround from season-to-season in NBA history.
In the opening round of the playoffs, the Pistons matched up with the No. 3 seed New York Knicks. After splitting the first two games, the Knicks took three of the next four to send Detroit home.
In this series, Cunningham joined Luka Dončić and Oscar Robertson as the only players to average 25 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists in their first playoff series.
“We proved to ourselves that what we have in the room works and can be very successful in the NBA,” Cunningham said following the Game 6 defeat. “I think at the same time, we proved that to the rest of the league as well, that when they come play Detroit, it’s going to be a dogfight, and you’re going to have to come play the whole 48 [minutes].”
Following the loss, Pistons owner Tom Gores held a press conference to reinforce the belief the Pistons instilled in him and the entire city after their unprecedented turnaround.
“How [the team] has been able to get through adversity is so impressive,” Gores said. “I don’t get inspired by a lot, I’m really inspired by them. They have excited the city.”
Cunningham reassured fans in Detroit that the loss was merely the beginning of a rebirth for the franchise.
“We will be back and better,” Cunningham remarked to the media at the end of his press conference.
Cunningham was right. The Pistons sit atop of the Eastern Conference at 13–2, currently riding an 11-game win streak. It is the franchise’s first 11-game streak since the 2008 season.
Cunningham, an early MVP candidate, is averaging 27.3 points per game to go along with 9.9 assists per contest. Fourth-year center Jalen Duren has burst onto the scene with efficient scoring, shot blocking, and rebounding, averaging 20.6 points per game while grabbing 11.9 boards. He and Cunningham have formed one of the game’s best pick and roll combinations, with Duran averaging 1.55 points per possession as the roll man.
On Nov. 17, in an interview on star forward Kevin Durant’s Boardroom podcast, it was announced Cunningham would join an exclusive club of athletes who have their own signature shoe with Nike.
“We were just talking about the Nike game and what it means,” Durant said during the interview. “How important that is to us. For you to get your own shoe, and for you to have a legacy. Do you know how big that is, bruh?”
Scheduled to release sometime in 2026-27, Cunningham is set to become the sixth active NBA player with a Nike signature shoe.
“I haven’t even grasped it yet,” Cunningham replied. “I can’t wait.”
Just two seasons removed from the worst losing streak in NBA history, the Pistons have cemented themselves at the heart of the Eastern Conference for years to come. At the helm, Cunningham’s new shoe marks a sharp twist from a bumpy beginning to blossoming into one of the icons of Nike Basketball and the NBA.
