“You have an idea and you can watch film, but until you’re with people every single day, you don’t know the reality of their skillset,” Bickerstaff told USA TODAY Sports after the Pistons practiced Thursday ahead of Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff series against the New York Knicks.
“I knew that if you put together the amount of draft picks and the talent that was here, there was something to start with. It was a matter of getting to know them and then figuring out how we can do what we all do together.”
How much did he have?
“We went into the season with an open mind, willing to embrace whatever was going to happen,” Bickerstaff said. “That was the most important thing for us. We wanted to give the group confidence collectively and individually and then just see what happened and be prepared to make adjustments as need be. And that’s what we did.”
As the season unfolded, Bickerstaff started to recognize encouraging patterns, such as closing out games in the fourth quarter. Cade Cunningham’s leap toward stardom began to take shape. The mix of youth and veterans worked in the locker room.
Then, the Pistons defeated Indiana on the road in an in-season tournament game and a week later, they beat New York at Madison Square Garden. The Pistons were still just 10-15 and dropped to 10-16 in their next game.
But the wins started coming – 11 victories in their next 14 games, eight consecutive wins in February. After winning just 14 games last season, Detroit finished 44-38, a remarkable 30-game turnaround that made the Pistons the only team in league history to triple their wins total from one season to the next.
Last season, Detroit ranked 27th offensively and 25th defensively. This season: 14th and 10th.
How the Pistons built a foundation for turnaround
NBA rebuilds require patience. And the right coach at the right time. And the right general manager. The Pistons hired Trajan Langdon in May as president of basketball operations, replacing the fired Troy Weaver who deserves credit for drafting Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Ausar Thompson, acquiring Jalen Duren in a draft day move and trading for Isaiah Stewart.
But Langdon hired Bickerstaff and brought in a veteran presence with Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr., Tobias Harris, and Dennis Schroder.
Bickerstaff is a Coach of the Year candidate, Langdon is an Executive of the Year candidate and Beasley is a Sixth Man of the Year candidate who finished second in 3-pointers made this season.
Cunningham’s emergence as an All-NBA player is one of the great individual stories this season. In his fourth season, the 23-year-old Cunningham produced his best season with career-highs in points (26.1 per game), assists (9.1 per game), field goal percentage (.469), 3-point percentage (.356) and games played (70).
“He’s just an unbelievable person, leader, teammate, all those things,” Bickerstaff said. “Obviously, he’s taken steps in closing games, understanding when to take over games, the ability to decipher when it’s time to get his teammates involved and when it’s time for him to score. He’s understanding now how to manipulate the game to his advantage based on what the defense is trying to do.”
This is Detroit’s first playoff appearance since 2019 and just the third playoff appearance in the past 16 seasons. They face a Knicks team with high expectations, but the Pistons went 3-1 against them this season, including two victories at Madison Square Garden. The 6-6 Cunningham had a 29-point, 15-assist, 10-rebound triple-double in the first victory Dec. 7 and a 36-point effort in the second victory Jan. 13.
‘He did a lot of things right,’ Cunningham told reporters this week of Bickerstaff. ‘One, being honest in how he saw us playing and just building relationships with each individual on the team. That made everyone want to play hard for him, and that’s something we’ve all bonded over.”
Pistons’ future is bright with ‘guys who are going to get better’
Bickerstaff was ready to head home from the practice facility Thursday and unwind for a bit. But then, it was going to be back to watching video.
“We’re in a great place,” he said. “We’re in study mode right now. So for coaches in particular, that’s the fun part where you get to really, really teach and show and guide and watch film, get on the floor. All those things are fun for us.
‘But our guys’ minds, they’re engaged, they’re bought into what we’re trying to do. They understand it, they’re learning it, repping it, but they’re ready for the fight. And the best part about this group is win or lose, our guys are going to show up and they’re going to fight and they’re going to test their opponent and the opponent’s going to have to be the better team.”
And no matter what happens in this series or the next one, the Pistons are another team on the rise.
“You maximize the opportunity and the potential that’s in front of you,” Bickerstaff said. “But you live in the reality of that you have guys who are going to get better. And for us, that’s a good thing. This is our first year together and we’re at level X, and Y and Z are going to be even more amazing when our young players continue to improve.”