No team was able to stop the New York Knicks on their way to the 2026 NBA Championship. While they never matched up against the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs, Cade Cunningham led his group to a sweep of the champs-to-be in the regular season. The one-seeded Pistons didn't make it out of the first round of the playoffs, though, and the action across the Eastern Conference this offseason doesn't make things look any better for them.
The rest of the conference is gearing up for battle. The Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, and Indiana Pacers will all go into next season with much improved rosters, one way or another. The Cleveland Cavaliers were Eastern Conference Finalists who seem set to add LeBron James in free agency. And the Boston Celtics should still be able to put a top-level team on the court, even without Jaylen Brown.
Unless Detroit has a big trade planned, they should be prepared to take a major step back.
The East is better than the West, but not because of the Pistons
There are plenty of teams in the Eastern Conference set to challenge the Knicks' title defense. The Pacers are getting Tyrese Haliburton back from the Achilles injury that kept him on the sidelines last season. The Raptors, once things clear up on the legal front, are set to bring Kawhi Leonard back to the site of his 2019 Finals MVP.
The Pistons effectively swapped Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart, Caris LeVert, and draft capital for Isaiah Joe, John Collins, Ebuka Okorie, Gary Harris, and Taurean Prince this summer. They have a top-10 player in the league in Cunningham, but last season showed everyone that relying on an entirely heliocentric offense – in an era of parity – isn't a real strategy.
They're set to run the same kind of squad back in 2026-27, even if with a different supporting cast around Cunningham. The Knicks will have plenty of reasons to look over their shoulder once they're presented with their rings at the start of the season. The Pistons, however, don't project to be one of them.
In no order, the Heat, 76ers, Celtics, Pacers, Cavaliers, Raptors, and Knicks should be able to present opposing defenses with a more diverse blend of scoring threats than the Pistons. Detroit might have a better player, in Cunningham, than anyone on Philadelphia or Cleveland's roster nowadays. The threat their groups present overall, though, outweighed what the Pistons could do in the postseason.
It's looking like Detroit is lining themselves up for the same kind of disappointment. It might end up aging well, with Cunningham still being just 24 years old and plenty to figure out with regard to Jalen Duren's contract situation. Shifting their potential window of contention back a couple of years could prove smart.
But, even in a tanking-heavy league like the NBA, losing has to have a purpose to feel worthwhile. Teams that are actively trying to lose aren't necessarily disappointed when it happens. The Pistons, though, might be in for 30 to 35 surprises this season.
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