August 26, 2026
Bill Streicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Tyrese Maxey and Cade Cunningham, two of the NBA's best young guards, are both Texas products.
After acquiring Jaylen Brown and LeBron James in the same offseason, Sixers President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey has set his new team up to be a full-blown championship contender.
The only problem: ahead of the 2026-27 season, the Eastern Conference is shaping up to be as competitive as ever.
Over the next two weeks, PhillyVoice will be examining the 10 teams in the Eastern Conference which pose the greatest threats to James, Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and the Sixers.
Up next: the Detroit Pistons, whose 60-win season earned them the top seed in the Eastern Conference last season. Their playoff run came to an end with a Game 7 loss in the second round of the playoffs. Even before being vanquished by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pistons did not seem to command the same level of respect that most teams in their position would.
As the rest of the conference has loaded up, Detroit has made marginal moves. Are the Pistons real contenders?
SCOUTING THE SIXERS' COMPETITION
Washington Wizards | Orlando Magic | Atlanta Hawks | Miami Heat
Toronto Raptors | Cleveland Cavaliers | Indiana Pacers | Detroit Pistons
Old friend Tobias Harris has departed Detroit after a very successful second stint with the Pistons. He will be replaced by John Collins, a more traditional big without as much experience. Collins will provide a different look, and fellow old friend Isaiah Joe – acquired in a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder at a very minor cost – will add three-point shooting to a team that struggled from beyond the arc.
| Added | Retained | Lost |
| John Collins | Kevin Huerter | Tobias Harris |
| Isaiah Joe | Javonte Green | Isaiah Stewart |
| Ebuka Okorie | Caris LeVert | |
| Gary Harris | Marcus Sasser | |
| Taurean Prince |
The elephant in the room: Jalen Duren, an All-NBA center at 22 years old last season, remains a restricted free agent. Duren followed up a brilliant regular season with a playoff run that was truly stunningly disappointing. Once Walker Kessler went off the board via sign-and-trade from the Utah Jazz to the Los Angeles Lakers, Duren found himself without an open chair in a high-stakes game of musical chairs. He remains on the market, though the overwhelming expectation is that he will re-sign with Detroit in some way, shape or form.
SIXERS FILM STUDIES
Jaylen Brown's strengths | Jaylen Brown's weaknesses
Anfernee Simons | Dean Wade | Ariel Hukporti
Isaiah Stewart has been a foundational part of Detroit's identity built around physicality and toughness, but former Sixers second-round pick Paul Reed officially supplanted him within the Pistons' center depth chart. That led to the Pistons trading Stewart to move up in the first round and draft Ebuka Okorie, whose ball-handling can help replace that of the departed Caris LeVert:
| PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
| Cade Cunningham | Duncan Robinson | Ausar Thompson | John Collins | Jalen Duren* |
| Daniss Jenkins | Isaiah Joe | Kevin Huerter | Javonte Green | Paul Reed |
| Ebuka Okorie | Chaz Lanier | Taurean Prince | Ron Holland | Tolu Smith III |
This is clearly a very good team, one that should still be able to handily put up above-average numbers on offense and defense. But it is hard to argue the Pistons are meaningfully better going into next season compared to what they had to offer in 2025-26. Joe's shooting will be enormously helpful, and perhaps Collins' athleticism in the frontcourt will be a difference-maker.
The key question which hovered over Detroit last season very much remains: which of Cade Cunningham's teammates can shoulder a remotely significant playmaking burden? Until that question is answered definitively, this team may not have enough firepower to sustain quality offense in a playoff setting.
MORE: Full 2026-27 Sixers schedule, with details and analysis
The Sixers' two second-round picks in 2020, Joe and Reed, are arguably the two most important reserves for the Pistons moving forward. Despite his warts, Reed was a solid backup five by the end of his time in Philadelphia, and he has progressed into an unquestionably elite second-string center for Detroit. Reed's defensive playmaking and versatility are hugely valuable, and so is his offensive rebounding.
And for a team that arguably only had one particularly impressive three-point shooter last season and often fielded lineups which prompted shaky floor spacing, Joe will be a godsend as one of the league's most stable high-volume three-point shooters. Detroit was opportunistic as Oklahoma City was forced to make financial concessions, adding Joe for just two distant second-round picks.
SIXERS SIGN LEBRON JAMES
James' decision | Projecting Sixers' rotation | James' impact, on and off the court
