NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: Detroit Pistons

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Detroit Pistons.

Free agent signings

• Duncan Robinson: Three years, $47,978,871. Second year partially guaranteed ($2MM). Third year non-guaranteed. Signed using Bird rights and acquired via sign-and-trade from Heat.
• Caris LeVert: Two years, $28,913,200. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
• Paul Reed: Two years, $10,938,583. Second year non-guaranteed. Re-signed using Early Bird rights.
• Javonte Green: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($925,106). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

• Acquired Duncan Robinson (sign-and-trade) from the Heat in exchange for Simone Fontecchio.
• Acquired the Hornets’ 2026 second-round pick (top-55 protected) from the Kings in exchange for Dennis Schröder (sign-and-trade) and either the Pistons’, Bucks’, or Knicks’ 2029 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable).

Draft picks

• 2-37: Chaz Lanier
  • Signed to four-year, $8,785,386 contract. First two years guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.

Two-way signings

• Daniss Jenkins
  • Details TBD.
• Colby Jones
  • Details TBD.

Note: The Pistons carried over Tolu Smith on a two-way contract from 2024/25.

Departed/unsigned free agents

• Malik Beasley (unsigned)
• Tim Hardaway Jr. (Nuggets)
• Dennis Schröder (Kings)
• Lindy Waters III (Spurs)

Other roster moves

• Waived Ron Harper Jr. (two-way contract).

Salary cap situation

• Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and below the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
• Carrying approximately $166.8MM in salary.
• Hard-capped at $195,945,000.
• Full bi-annual exception ($5,134,000) available.
• One traded player exception available (worth $14,104,000).

The offseason so far

After a franchise-worst 2023/24 season in which they endured a 28-game losing streak and registered just 14 total victories, the Pistons were one of the NBA’s most pleasant surprises last year, improving by 30 wins to 44-38, making the playoffs for the first time since 2019, and picking up a postseason victory for the first time since 2008 (they’d been swept out of the first round in 2009, 2016, and 2019).

Heading into the offseason, there was speculation that Detroit would try to keep the band together by re-signing free agents Malik Beasley, Dennis Schröder, and Tim Hardaway Jr. — with Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren still on the rise and Jaden Ivey returning from a season-ending injury, there was a pathway for the Pistons to keep improving internally without necessarily having to make any sort of impact outside addition.

It’s entirely possible that was the initial plan, but if so, it was derailed the day before free agency opened when word broke that Beasley was under investigation by the U.S. District Attorney’s office for gambling allegations involving NBA games and prop bets. Reporting at the time indicated that the Pistons and Beasley were working toward a three-year, $42MM contract agreement, but those talks fell apart as the sharpshooter’s NBA future turned into a giant question mark.

The terms of that proposed deal suggests Detroit intended to either use cap room or its mid-level exception to re-sign Beasley, since they only held his Non-Bird rights. The mid-level route would’ve allowed the Pistons to operate over the cap, maintaining Hardaway’s Bird rights and Schröder’s Early Bird rights, which would’ve put them in position to re-sign both players.

But even before word of the Beasley investigation broke, there were reports suggesting that the Kings intended to make an aggressive play for Schröder. That turned out to be accurate, as Sacramento signed the veteran point guard to a contract equivalent to the full mid-level exception. Hardaway, meanwhile, landed with the Nuggets on a minimum-salary deal, an offer the Pistons could’ve easily topped if they’d made the free agent wing a top priority.

Given what happened with Schröder and Hardaway, we can probably assume then that even if they’d re-signed Beasley, the Pistons were committed to making some offseason changes. Without Schröder, Hardaway, or Beasley, a more drastic overhaul of the club’s supporting cast was necessary.

The Pistons made an effort to replace Beasley’s shooting by sending Simone Fontecchio to Miami in a sign-and-trade deal for forward Duncan Robinson. Beasley is more athletic and versatile than Robinson, but few players shoot the three-ball better than the longtime Heat forward, who has knocked down 39.9% of 7.3 attempts per game over the past six seasons.

While the terms originally reported for Robinson (three years, $48MM) raised eyebrows, his deal is only fully guaranteed in year one, with a $2MM partial guarantee for 2026/27. So the Pistons will have an exit ramp next summer if the first season doesn’t go as planned (or perhaps if Beasley is fully cleared and wants to return).

Having preserved their mid-level exception by acquiring Robinson via sign-and-trade, the Pistons were able to devote that full MLE to signing Caris LeVert, whom J.B. Bickerstaff previously coached in Cleveland. In LeVert, Detroit is getting something of an amalgamation of the three veteran free agents they lost — LeVert can score (albeit not shoot) like Beasley, can serve as a ball-handler like Schröder, and has a frame more like Hardaway’s, allowing him to defend bigger wings instead of just guards.

It still feels like the Pistons could use one more roster addition, and they do have the ability to go out and get one more player — they generated a $14.1MM trade exception in the Schröder sign-and-trade and have more than enough room under the luxury tax line to use the entire thing. But with no obvious target out there for now, Detroit will probably see what its rotation looks like this fall with the newcomers and Ivey back in the mix.

For what it’s worth, minimum-salary signee Javonte Green could make a case for regular minutes, and Beasley remains an option if it looks like he’s in the clear from a legal perspective. He’s no longer a “target” of the federal gambling investigation, but he remains a “subject” of interest. The Pistons still hold Beasley’s Non-Bird rights, giving them the ability to offer him a starting salary worth up to $7.2MM. Now that the market has mostly moved on, that could be the best offer he’ll get this year.

The Pistons made two other minor offseason moves worth mentioning. Detroit was rumored to have some interest in a stretch big like Myles Turner, Naz Reid, or Santi Aldama, but with those top targets out of reach, the team fortified its depth up front by reuniting with Paul Reed, who signed a two-year, $10.9MM deal.

Reed isn’t a long-term answer in the middle and the Pistons presumably don’t view him as such (only the first year of his contract is guaranteed), but he’s a familiar and reliable depth option who can play a modest role while the team continues to consider ways to upgrade its frontcourt.

Finally, having finally conveyed a traded first-round pick to Minnesota after it landed in its protected range for several years in a row, the Pistons only had a second-round pick available in June. They used that selection – No. 37 overall – to nab Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier, a five-year college player who may be polished enough to compete for a rotation role right away.

Up next

As noted above, the Pistons still have a pretty sizable trade exception available and have enough flexibility to add another $20MM to their cap sheet for 2025/26 without going into luxury tax territory. With that in mind, they’re a team worth keeping an eye on as trade talks pick up again this fall. Few playoff clubs have a more favorable short-term cap situation than the Pistons, making them an obvious candidate to make one more move before or during the season.

Detroit is currently carrying 13 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Green on a partially guaranteed minimum-salary deal, so even if they don’t do anything major before opening night, the Pistons could add a 15th man in free agency.

The more pressing preseason issue for the front office in the next month-and-a-half will be whether to complete rookie scale extensions with Duren and Ivey. Both players will be eligible for new deals up until October 20 and would become eligible for restricted free agency next summer if they don’t get something done this year.

Even with some teams around the league showing more reluctance this year to invest heavily in non-stars coming off their rookie deals, Duren seems poised to cash in. He has averaged double-doubles in consecutive seasons and is growing as a play-maker and rim protector. He’s also still just 21 years old, and with the Pistons’ long-term cap sheet relatively clean, the front office can afford to make a strong commitment to him, perhaps even via a front-loaded or flat contract that gets more team-friendly in the later years.

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report suggested a four-year, $112MM deal for Duren, while John Hollinger of The Athletic speculated that a five-year, $125MM arrangement might make sense for both sides. It looks like the four-year, $97MM contract signed by Nic Claxton last summer might be the floor for the Pistons’ big man.

Ivey, on the other hand, may have to wait until 2026 to cash in. His season ended in early January due to a broken leg, and while he appeared headed for a career year at the time, the Pistons will probably want to longer look at him in 2025/26 to see how he fits back into the mix — and to make sure that last season’s injury won’t have any lingering effects.