Pistons Translating On-Court Success Into Off-Court Wins, Too

It wasn’t that long ago that the Detroit Pistons were sitting squarely at the bottom of the NBA standings.

During an especially rough 2023-24 campaign, the Pistons went a franchise-worst 14-68, which included an NBA-record 28-game losing streak. It was Detroit’s fifth straight year of missing the playoffs – a stretch where the team never won more than 23 games in a season.

Less than two years later, though, all of that failure is a thing of the past both on- and off-the-court.

Detroit’s Soaring On-Court Start

The Pistons’ encouraging 2024-25 season, including a hard-fought series loss to the Knicks, has looked like just the first step in a larger climb.

As of Dec. 9, Detroit leads the East by 2.5 games over New York. The team’s 19-5 record is second in the NBA only to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, and its 13-game winning streak tied a franchise record. ESPN’s Basketball Power Index already gives them a 98.9% chance to make the playoffs in April.

The impressive start has been a full team effort, as evidenced by six different players averaging double-digit points per game. But Cade Cunningham has also ascended into another stratosphere as a superstar over the past 18 months.

If his current averages hold, the former No. 1 overall draft pick would set career highs in points per game (27.5) and free throw attempts per game (7.8), along with rebounds (6.4) and assists (9.3). After Cunningham made his NBA All-Star debut in 2025, he looks likely to make a return trip in 2026.

The Pistons note to Forbes that since the start of this season, the amount of Cade Cunningham merchandise purchased on Pistons313Shop has increased by 233% year-over-year. Cade jerseys are also Detroit’s top-sellers by a wide margin, and social media posts including Cunningham have driven over 3 million engagements since the summer alone.

Cade has also begun to bloom as a star beyond Detroit, too.

It was recently announced that he’ll get a signature shoe with Nike next season, making him just the sixth active player to receive that treatment with the brand. Cunningham also appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon this offseason, and debuted at New York Fashion Week as well.

Fans Fired Up Around Pistons

As Detroit’s on-court wins have corresponded with various off-court milestones, Melanie Harris, the Pistons’ President of Business Operations, credits the team’s dedicated fan base for their faith in the franchise:

“We’re fortunate to have devoted supporters who’ve been with us throughout the journey, said Harris. “And at the same time, the recent success and likability of our players is helping to add new fans who see the promise of this team.”

Harris shared with Forbes that Pistons’ ticket sales are up almost 30% year-over-year, and season ticket sales have grown by 50%. Detroit is No. 6 by average attendance in the NBA this year, trailing the 76ers by just a few hundred fans for fourth overall.

Compare that to last season when the Pistons were No. 9 in attendance, and 2023-24 when the team was No. 20.

The team’s TV viewership is also up significantly.

Harris shares that Pistons audiences have grown by 71% on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit year-over-year, with streaming viewership up 173%. On national TV, the Pistons’ game against the Celtics on Nov. 26 was the high-water mark for NBA viewership during Thanksgiving week, peaking at 3.02 million viewers.

Reconnecting With Traditional Identity

Winning helps any fan base buy in, as Harris admits. But the Pistons’ is also spurred in part by winning via a reconnection to long-time fans and the long-time personality of the organization.

The original “Bad Boys” Pistons of the late 1980s and early 1990s are iconic parts of the franchise’s history rooted in a specific attitude and style of play. That was true again from 2000-08, when Detroit built the team’s renaissance around the same physicality, winning a championship in 2004 and falling just short of a title in 2005.

This current roster and franchise philosophy also aim to follow along with that proven template.

To that end, Detroit is top-10 in points per game allowed, opposing field goal percentage, defensive rebounds per game and steals per game – primarily behind the efforts of the “Dawg Pound.”

Unlike both previous Bad Boys-type teams, however, this one is also pretty prolific on offense as well, scoring nearly 119 points per game, which also ranks among the top 10 in the league.

“I think we have a group of players that have bought into the leadership and vision of (Pistons owner) Tom Gores, a basketball culture set by Trajan Langdon and J.B. Bickerstaff, and the hard-working identity of the city,” said Harris.

“It’s led to a new connectivity with our fan base that is re-energizing those who have followed us for decades and bringing excitement to a new generation of fans.”

As the team keeps stacking up wins this season, it gets increasingly harder to doubt those ideas.