{"id":18196,"date":"2025-05-08T09:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/18196\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T09:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:26:11","slug":"detroit-pistons-president-trajan-langdon-praises-culture-shift-sets-sights-on-sustainable-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/18196\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Pistons president Trajan Langdon praises culture shift, sets sights on sustainable success"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2013 The end of the season was disappointing. That said, the Detroit Pistons<\/a> <\/a>overdelivered in many ways in the 2024-25 season. <\/p>\n

Detroit reached the playoffs for the first time in six years and snapped a 17-year-long skid without a playoff win.<\/p>\n

Many people, from players to coaches, contributed to the season\u2019s success. <\/p>\n

At the center of that puzzle is Pistons President Trajan Langdon<\/a>, who took over a 14-win team last year and turned it into a promising postseason team.<\/p>\n

Langdon held his end-of-the-year press conference on Wednesday. Here are four things that stood out from his final media session of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell of a season for us,\u201d said Langdon.<\/p>\n

Langdon started his press conference by saying that it is the only way to describe what the team accomplished this year.<\/p>\n

The turnaround is the best the team has ever had, and Langdon credited the group for creating a winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our guys are really excited, not only by what we achieved but looking forward to getting better,\u201d Langdon said.<\/p>\n

Langdon said that in exit interviews with players, many described this as the best season of their careers.<\/p>\n

Creating a foundation is something that often takes time, but the Pistons were able to do so in just one year with Langdon and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff<\/a> leading the way.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Culture\u2019 is a word that\u2019s used a lot. It\u2019s not something that\u2019s built, you have to sustain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free agency and future of the roster<\/p>\n

The Pistons\u2019 young players grew, but veterans helped get this team to the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Malik Beasley<\/a>, Dennis Schroder<\/a>, and Tim Hardaway Jr.<\/a> are all set to enter free agency this offseason.<\/p>\n

Each one of those players played a key role on this team in the 2024-25 season. Now, the Pistons must sort out what to do for next year.<\/p>\n

The Pistons are projected to have around $24 million in cap space (the second most in the NBA), and Langdon said that making the team better is the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always going to look at opportunities to get better that we think make sense for us to improve,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cWith everything that\u2019s presented to us and the options that we have, we have to make the right decision for sustainable success.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as adding another high-caliber player alongside Cade Cunningham<\/a>, that could take some work.<\/p>\n

Langdon was asked about (hypothetically) adding another All-Star to the team and said that he assumed it would have to happen through a trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many All-Stars are going to come here in free agency right now,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cThe amount of cap space that we have doesn\u2019t allow that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langdon also said they want to see their young players take steps over the summer to help add to the roster for next season.<\/p>\n

Cade\u2019s \u201cIncredible\u201d Season<\/p>\n

The Pistons do have one All-Star on the team in Cunningham. Langdon praised his star player for leading the group, but also gave a preview of what we should expect from Cunningham moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Cade) was looking at other people and had targets on their backs. Now, he\u2019s going to have a target on his,\u201d Langdon said.<\/p>\n

The Pistons guard finished the year averaging 26.1 points and 9.1 assists per game in the regular season. He has grown in his game and is gaining respect from the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that really started happening until Game 60 or 70 when people started looking at us and (Cade) in that manner,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cI think that\u2019s going to start from the jump next season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langdon also issuing a challenge for his star player, too. The Pistons president said that he\u2019s had conversations with Cunningham about being in \u201celite\u201d shape next year, come playoff time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve never experienced playoff basketball, you can\u2019t understand the level you have to go to. Now, he understands that, and he\u2019s felt that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe should be training for the second round of the playoffs and not preparing for Game 45 anymore,\u201d Langdon said.<\/p>\n

Ivey getting healthy<\/p>\n

The biggest \u201cwhat if\u201d of the season has to be Jaden Ivey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pistons guard was playing great basketball until a season-ending leg injury in January.<\/p>\n

Langdon praised the third-year guard for his early contributions that impacted the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an incredible human being and team being supportive, but it\u2019s been hard watching our run and watching the playoffs knowing how competitive he is,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cHe won two games for us. He had an incredible first two months of the season, and he helped this turnaround.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before his injury, Ivey averaged 17.6 points a game. In 10 of his 30 games played, Ivey scored 20 points or more.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that impacts both ends of the floor and in between in transition,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cAdding him to the roster that we have I think will create an even more explosive dynamic. I think he will come back a better version than he was last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2013 The end of the season was disappointing. That said, the Detroit Pistons overdelivered in many ways…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,1024,296,188,3860,1648,910,1043,6,297,911,6244],"class_list":{"0":"post-18196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dennis-schroder","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-pistons","12":"tag-detroitpistons","13":"tag-j-b-bickerstaff","14":"tag-malik-beasley","15":"tag-michigan-wolverines","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-pistons","18":"tag-tim-hardaway-jr","19":"tag-trajan-langdon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114471500931237532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}