{"id":585131,"date":"2026-02-06T00:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/585131\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T00:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:05:18","slug":"kevin-huerter-set-to-make-pistons-debut-as-j-b-bickerstaff-addresses-trade-deadline-ahead-of-wizards-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/585131\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Huerter set to make Pistons debut as J.B.Bickerstaff addresses trade deadline ahead of Wizards game"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2013 Detroit Pistons<\/a> head coach J.B. Bickerstaff <\/a>shared his thoughts on new player Kevin Huerter<\/a>, the recent trade of Jaden Ivey<\/a>, and the team\u2019s outlook following the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Huerter is expected to suit up Thursday (Feb. 5) and make his Pistons debut as they play host against the Washington Wizards at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

About Huerter, Bickerstaff said, \u201cHe\u2019s a complete basketball player. He\u2019s versatile in the things that he can do. Obviously, he can make shots, but he can also make plays. He can play the pick-and-roll. He\u2019s an elite cutter, understands spacing, and just the ability to process the game as a whole. As a person, he\u2019s going to fit right in. He\u2019s a great dude who understands the situation that he\u2019s coming into. He\u2019s not here to rock the boat by any means, but here to help and contribute. We feel like his skill set can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the Ivey trade, Bickerstaff acknowledged the difficulty of such decisions. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always tough. You build relationships with people, and you care about people. Then tough business decisions have to be made. As great as this league is, it comes with some emotional things that aren\u2019t always fun, but you have to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bickerstaff praised Ivey\u2019s attitude and effort during his time with the team. <\/p>\n

\u201cJ.I. was awesome the two years, year and a half we were together. As a person, allowing me to coach him, as a teammate wanting to do whatever he could to help this team win. Going through a lot of difficult situations, the way he was playing to start last year, then coming back and having to play a different role. A lot of guys wouldn\u2019t have been able to handle that. I\u2019m extremely appreciative of the way he handled it, the way he continued to buy into the team and tried to help the team be as successful as he could while he was here.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if there was a moment they knew Ivey\u2019s fit wasn\u2019t right, Bickerstaff said, \u201cNo, there wasn\u2019t just a moment. I don\u2019t think it was a thing that didn\u2019t work or couldn\u2019t work. I just feel like it\u2019s a great opportunity for him to go to a new place, get a fresh start, and get an opportunity to explore where his game can go, possibly in a different role. I don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to use him there, but I\u2019m happy to have spent the time with him. I don\u2019t think this is a situation where it didn\u2019t work. It was a business decision that gave J.I. an opportunity to get a fresh start. Hopefully, it works out well for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the perception that the Eastern Conference is wide open despite the Pistons\u2019 sizable lead, Bickerstaff said, \u201cI don\u2019t pay attention to it. If I\u2019m looking for entertainment or laughs, I watch Martin. I don\u2019t pay attention to that stuff. The work is done on the floor. For those teams that went out and made moves, that\u2019s great for the league. It\u2019s more than just the East being wide open. There haven\u2019t been back-to-back champions in six or seven years. The league is on notice that there\u2019s an opportunity out there, and teams are trying to go for it. It\u2019s not an Eastern Conference or Western Conference thing. It\u2019s an opportunity people see across the league, and it\u2019s making each team better, which makes the league better.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about his message to the team post-deadline, Bickerstaff said, \u201cNothing\u2019s changed for us. We have our standard that we live by every single day. We play Pistons basketball. No matter who\u2019s here or not, you\u2019ve seen it earlier in the season with injuries and things like that. We just play to who we are. We play to our identity every single night, and we\u2019re trying to get better. That\u2019s the most important thing. This is the group we have from day one. Throughout the season, you\u2019ve seen improvement, and we\u2019re going to continue to improve day by day and pay attention to the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2013 Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff shared his thoughts on new player Kevin Huerter, the recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,1648,1018,4103,6,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-585131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroitpistons","12":"tag-j-b-bickerstaff","13":"tag-jaden-ivey","14":"tag-kevin-huerter","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116020767963085478","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585131","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=585131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}