Tom Gores tells the 60-win Pistons to tune out the doubters before the opener against Boston

Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores used the team’s annual preseason gathering at his Malibu home to send a defiant message before Tuesday’s opener: a 60-win team is still being written off, and he wants his players to treat that as fuel.

The setting is a tradition. Every fall Gores hosts players, coaches and front office staff in California as an unofficial start to the season. This year the talk centered on the outside view that Detroit will slide back after the best season of its rebuild, one that ended with the Eastern Conference’s top seed and an exit one game short of a conference finals meeting with the eventual champion New York Knicks.

“Everybody, every year consistently discounts us,” Gores told the group, pointing to the 60 wins and the two All-Stars the roster produced. His larger theme was keeping the habits that built that season, describing culture as the way an organization behaves rather than a mood, and asking everyone in the building to pitch in because a partly new roster has to come together quickly.

The players’ version

Cade Cunningham said the owner’s advice has been simple: “not to worry about the noise and just go for it.” The All-Star guard acknowledged the East has shifted around Detroit, with Philadelphia, Miami and Toronto all changing over the summer, and said the job now is to keep building on the system the team has put in place over the last two years.

J.B. Bickerstaff, who received the coaches association’s Coach of the Year award in April, struck the same note. He said his group deliberately tunes out outside opinion and focuses on what it controls: how it works, and how players treat one another. Trajan Langdon, who runs the front office, said he and Gores talk regularly about where the team stands and what would lift it another level.

What changed on the roster

The front office kept the young core and added shooting and depth with Isaiah Joe, John Collins and Taurean Prince. Center Jalen Duren, fresh off a five-year, $200 million extension, said he has spent the last few days getting to know the newcomers. Collins said he expects Detroit fans to connect with the energy he plays with.

The preseason finale gave a glimpse of the mix. In a 129-125 win over the Toronto Raptors on Friday, October 16, Collins started next to Cunningham, Duren, Ausar Thompson and Duncan Robinson and had 12 points and 8 rebounds in 22 minutes. Cunningham scored 18 on 8-of-12 shooting with 7 assists in 26 minutes, Joe added 8 points off the bench with two threes in under 11 minutes, and Detroit shot 58 percent from the field with 29 assists. The full box score is in the Raptors at Pistons Game Center.

The work doesn’t stop here

(via @BradGalli) pic.twitter.com/KxTmJHzhVg

— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) October 19, 2026

What comes next

The Pistons open the 2026-27 season at home against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, October 20, at 3 p.m. ET at Little Caesars Arena, the first game on the league calendar. Lineups, live scoring and the box score will be in the Celtics at Pistons Game Center.