While the 2025-26 NBA season is still three weeks away from opening night, the basketball season elsewhere in the world has kicked off. Some familiar faces for Detroit Pistons fans have already started to get in some action, including an ex-Pistons guard who wasted no time before making his mark in his first overseas stint.
Malachi Flynn, who has similarly made a huge impact in his brief tenure in Detroit, is off to a hot start with Bahçeşehir Koleji of Turkey. The 27-year-old guard had scored 50 points in a game when he was with the Pistons in 2024, becoming the player with the lowest career scoring average ever (5.2) to hit the 50-point mark. Although he quickly fell out of favor and continued to bounce around the league, he's since found his groove internationally.
Ex-Piston Malachi Flynn Is Off to a Hot Start in First Overseas Stop
Two games into the season with his new Turkish team, Flynn is already making noise in European basketball. In his EuroCup debut on Wednesday, Flynn won the Top Performer award of the game, finishing with 24 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals in 29 minutes of action. This came on the heels of the former Piston leading his team to another win earlier in the week, in the domestic league, scoring 23 points in 29 minutes.
Following these performances, European basketball insider Matteo Andreani reported that "some Euroleague teams are already following Malachi Flynn as they are interested in adding a point guard." This would mean that Flynn would be playing in the second-best basketball league in the world after the NBA, which would be a big step towards returning to the Association.
The former Washington State guard still has his prime ahead of him and should have an opportunity to return to the NBA after proving himself overseas. Sometimes, that's what players who have struggled in their first time around need: a confidence boost, a chance to reinvent themselves, or skill development that comes with more playing time.
If this stint is enough to save Flynn's career and earn him another look by NBA teams remains to be seen, but the 50 points he scored as a Piston will likely not be repeated by him any time soon.