Fifteen games into the 2025-26 NBA season, the Detroit Pistons are sitting on a 13-2 record as of Thursday afternoon, the second-best in all of basketball and the best in the Eastern Conference. The same team that lost an NBA-record 28 consecutive games last season is now riding an 11-game winning streak, leaving time to tell how long the good vibes will last.
To make things even better, they just assigned Jaden Ivey to the G-League affiliate to ramp up his recovery. He suffered a season-ending leg injury last year, and he's continued to clear hurdles on his way back to the court. Then again, the Pistons need to be extremely careful with the way they bring him back, especially if Ivey's looming return hurts the team's chemistry.
Pistons Could Consider Jaden Ivey Trade if His Returns Goes Wrong
The Pistons chose not to give Ivey a contract extension before the season, knowing that he wouldn't be healthy to start the year. He was in the midst of a career-best year in 2024-25, averaging 17.6 points and four assists per game on 46.0% shooting from the field and 40.9% from beyond the arc, and the doubts about his fit next to Cade Cunningham were finally starting to disappear.
That being said, this Pistons team is firing on all cylinders under head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, and what's broken should not be fixed. Of course, Ivey should be an upgrade over Daniss Jenkins and might instantly become a Sixth Man of the Year candidate upon his return. But what if his return messes with the team's chemistry?
There are way too many automatisms that come with all the reps. The Pistons are playing like a unit right now, and as good a player as Ivey is, he still needs to get a hold of a whole new offensive system. Detroit is clearly for real right now, and Bickerstaff may not want to wait for him to ramp things up and catch up with everybody else.
Ivey thrives in an up-tempo offense, making the most of his athleticism to drive through the lane. This season, however, the Pistons rank 14th out of 30 teams in terms of pace, relying more on the halfcourt offense instead. If he can't adapt to those changes, he might not have a ton of opportunities to contribute. That could lead to Detroit looking into a trade, especially if the front office isn't fully on board with a new contract in the offseason.
Ivey is a very talented combo guard who's still pretty young, and he should gauge plenty of value in the trade market as an impending restricted free agent. In an ideal world, he would be a seamless fit back on the floor. But if that's not the case, the Pistons need to figure out the best way to maximize his value, especially considering that they also need to keep salary cap flexibility for Jalen Duren and the impending contract extensions of Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland.
At the end of the day, Ivey needs to get in where he fits in. If he can't, general manager Trajan Langdon might have no choice by to put the ex-Purdue guard on the trade block, offering him a chance to start fresh elsewhere while bringing in someone who won't disrupt the Pistons' chemistry.