After a relatively quiet offseason for the Pistons and a pretty large Jalen Duren-sized elephant in the room yet to work itself out, it is time to generate some excitement with the release of the 2026-2027 schedule. We are now a couple months away from the return of NBA basketball! The biggest takeaway is that the Pistons play every team in the league once again. Here is the full schedule:
In all seriousness, there are a few standouts with the schedule. First off, the first four games of the season are pretty brutal with the 3 pm home opener against the Boston Celtics followed by three road games against likely-playoff teams in the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, and New York Knicks.
The Pistons are a good team now, so I don’t think you need to anticipate an 0-4 start like you would have during the dark days a few years ago, but it will definitely be a challenge early-on. They do follow up that difficult stretch with a few winnable games, so there is an opportunity to get back on track if they struggle early.
The Pistons will have 19 games in total on National Television with 12 on ESPN or NBC and 7 on Peacock or Prime. This is far and away the most they have had in recent memory, which also comes with the territory of being a good team. There is also a likelihood they get more National TV games added as the season plays out as long as they continue to build off the momentum of last season.
There’s only so much analysis you can do with a schedule in which you play every team in the league, but there are a few other things that stand out to me. The Pistons group for the NBA Cup is very favorable with Brooklyn, Orlando, Milwaukee, and Toronto. They have failed to make it out of the group stage since the introduction of the NBA Cup, so maybe this is the year it finally happens.
Another standout with the schedule is that all of the games against the New York Knicks will be on some National TV platform. The Knicks got the last laugh with winning the NBA Championship last season, but this is definitely a matchup from the East that the NBA is trying to heavily promote after their heavily contested playoff series a couple years ago.
We will have more analysis on the schedule and all things Pistons as we get closer to the start of the season, but it is nice to have something to look forward to and build hype during the dog days of the Summer.
