The Detroit Pistons are back, they seem to a team to be reckoned with and have big goals for the season. The Pistons’ return to prominence is well-timed, as the NBA seeks to regain some of its lost relevance. Ratings are down, RSNs are struggling, and the media package that had tied them almost exclusively to cable TV juggernauts (ESPN and TNT) was no longer working.
Just as the Pistons have quickly remade their image under the guidance of president Trajan Langdon, so too has the NBA undergone a massive
makeover compared to a year ago. And we are seeing the results and they are — mostly positive!
The NBA has gone all in on the streaming era where people are not tied to cable boxes or limited in their ability to stream something on their phone if they are not on their local wifi network (a personal pain of mine). The NBA has said goodbye to TNT and hello to a mix of old friends (NBC) and new tech (Peacock, Amazon Prime, and ESPN (the streaming app, tho, or Hulu with ESPN, or Disney Plus with ESPN).
It’s all a bit confusing, but that is where infographics come in, and I can source none better than this one:
That is a lot of different platforms to get your top-tier basketball fix.
That covers the national TV schedule. And it’s good to be at least loosely familiar with it because the Pistons actually have a good chunk of national TV games this season. We can break it down by service since you might have some but not all of the streaming platforms available.
Detroit Pistons games on ESPN
Wednesday, Nov. 26: at Boston Celtics, 5 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 27: vs. Cleveland Cavaliers, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, March 25: vs. Atlanta Hawks, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 8: vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 7:30 p.m.
Detroit Pistons games on NBC and Peacock
Tuesday, Nov. 18: at Atlanta Hawks, 8 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 19: vs. Boston Celtics, 8 p.m.
Detroit Pistons games that are exclusive to Peacock
Monday, Oct. 27: vs. Cleveland Cavaliers, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 1: vs. Dallas Mavericks, 10 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 10: vs. Washington Wizards, 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 5: vs. New York Knicks, 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 23: vs. San Antonio Spurs, 7 p.m.
Monday, March 30: at Oklahoma City Thunder, 9:30 p.m.
Detroit Pistons games on Prime Video
Friday, Jan. 23: vs. Houston Rockets, 7 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 6: vs. New York Knicks, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 19: at New York Knicks, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 12: vs. Philadelphia 76ers, 7 p.m.
The New Era on NBC and Prime
The hands at ESPN are mostly in stay-the-course mode with their NBA coverage, though they did port over the Inside the NBA crew from TNT for coverage and (stale) banter. The most interesting players are NBC and Prime. They both paid up significantly to get NBA coverage on their networks, and both are of a similar mind to Adam Silver — bring more positivity and X’s and O’s coverage to the game.
Personally, I’m happy to see the tone shift in the NBA. For years, the game has been so focused on commentator personalities (Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins, Jeff Van Gundy, the TNT crew), and what they said about the game was beside the point. And they often were cranks, amateur comedians, or completely disinterested in the game they were paid to commentate.
Prime has leaned heavily into breaking down the game with modern tech, including XR courts connected to tablets to diagram plays, and they have tried to really bring the strategy of basketball to viewers. They also brought on personalities who could take about the game at a deep level — Blake Griffin, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Candace Parker, and Dwyane Wade. Results early have been mixed but positive. The tech is a little clunky, the rhythms are a little off, and the rapport among the players is still building. But it is an effort worth investing more time in.
On NBC, you have mainstays like Reggie Miller and Grant Hill joining newcomers Jamal Crawford, Vince Carter, and Carmelo Anthony. They are also conducting novel experiments like putting analysts next to the team’s respective benches to dig up as many sideline conversations and vibes as possible. It’s great to have the NBA back on NBC, and their coverage is a bit more polished in the early going because they are relying on more traditional industry vets.
Fan Duel Sports Network
National TV games are fun and all, and I love the Pistons getting the spotlight, but Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit remains the primary way to get your Detroit Pistons fix. The national broadcasts can’t hold a candle to Hall of Famer George Blaha and Gregory Kelser anyway.
Watch Pistons games with FanDuel Sports Network free for 30 days
- First 5,000 using the code SBNFALL30 get a free month
- Never miss a Pistons game. Stream all season long with FanDuel Sports Network
Fan Duel Sports Detroit will televise 71 regular-season games this season (with 97.1 FM The Ticket being the radio home of the Pistons). FanDuel is available via several cable packages and streaming bundles, and has its own streaming app. This is my first season cutting the cord and ditching cable (what can I say, I’m old), and I scooped up the FanDuel app on an annual basis. For those on the fence, Fan Duel is offering a free 30-day trial with promocode SBNFALL30.
Honestly, I wish I’d made the move sooner. The quality has been as good as my cable package, and I like being able to stream anything I missed much more easily than before. Also, if I’m visiting family or friends, I can easily pop open a game and see how it’s going instead of being limited by my local wifi network.
What if I’m out of market?
If you’re an out-of-market fan, your best bet is a subscription to NBA League Pass, and if you’re overseas, there is a global NBA League Pass subscription that also features many of the games on U.S.-based platforms outside of “local” coverage.
The cost for NBA League Pass is $16.99 per month or $109.99 per season. If you want to stream on up to three devices, it is $24.99 per month or $159.99 per season. If you’re out-of-market and only want to follow one team, you can subscribe for a plan at $13.99 per month.
The Cost to See Every Detroit Pistons Game
If you were in the Detroit Pistons viewing area and a complete cord-cutter, you would need to subscribe to ESPN, Amazon Prime, Peacock, and Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit to watch all Pistons games this season.
If you take the set-it-and-forget-it approach and subscribe to everything for one year, it would cost you approximately $799. That comes out to about $66 per month. That’s a lot of cash money to follow your favorite team.
If you wanted to be really strategic, and subscribe to each service for the limited amount of time you would need to watch every single game, you would still need four months of Peacock, two months of Amazon Prime, two months of ESPN, and seven months of Fan Duel Sports Network Detroit.
That comes out to a grand bargain of about $274 or about $40 per month.
Of course, that doesn’t account for a deep playoff run, which we all know Detroit will be making this season.
