Last season, the Detroit Pistons had dialed in their starting lineup from the very start of the 2025-26 campaign. If Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris and Jalen Duren were healthy, then those would be the players to form Detroit’s starting five. But during the offseason, that group was shaken up when Tobias Harris joined the San Antonio Spurs in free agency, which opened up a hole in the team’s first unit.
During the offseason, Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon pulled off a sign-and-trade to land John Collins from the Los Angeles Clippers in an attempt to plug that gap in Detroit’s starting lineup, and it’s a move that Cade Cunningham already praised due to Collins’ versatility.
Collins, who is 28 years old, started 56 games for the Clippers last year during his first season in LA, but the big man was never the focal point of the team’s plan with Kawhi Leonard as the star and James Harden on the squad for the first half of the campaign. Instead, Collins was used as a connective piece to help facilitate for those two elite scorers, so the Wake Forest product took a backseat role during his stint with the Clippers.
But despite that framing, Collins exploded for his most dominant game of the season when the Clippers traveled to the Motor City to face the Pistons on January 10. At that time, Collins was already riding a hot streak from three-point range, but the veteran power forward delivered a comprehensive two-way effort that helped give Los Angeles a 98-92 win.
As a whole, Collins posted a season-high 25 points (5-for-8 from distance) with seven rebounds, four steals and four blocks on the night as the Clippers took care of business on the road.
”I think he’s been great,” Lue said of Collins shortly after facing the Pistons. “Like I said, I give a lot of credit to [assistant coach] Jeremy Castleberry who works with him every single day, showing him film, getting him on the court for extra time, just showing him our defensive principles and our foundation, and he’s gotten a lot better defensively. Offensively, we knew he could shoot the basketball, just took some time for him to get comfortable, but offensive rebounds, put-backs around the rim, posting smaller guys in transition, but now shooting the three the way he has over the last 11, 12 games has been huge for him.”
Lue had a front row seat to evaluate Collins last season, so that breakdown helps outline the type of player that the Pistons should expect this season. Collins does not have a ton of other competition at the four, so he should walk into a healthy amount of minutes in the Motor City as a Harris replacement. Since Collins connected on three-pointers at a 40% rate last season, Detroit’s new power forward should help space the floor and open up the paint for Cunningham and Duren to operate since Harris primarily posted up in the mid-range. But more than that, Collins has the leaping ability and dunk package necessary to serve as a major lob threat for the Pistons, so his addition to the Detroit frontcourt should help open up options for the squad this season.