If ever a 44-win team was worth celebrating, it was the 2024-25 Detroit Pistons . They were the second team in NBA history to triple their win total from the previous season. Entering their first-round series against the New York Knicks , team president Trajan Langdon told reporters it was "pretty funny" to be in the playoffs as the No. 6 seed, having told everybody to be patient before the season started.

The Pistons went from a laughingstock to a legitimate threat to advance. They fell to the Knicks after Jalen Brunson's dagger 3 in Game 6, but all four games they lost seemed winnable in the fourth quarter. Perhaps more importantly, they accomplished exactly what Langdon said he wanted at the outset: They established an identity based on toughness, they improved as the seaso

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