The Motor City Cruise will once again host an open tryout for aspiring professional basketball players and mid-tier content creators (said with love) on Saturday, Sept. 20 at the Detroit Pistons Performance Center, the team announced Wednesday.
The registration fee is $250, with the tryout beginning at 1 p.m. The deadline to register is Sept. 19.
Each G League team is allowed to invite up to three players from its local tryout to training camp. Just last season, Detroit native John Ukomadu became the first player from an open tryout to complete a full season with the Cruise. He averaged 8.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and appeared in 41 Cruise games last season. He also competed in the NBA G League Slam Dunk Contest.
The open tryout will consist of a series of NBA-level drills and scrimmages in front of operations staff for both the Detroit Pistons and Motor City Cruise. The Cruise is coached by Jamelle McMillian. Last season, the Cruise finished 19-15 in the regular season.
The Cruise will once again host their home games at the Wayne State Fieldhouse, with the first contest set for November. It’s honestly a great, cheap night out to watch some quality basketball in a nice facility. Not a bad seat in the house!
All tryout players will receive a commemorative jersey, so even if you don’t make it, not all is lost.
It has been a long time since the Detroit Pistons received any sort of national recognition or spotlight. You can’t blame the league for not wanting to feature them, even on the lowly NBATV. They’ve been one of the more hopeless franchises for years now.
Last year, however, the Pistons truly did turn things around with an amazing season, and it looks like the league and its broadcast partners are taking notice.
Two games of Detroit’s upcoming 82-game schedule have been released, and it looks as if the Pistons will be featured during the exclusive Monday night opening slate of games on Peacock, and capping the annual MLK Jr. slate of games, which will air on Peacock and on NBC.
The Pistons will host the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET on Oct. 27, which will be the first night of games exclusive to Peacock. The Pistons will also host the Boston Celtics as the concluding game of a four-game slight on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 19 at 8 p.m.
The full Pistons schedule should be released on Wednesday or Thursday this week, and we will break down everything, from the games that will require you to subscribe to a streaming service (luckily I have Peacock thanks to a moderate Traitors obsession), the number of back-to-backs, identifying the most brutal part of the schedule, and more.
Detroit’s season will kick off in pretend fashion with four preseason games that have already been announced, starting with a road game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 6.
The Detroit Pistons filled one of its two open roster spots with the addition of Javonte Green. The news of the signing was first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN.
Though terms of the one-year deal are unknown, he’s never made more than $2.3 million in a season, and it feels like this would be in that veteran minimum territory.
The two most obvious holes on the Pistons roster are depth at point guard and backup power forward, and it doesn’t seem as if Green addresses either of those areas. He’s been a sneaky contributor on the wing during his six-year career, and is known as a reliably sturdy defender. His 2024-25 season was a bit of disaster, splitting time between an aimless and horrifically injured New Orleans Pelicans squad and as a rarely used piece on a stacked Cleveland Cavaliers roster.
He’s a player who doesn’t command a lot of offense, but he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes with the ball in his hands either. It feels like the Pistons were looking to add a reliable defender on the roster who can also be trusted to make a free throw, and someone who can serve as a mentor to the young guys who maybe can’t be trusted to knock one down from the line.
The 32-year-old can help mentor Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland, Detroit’s two highly touted versatile forwards. You can do worse than learning from a guy who is about all the right things, cut his teeth playing overseas for five years before carving out a real NBA career at the age of 26. He’s helped every squad he’s been on, but he’s a bench player, and bench depth at that.
If anything, it makes it more unlikely that the Pistons would even entertain adding the still-unsigned Malik Beasley to the roster. It feels like the Pistons are full up on 6-foot-4 wing types.
The Detroit Pistons announced their schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 season. A year after tripling their win total and appearing in the playoffs, the Pistons have obviously gotten the NBA’s attention. After years of a nearly complete national TV blackout, the Pistons will be featured on national TV 16 times. That’s great. But if you want to watch all of those games, you’ll need access to Peacock, Amazon Prime, ESPN, and good old-fashioned NBC.
The Pistons will begin their season with two road contests at Chicago and Houston before hosting the Boston Celtics for a home-opener on Oct. 26. The Pistons will then be featured on national TV for the first time with a matchup against the Celtic’s on Peacock’s first night of exclusive NBA contests.
The Pistons will also play a game in Mexico City on Nov. 1. Their first game in Mexico City, I believe, since the true death knell of the Blake Griffin era.
Detroit will play 14 back-to-backs this season, including five in March alone. Five of those back-to-backs will be home-and-home series, while they will only play two back-to-backs exclusively on the road.
The Pistons will play the Emirates NBA Cup in East Group B on Nov. 7 (vs. Nets), Nov. 14 (vs. Sixers), Nov. 26 (vs. Celtics), and Nov. 28 (vs. Magic). The knockout rounds will be held in December. Honestly, I still don’t think I understand it all, but I’m confident I care about it even less.
What sticks out to you this season? What games are you circling on your calendar?
Full 2025-26 Detroit Pistons NBA Schedule
Game Day Date Opponent Time (ET) National TV 1 Wed 10/22/25 at Chicago 8:00 PM 2 Fri 10/24/25 at Houston 8:00 PM 3 Sun 10/26/25 Boston 3:30 PM 4 Mon 10/27/25 Cleveland 7:00 PM Peacock 5 Wed 10/29/25 Orlando 7:00 PM 6 Sat 11/1/25 Dallas 10:00 PM Peacock 7 Mon 11/3/25 at Memphis 8:00 PM 8 Wed 11/5/25 Utah 7:00 PM 9 Fri 11/7/25 at Brooklyn 7:30 PM 10 Sun 11/9/25 at Philadelphia 7:30 PM 11 Mon 11/10/25 Washington 7:00 PM Peacock 12 11/12/25 Chicago 7:00 PM 13 Fri 11/14/25 Philadelphia 7:30 PM 14 Mon 11/17/25 Indiana 7:00 PM 15 Tue 11/18/25 at Atlanta 8:00 PM NBC 16 Sat at Milwaukee 8:00 PM 17 Mon 11/24/25 at Indiana 7:00 PM 18 Wed 11/26/25 at Boston 5:00 PM ESPN 19 Fri 11/28/25 Orlando 7:30 PM 20 Sat 11/29/25 at Miami 8:00 PM 21 Mon 12/1/25 Atlanta 7:00 PM 22 Wed 12/3/25 at Milwaukee 8:00 PM 23 Fri 12/5/25 Portland 7:30 PM 24 Sat 12/6/25 Milwaukee 7:30 PM 27 Thu 12/18/25 at Dallas 8:30 PM 28 Sat 12/20/25 Charlotte 7:30 PM 29 Mon 12/22/25 at Portland 10:00 PM 30 Tue 12/23/25 at Sacramento 10:00 PM 31 Fri 12/26/25 at Utah 9:30 PM 32 Sun 12/28/25 at LA Clippers 9:00 PM 33 Tue 12/30/25 at L.A. Lakers 10:30 PM 34 Thu 1/1/26 Miami 7:00 PM 35 Sun 1/4/26 at Cleveland 2:00 PM 36 Mon 1/5/26 New York 7:00 PM Peacock 37 Wed 1/7/26 Chicago 7:00 PM 38 Sat 1/10/26 LA Clippers 7:30 PM 39 Thu 1/15/26 Phoenix 7:00 PM 40 Sat 1/17/26 Indiana 7:30 PM 41 Mon 1/19/26 Boston 8:00 PM NBC 42 Wed 1/21/26 at New Orleans 8:00 PM 43 Fri 1/23/26 Houston 7:00 PM Prime 44 Sun 1/25/26 Sacramento 3:00 PM 45 Tue 1/27/26 at Denver 9:00 PM 46 Thu 1/29/26 at Phoenix 9:00 PM 47 Fri 1/30/26 at Golden State 10:00 PM 48 Sun 2/1/26 Brooklyn 6:00 PM 49 Tue 2/3/26 Denver 7:00 PM 50 Thu 2/5/26 Washington 7:00 PM 51 Fri 2/6/26 New York 7:30 PM Prime 52 Mon 2/9/26 at Charlotte 7:00 PM 53 Wed 2/11/26 at Toronto 7:30 PM 54 Thu 2/19/26 at New York 7:30 PM Prime 55 Sat 2/21/26 at Chicago 8:00 PM 56 Mon 2/23/26 San Antonio 7:00 PM Peacock 57 Wed 2/25/26 Oklahoma City 7:00 PM 58 Fri 2/27/26 Cleveland 7:00 PM ESPN 59 Sun 3/1/26 at Orlando 6:00 PM 60 Tue 3/3/26 at Cleveland 7:00 PM 61 Thu 3/5/26 at San Antonio 8:00 PM 62 Sat 3/7/26 Brooklyn 6:00 PM 63 Sun 3/8/26 at Miami 6:00 PM 64 Tue 3/10/26 at Brooklyn 7:30 PM 65 Thu 3/12/26 Philadelphia 7:00 PM Prime 66 Fri 3/13/26 Memphis 7:30 PM 67 Sun 3/15/26 at Toronto 3:30 PM 68 Tue 3/17/26 at Washington 7:00 PM 69 Thu 3/19/26 at Washington 7:00 PM 70 Fri 3/20/26 Golden State 7:30 PM 71 Mon 3/23/26 L.A. Lakers 7:00 PM 72 Wed 3/25/26 Atlanta 7:00 PM ESPN 73 Thu 3/26/26 New Orleans 7:00 PM 74 Sat 3/28/26 at Minnesota 8:00 PM 75 Mon 3/30/26 at Oklahoma City 9:30 PM Peacock 76 Tue 3/31/26 Toronto 8:00 PM 77 Thu 4/2/26 Minnesota 7:00 PM 78 Sat 4/4/26 at Philadelphia 7:00 PM 79 Mon 4/6/26 at Orlando 7:00 PM 80 Wed 4/8/26 Milwaukee 7:30 PM ESPN 81 Fri 4/10/26 at Charlotte 7:00 PM 82 Sun 4/12/26 at Indiana 6:00 PM
