The Pistons had finalists for four major NBA awards this season, and struck out after scripting the greatest turnaround in league history.
The biggest snub was arguably J.B. Bickerstaff, who missed out on Coach of the Year despite leading the Pistons from 14 wins to 44 and their first two playoff victories in 17 years. Detroit became the first NBA team ever to triple its win total from the season prior over 82 games, but Bickerstaff finished second for the award to the coach who replaced him in Cleveland: Kenny Atkinson, who took the Cavs from 48 wins to 64.
Bickerstaff received 31 first-place votes for Coach of the Year and 305 total points, while Atkinson garnered 59 first-place votes and 401 total points.
Trajan Langdon, the architect of Detroit's turnaround, missed out on Executive of the Year, finishing third to Koby Altman of the Cavs and Sam Presti of the Thunder. Presti won the award after building a roster that won 68 games and finished first in the West. The voting panel consisted of one exec from each NBA team.
Presti garnered 10 first-place votes to six for Langdon, who elevated the Pistons' young core with veteran additions like Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. who helped Cade Cunningham take the next step and provided key leadership for the team. Langdon made another shrewd move adding Dennis Schroder at the trade deadline.
Langdon's snub left the Pistons to remind the world, "Detroit vs. Everybody."
On the player side, both Cunningham and Beasley were passed over for major awards.
Cunningham missed out on Most Improved Player after his breakout season, finishing third to Ivica Zubac of the Clippers and Dyson Daniels of the Hawks. Cunningham, who's likely to be named to one of the three All-NBA teams, made his first All-Star Game and was just the seventh player in NBA history to average at least 25 points, nine assists and five rebounds in a season.
Daniels, who was also a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, averaged 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists and led the league in steals in his third NBA season. He was the eighth overall pick in 2022. Cunningham, the first overall pick in 2021, was in his fourth NBA season, but entered the year with only 18 more games played than Daniels after missing most of his second season with an injury.
Beasley, meanwhile, was a glaring snub for Sixth Man of the Year, losing out to Payton Pritchard of the Celtics despite posting better numbers than Pritchard across the board. Beasley averaged 16.3 points, shot 41.6 percent from deep and made the second most threes (319) in the NBA while playing in all 82 games for the most resurgent team in the league.
Beasley got 13 first-place votes to 82 for Pritchard, who averaged 14.3 points and shot 40.1 percent from beyond the arc in more minutes per game than Beasley.
"Yup," said Beasley. "Detroit vs. Everybody."