Rumors

Shams Charania: "There was clearly a dent that formed between the player and the team in this situation. That is what we saw in free agency, the business can bring out of these two sides. Now you move forward and you try to mend the relationship, you rehab where you are at. And that process started today when Jalen Duren reported to the Pistons facility for his medical exam, started the process of reintegrating himself within the team. Over the weekend, Jalen Duren actually showed up to one of the only unofficial Pistons events that have occurred that he showed up to this offseason, that was Cade Cunningham's birthday party in Los Angeles. And he also met face-to-face with owner Tom Gores on Sunday, discussing his restricted free agency, how he felt about it, how he wants to move forward."

YouTube

Oh No He Didn't: Shams: "Over the weekend, I'm told Jalen Duren actually showed up to one of the only unofficial Pistons events that have occurred that he showed up to this off season. That was Cade Cunningham's birthday party in Los Angeles. And he also met face to face with owner Tom Gores on Sunday, discussing his restricted free agency, how he felt about it, how he wants to move forward"

x.com

According to league sources, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the negotiations, the Pistons owner spent Duren’s decision day sending a meaningful message that played a pivotal part in his decision. After all the acrimony of the past four-plus months — from the Detroit offers that Duren deemed well below his market value to the short-lived weight clause that only made matters worse to the puzzling lack of communication with president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon along the way — Gores made a promise to Duren and his family that he would help provide a more positive Pistons experience.

New York Times

Among the team’s priorities is retaining center Jalen Duren, who is eligible for a contract extension. “I want him here,” Trajan Langdon said. “We really want JD to be here.” Langdon also praised owner Tom Gores' commitment to the organization, saying the franchise has consistently received the resources needed to support players and staff. “There’s never been a no,” Langdon said when discussing requests made to ownership. “The success that we’ve had wouldn’t have happened without his contributions and overall commitment.”

Click On Detroit

On a May morning in 2024, Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores finished his final interview with Trajan Langdon with a tough question at 2 a.m. “Do you have a stomach for this [job]? Because it’s not going to be easy,” Gores told Andscape he asked Langdon.

Andscape

Gores wasn’t underselling the challenges of the Pistons’ president of basketball operations role. Detroit had posted the NBA’s worst record in each of the previous two seasons, including a franchise-low 14 wins and a league-record 28-game losing streak in the prior campaign. The Pistons had last won a playoff game in 2008, a disastrous stretch for a storied franchise with three titles to its name. But from rising out of basketball obscurity in Alaska to overcoming knee surgery at Duke to responding to a failed NBA playing career by flourishing professionally in Europe, nothing has ever come easy for Langdon. So, “The Alaskan Assassin” quickly decided he could stomach yet another challenge and said yes to the Pistons.

Andscape

“He didn’t blink. He was all in,” Gores said. “Then I asked him to text me his top 20 action items and get started first thing in the morning. “Now, I didn’t expect things to turn around as fast as they did, but I’m not surprised.” Two years later, Langdon, 49, has led the Pistons from the NBA basement to the best record in the Eastern Conference. Last season, Year 1 under Langdon, the Pistons and new head coach J.B. Bickerstaff won 44 games, celebrated Cade Cunningham as a first-time All-Star, and pushed the New York Knicks to six games in the first round, making their first playoff appearance since 2019. The Pistons finished this season with an East-best 60 wins, led by two All-Stars in Cunningham and Jalen Duren and an NBA Coach of the Year candidate in Bickerstaff. The East’s top-seed Pistons will host the winner of a play-in game between the Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets tonight in a first-round playoff matchup starting Sunday.

Andscape

The Pistons have invested big into Cunningham, going far beyond the rookie-scale max extension (five years, $269 million) he agreed to in summer 2024. For team owner Tom Gores, the qualities he saw in Cunningham during the organization's record losing streak in 2023-24 only reinforced that decision. "When we were at our lowest, the man didn't blink," Gores told ESPN. "He continued to work, continued to pat his players on the back. That's when I knew this guy's character was something special. "You learn the most from anyone in life during the tough times. The way I saw him functioning, [behaving] when things were emotional, what he did when we were down."

ESPN

Omari Sankofa II: (Pistons owner) Tom Gores pregame: “It’s been a decade, really, trying to get to where we are today. It’s taken a lot of patience and a lot of hard times. It feels great. I feel like we’re set up to be a machine … set up to be a sustainable winner. But I’m also nervous, we have to win.”

Twitter

Tom Gores has many of the spoils you’d expect of a self-made private equity billionaire: an NBA team, a Los Angeles mansion and a glitzy Beverly Hills office where he can throw parties for his friend Leonardo DiCaprio. But it’s that ownership of the Detroit Pistons that may be nearest to the heart of this proud son of Michigan. Back in May, as the team was ending its best season since 2008, he praised supporters for sticking by them through the bad times. “It wasn’t that long ago I was apologizing,” the Platinum Equity founder said. “I want to thank the fans for hanging in there. I think the team needed them.”

Bloomberg

Platinum’s $10 billion fifth flagship fund, which closed in 2020, cut its expected internal rate of return to about 11% at the end of last year, documents seen by Bloomberg show. Roughly three quarters of other funds of the same vintage are doing better. The fund had to cut the unrealized value of its companies by about 8%, according to the documents and a person with knowledge of the matter. Several investments, including portable toilet provider United Site Services and chainsaw maker Oregon Tool, were slashed to zero.

Bloomberg

"I am happy where I am," Bickerstaff said. "For us as coaches, we are trying to figure out, 'What is my job? What are the expectations? And how do I continue to move those expectations forward?' The best organization in this league is the team that is the most consistent. When things get rocky, they hunker down on the things they believe in, the people they believe in and the players they believe in. ... I am truly blessed to be where I am with Trajan Langdon and Tom Gores. They are the type of people who, when things get tough, have my back and have shown that."

Detroit News

As one rival team executive said earlier this week, the “no. 1 job” of the Pistons front office now is “to convince [owner] Tom Gores that they’re not knocking on the door. Don’t rush it. Don’t go doing something stupid just because you had a good year. Otherwise, you end up like Atlanta.”

The Ringer

Eric Woodyard: #Pistons owner Tom Gores holds an impromptu press conference ahead of Game 6. Says he anticipated the team being good, but not this good. He thanked the fans. “Our urgency is not gonna stop,” he said. pic.x.com/xzLcRnr8mO

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