The Detroit Pistons finish their regular season at Indiana on Sunday with a record of 59-22 and a chance to do something the franchise has accomplished exactly twice in its history: win 60 games. The last time was the 2005-06 season. The context this time is different. Two years ago, the Pistons won 14 games.

That number — 14-68 in 2023-24, the worst season in franchise history, bookended by an NBA-record 28-game losing streak — is the gravity that makes the present altitude extraordinary. A 46-win improvement in two seasons is not a rebuild. It is a rupture in the normal physics of professional sports.

Cade Cunningham is at the center of it. The 2021 first overall pick, now 24, has averaged 24.2 points, 9.8 assists, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.5 steals this season. He leads the league in total assists. He is a first-time All-Star starter and a legitimate MVP candidate, behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in most rankings and gaining ground after Gilgeous-Alexander's injury absence compressed the race. [1]

But what Cunningham has done cannot be measured in box scores alone. He stayed. In a league where stars demand trades at the first sign of dysfunction, Cunningham signed a five-year, $185 million extension in October 2024 — months after the worst season in franchise history. He said at the time that his goal was "to restore the franchise to respectability." Respectability does not cover it.

The turnaround has a structural explanation that goes beyond Cunningham's talent. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, in his second year, has built the league's second-best defense (109.2 defensive rating) around a core of players who are all under 25. Isaiah Stewart and Ausar Thompson anchor the defensive scheme. Jalen Duren, at 21, has evolved from a vertical spacer into a two-way center averaging a double-double. Duncan Robinson, acquired to stretch the floor, has delivered. The Pistons are 17-6 against teams with winning records, a stat that separates contenders from pretenders. [2]

Last season was the first step: a 30-win improvement to 44-38, a playoff berth, and a first-round loss to the New York Knicks in six games. The players talk about that series as the turning point. "The Knicks taught us how to win close games," Duren said. This season, Detroit is 12-4 in clutch time, holding opponents to a league-best 33.7 percent shooting in games decided by five points or fewer in the final five minutes. [3]

Even a March health scare could not derail them. Cunningham suffered a collapsed left lung on March 17 and missed three weeks. The Pistons went 8-2 without him, Daniss Jenkins stepping into the point guard role and Tobias Harris providing veteran stability. Cunningham returned on April 9 against Milwaukee, contributing 13 points and 10 assists in 26 minutes of a 137-111 blowout that pushed the record to 58-22. [4]

The Pistons clinched the Eastern Conference's first seed on April 5 with a victory over Philadelphia. They haven't held the top spot since 2006-07. They haven't won a playoff series since 2007-08. They haven't been here — this version of here, with homecourt advantage through the entire postseason and a roster young enough to sustain it — in a generation.

The question now is whether the regular season's dominance translates to April and May. The East is not weak. Boston, New York, and Cleveland all have postseason experience and star power that the Pistons lack in depth. Cunningham's lung injury, though resolved, is the kind of event that nags at the back of a franchise's mind. And the playoffs begin April 18 against the No. 8 seed, just six days from now.

But today is about the number. Sixty wins, if they get it in Indiana, would represent not just a franchise record chase but the completion of a story that professional sports rarely tells. The Pistons didn't retool through a blockbuster trade or a free-agent signing. They drafted a point guard, believed in him through the worst losing streak in NBA history, and let the internal growth compound. "We take pride in being the most together, through the ups and the downs," Duren said. "We lean on each other. We really take brotherhood seriously over here."

The last time a team went from 14 wins to 60 in two seasons was never.

-- AMARA OKONKWO, Detroit