Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff says he has an “old-school mentality” toward his new team’s dress code due to growing up with his father, former 10-season NBA coach Bernie Bickerstaff.
That’s why players can no longer pull the hoods of their sweatshirts over their heads during warmups, according to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon.
“Just the last shred of that old-school mentality,” Bickerstaff said, per Vardon. “Just growing up with my dad, you don’t wear anything on your head during the game. You don’t wear jewelry. You practice how you play.”
The Pistons, coming out of a franchise-worst 14-68 record last season, are so far 2-2 in the 2024-25 preseason under Bickerstaff.
According to Vardon, the change is part of the Pistons’ new effort to take the burden off of 23-year-old guard Cade Cunningham as the team’s de facto leader.
Those adjustments have so far included the new practice dress code as well as upping the difficulty of conditioning drills, per Vardon.
“The conversations that I’ve had with Cade, the way that I see how his teammates follow him and the way that he engages his teammates, he wants to be amongst the elites and understands that winning matters in order to be respected by your peers in that way… If we’re going to get to where we want to go with this group, we have to develop everybody and help everybody be able to play with that confidence,” Bickerstaff said, per Vardon.
Bickerstaff, who has previously served as head coach of the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies, most recently coached the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers were a 19-win team before Bickerstaff took over in 2020, and it took him three seasons to lead the team back into the playoffs while helping develop the careers of young players like Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Dante Exum.
He was dismissed from the team after the injury-ridden Cavaliers were eliminated from the second round by the eventual champion Boston Celtics.
Bickerstaff told reporters during his introductory press conference in July that his experience in Cleveland, where he led the team to a 170-159 record in the regular season and 6-11 mark in the playoffs, would help him rebuild the Pistons.
“We can speak on history, we can speak on experience, coming from a situation where we went through this exact same process,” Bickerstaff said (h/t Madeline Kenney of The Detroit News.)
The Pistons are now hoping Bickerstaff can help guide the early careers of the roster’s young starters including Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson, and Jaden Ivey.
In Cleveland, Bickerstaff emphasized that process started with the team’s culture. It seems the same process is now underway in Detroit.
