Chaz Lanier gave the Detroit Pistons exactly the kind of quick shooting jolt they have been chasing. The 24-year-old scored 25 points in a 103-94 Summer League win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday in Las Vegas, and he did most of the damage before the game had fully settled in.
Lanier made five of his seven 3-pointers within the first six minutes and scored 17 of the Pistons' first 20 points. He said afterward that he wanted to be aggressive and that the shots were the same ones he works on every day. For a team searching for cleaner spacing and faster scoring bursts, that kind of start is not easy to ignore.
The performance also matched the reason Detroit drafted him No. 37 in the 2025 NBA Draft. Lanier came out of Tennessee after a senior season in which he hit 39.5% of his 8.2 3-point attempts per game, and that profile has always made him relevant to the Pistons' biggest offensive question. Detroit shot 35.7% on outside shots last season, tied for 20th in the NBA, and its 31.3% 3-point attempt rate was the second-lowest in the league, ahead of only the Sacramento Kings.
That is why the Pistons added Isaiah Joe and Taurean Prince in separate trades this offseason. The moves were meant to help, but the numbers show how deep the problem ran: outside shooting was still Detroit's main offensive weakness last season, and one good summer night does not erase that. What Lanier did do was offer a reminder that the shot can travel with him when the lights come on.
He is already on the radar inside Detroit. J.B. Bickerstaff said in March that Lanier is an NBA player and expected him to be part of the Pistons' long-term plans, and the rookie has now shown why that view exists. He also flashed it in January, scoring eight points in the final 12 minutes of a 108-93 home win over the Chicago Bulls when Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Tobias Harris were out with injuries.
The question now is not whether Lanier can shoot. It is how quickly that shooting turns into a larger role. Detroit improved to 1-1 in Las Vegas after the win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the depth chart around him is still being sorted out, and the Pistons will have to decide whether a hot Summer League night is the start of something bigger or just the clearest glimpse yet of what they drafted.
