Stop imagining the Pistons trading Greg Monroe for a 2014 first-round pick

The Pistons can’t trade Greg Monroe on draft night – not for a first-round pick we all want so badly, not for anything.

Monroe is a pending free agent. That means the Pistons can’t trade him unless it’s in a sign-and-trade he agrees to.

And he can’t negotiate with other teams until July 1 – six days after the June 26 draft. And the Pistons can’t officially trade him until July 10.

Those hurdles are, for all practical purposes, impossible to overcome.

If you believe the Pistons can convince a team to draft a player on their behalf, wait six days, convince Monroe to agree to a contract with that new team, convince Monroe to structure the signing as a sign-and-trade, structure a trade that balances a team trading a player on an eight-digit salary for one with a salary of $0* and convince all parties to wait nine more days – sure, knock yourself out with trade ideas. Otherwise, don’t waste your time.

*The drafting team could sign the pick first and then deal him, bringing his trade-salary to his 2014-15 salary, but that’s still a wide gap to Monroe’s salary, and the trade couldn’t occur for 30 days after the player signed.