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Are Detroit Pistons shopping Kentavious Caldwell-Pope?

By Braden Shackelford

Feb 3, 2017; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5) dribbles the ball past Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine (8) during the second quarter at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 3, 2017; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5) dribbles the ball past Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine (8) during the second quarter at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports /
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Are the Detroit Pistons shopping Kentavious Caldwell-Pope? According to Adrian Wojnarowski, he is one of many Pistons available for the right price.

We know the Detroit Pistons have made Reggie Jackson available. Over the last few days we’ve learned that Andre Drummond is available too.

The list doesn’t end there, apparently, with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope available too for the right price.

For those of you who do not have time to watch the video (which starts Pistons talk around the 41:45 mark), I have transcribed the conversation as it pertains to Caldwell-Pope.

Via The Vertical with Woj:

"There are a lot of Pistons players available, I mean, there are a lot of deals that they are open to doing. Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson, and an interesting one is Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. They love him in Detroit. He’s going to be a restricted free agent this summer, they could not come to a contract extension with him in the preseason. They don’t want to give him a max contract, but you’ve got Brooklyn sitting out there with all this cap space again, other teams with significant cap space who may say, ok we’re going to overpay a little pit for Pope and get a really good young shooting guard and Detroit has been open to seeing what they could get back for Pope. Now I think it’s almost impossible to trade for that player if you’re another team because you’ve got to decide if you’re willing to max him out. Why give up a good asset for Pope right now when maybe you have the space to go sign him this summer? I don’t think that will happen, but I do know that Detroit has been open out there to see what might be available for Pope–not because they don’t like him, but because they want to see if there is another pretty good young shooting guard or a guy (up-and-coming) that they could get that would be available to them. They might prefer that over paying Pope such a big number this summer."

Translation, it would take a King’s ransom to pull the trigger on a Caldwell-Pope trade.

The Pistons have clearly underachieved this season. Despite their young roster, many of the players have plateaued or taken a step back.

That’s not good, particularly when you’ve essentially maxed out your cap space and only have an eighth seed spot in the East (and barely at that) to show for it.

I’m fine moving on from Reggie Jackson, and for the right price, I would be ok with moving on from Drummond too–but only if the return is a top-5 pick and a proven talent with upside.

Moving on from Caldwell-Pope, however, would be a mistake. I know his offense has been inconsistent but that is in part due to his role on offense which is also inconsistent.

Next: should the Pistons break up the core?

At just 23, Caldwell-Pope has shown that he can by a strong two-way player and potentially, a high level scorer. I think regardless of his development, what he has shown thus far is that he is part of the solution and not the problem. I think the Pistons see that too.

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