The trade that wasn’t: Talking Jon Leuer vs. Donatas Motiejunas

Looking back on the voided trade for Donatas Motiejunas at last season’s deadline to where they are now, the Pistons have to be pleased with how things played out.

For a few short days five months ago, the Detroit Pistons had Donatas Motiejunas, Marcus Thornton, and no first round draft pick. Today, the team has Henry Ellenson and Jon Leuer, while Houston is stuck playing the restricted free agency game with Motiejunas. The revisionist history game is a fickle one, but Detroit has to love how this all played out.

We all know about the Motiejunas saga. Stan Van Gundy and company shipped away a first round pick to acquire the stretch-four at last season’s trade deadline. Team doctors determined that he had failed his physical, probably due to long-term concerns about his back. The trade was voided. Motiejunas was mad, and Stan Van Gundy was defiant in defending the decision.

What’s done is done.

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And what happened in the fallout has mostly come up Pistons. Instead of dealing with Thornton’s and Motiejunas’ expiring contracts this offseason, Detroit watched Henry Ellenson – a player with comparable size and skill who is much younger – fall to them with the 18th pick.

And because they were pleasantly surprised to land Ellenson, the Pistons have time to let it marinate. They don’t need anything from him right away and will remain focused on developing him for the long-term. And that’s partially because they went ahead and signed Jon Leuer.

Leuer, who is a serviceable rotation player that will be relied upon to play backup power forward unless Ellenson proves ready, agreed to a 4-year, $42-million deal with Detroit last weekend. He’s a player we believed would be a great fit for the Pistons.

This interesting tweet from Detroit Free Press writer Vince Ellis got me thinking:

Let’s see what the numbers say:

The numbers (which span Motiejunas’ career and four of Leuer’s five seasons) favor Leuer almost across the board. Leuer shoots better from the field, shoots way better from three and the charity stripe, and outrebounds Motiejunas significantly.

On a per-36 minute basis, the only advantages Motiejunas can claim are two-point field goal percentage, more trips to the line, and assists.

Combine the statistical shortcomings with the fact that Motiejunas has back problems (history says he will have issues again someday) and stating that Leuer is greater than Motiejunas is a no brainer to me.

Sure, Motiejunas may be younger and he may end up on a much cheaper contract than Leuer, but that doesn’t close the gap in my book. Plus, Leuer now comes with that coveted contract certainty GM Jeff Bower spoke of at the time of the Tobias Harris deal.

Next: Where does Ellenson fit into the Pistons' plans?

I think it’s safe to say that Leuer is a better all around player than Motiejunas. But then you factor in the fact that the reneged trade got them Ellenson too, and the Pistons have to be looking back on all this with a smile.