Darrun Hilliard traded to the Rockets (and then the Clippers)

Darrun Hilliard was traded by the Detroit Pistons to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. The Rockets later traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers.

While Darrun Hilliard‘s prospects with the Detroit Pistons for the coming season looked dim, things came to an end for the third-year pro when he was traded on Wednesday. Hilliard was sent to the Houston Rockets for cash considerations (expected to be $1 million), and was then moved to the Los Angeles Clippers to complete the trade for Chris Paul.

Hilliard was due an non-guaranteed $1.4 million this season, and the end of Friday was his roster date. The Pistons had said at the end of the regular season that Hilliard would be going to the Orlando Summer League, but earlier this week announced he wouldn’t even be practicing with the team. This was a grim harbinger of things to come for Hilliard after the Pistons drafted Luke Kennard at the same position a week ago.

The Pistons could have simply waived Hilliard themselves, but this trade allows the Rockets to capitalize on his non-guaranteed $1.4 million in order to consummate their trade.

This doesn’t give the Pistons any cap space to speak of, but it gives them a bit more margin for error as they try to manuever their way out of the luxury tax for the coming season. They’re already at the salary cap threshold, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is due a big raise, perhaps as much as the $24.75 million max.

Next: Pistons committed to keeping KCP

Thanks to the drop in the cap announced by the NBA last week, the Pistons are going to be happy to clear salary wherever they can going into the July 1st free agency period.