A trade will not save the Detroit Pistons this season

After a slow start to the season, many have speculated that a trade could be on the horizon for the Detroit Pistons. It may not make a difference.

The Detroit Pistons are currently sitting on an 11-20 record and have lost 6 of their last 7 games. Whether it’s to a dominant Milwaukee team or a struggling Bulls team, the Pistons just can’t seem to put it together this year.

Detroit is struggling to gain fluidity on both ends of the floor. Injuries have plagued this team and there doesn’t currently seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Struggling to get into the playoffs as an eighth seed cannot be the endgame this season, and if that’s currently the ceiling for this team (which it isn’t) then something has to change.

You cannot continue to pretend to be something that you aren’t. It was perfectly acceptable for Piston fans to get excited over the playoff appearance a season ago – despite the sweep – because there was a general consensus among the organization that the season served as a foundational year.

Detroit retooled their roster in the offseason, and things appeared as if they could pan out for the better in Dwane Casey’s second year as the head coach. Regardless of the reasoning, it’s just not happening for the Pistons this year.

Blake Griffin‘s injuries have been weighing him down. The elevation on his jump shot has fallen significantly, which has caused him to shoot just 35.9 percent from the field including 25.3 percent from three-point range.

His trade value has taken a substantial hit from just last year.

Andre Drummond is having a career year (in a contract year no less) but due to an apparent issue in properly valuing his impact in today’s NBA, it seems as if he’s viewed as a pretty niche player. This means that the trade market for him wouldn’t be as booming as some may assume.

The cohesion of the roster just hasn’t been what fans envisioned this season.

With the news coming out that Luke Kennard will now be sidelined for at least two weeks with bilateral knee tendinitis, that light at the end of the tunnel just gets dimmer and dimmer.

So when we look at all the options – does it really make sense for Detroit to trade for a “win now” caliber player? Would they not just be pairing him with a depleted roster? How would it change the situation they’re already in if everyone is hurt?

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Then the narrative would become about how “Player X” isn’t a winner because he can’t help fix the Pistons, but in reality he’d be getting thrown into an impossible situation.

Furthermore, in order to even acquire one of those players Detroit would undoubtedly need to give up young assets and/or draft capital. So when the experiment inevitably goes south, you find yourself back at square one. You need to rebuild but you don’t have any assets to do so because you’ve traded them all away.

Does that sound familiar? Detroit has been in this same cycle for nearly a decade.

The Pistons are in a situation that cannot be salvaged. Making any sort of a trade that gets this team to barely squeak into the playoffs at some point has to be considered counterproductive. Detroit is too banged up, and too close to running out of hope.

You have to part ways with whatever assets you can in order to get a quality return that improves your chances down the road. It isn’t easy to buy into being a “tanking” team, but unfortunately we’ve neared – if not arrived – at that point in Detroit.

It’s time to pick a direction, and it cannot continue to be to “win now”.