The Detroit Pistons should not trade Derrick Rose

Many fans are begging the Detroit Pistons to trade Derrick Rose, one of the lone bright spots in a disappointing season.  However, the Detroit Pistons would be better suited to hold onto the former MVP, at least through the rest of the season.

After a rough start to the season, the Detroit Pistons finally appear to be moving towards rebuilding. They are expected by reporters to move on from Andre Drummond, their longest tenured player, and have shut down Blake Griffin for the foreseeable future has he recovers from knee surgery.

The common belief among fans entering a rebuild is that the team should trade away all of their veterans with value. This includes the expiring contracts of Drummond and sharp-shooter Langston Galloway, along with Derrick Rose, the former MVP who has had a resurgence with the Pistons this year.

But I believe the Pistons would be better off keeping Rose around instead of trading him by the February 6th deadline.

The direction of the team is still unclear. If the Pistons decide to tear it down and rebuild around their 19 year-old forward Sekou Doumbouya, they’ll have to make decisions on guys like Luke Kennard and Bruce Brown as well. Kennard will be playing on their final year of his rookie deal in 2020-2021.

Another possibility is that the Pistons decide to attempt a much quicker rebuild, where they play their young guys, lose a lot of games throughout the rest of the year, and try to put together a team that could be competitive again next season.

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Whether the team decides to go in either of those directions, Rose should stick around.

The Pistons have a decent group of young players, including the aforementioned Brown, Kennard and Doumbouya, Svi Mykhailiuk, and even Christian Wood. However, aside from Doumbouya, none of these players are expected to have an incredibly high ceiling. That is because while they may be able to carve out permanent roles in the NBA, they have obvious flaws in their game that limit their ability to be “the guy”.

Rose helps the development of these guys as much as anybody.

Perhaps Dwane Casey would call more offensive plays if he couldn’t rely on the improvisation skills of Rose, but the offense has a whole would implode. Rose currently has the highest offensive rating on the team, 113.5, for good reason.

Brown has made some impressive strides and could be a lead-guard the Pistons rely on throughout their rebuild, but he’s still a negative impact on offense at this point. But currently Rose generates the most offense on the team, and his presence and gravity certainly help shooters like Mykhailiuk and Kennard get more open looks.

Rose’s presence alleviates some of the ball handling responsibilities from Brown, and Casey specifically has mentioned that he likes the way Brown and Rose play together on the court.

If the team decides they want to try and compete next season, Rose (on a team-friendly deal) and a presumably healthy Blake Griffin would be important to have around. James Edwards III of The Athletic has reported that the Pistons may pursue Fred VanVleet this offseason, so they haven’t necessarily committed to tearing it all down quite yet.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to price. Obviously no one should be untouchable, but so far the Pistons haven’t showed any interest in moving Rose.

Trading Rose before the deadline would certainly accelerate losing, but for the developing of the rest of their roster, having at least one veteran point guard can go a long way.