Bleacher Report: Buddy Hield and the Detroit Pistons are a bad fit

Bleacher Report listed seven different teams who could fix their franchise by trading for a star, and the Detroit Pistons were included.

In a round table article conducted by Bleacher Report, they listed seven star players who could be traded to fix struggling organizations. The Detroit Pistons were listed as suitors for Sacramento Kings standout and reigning three-point contest champion Buddy Hield.

Before getting into why this would or would not be a good move for Detroit, one of the reasons this idea is so interesting is because of how much it could benefit the Kings.

Last fall Sacramento and Hield agreed on a four year contract extension worth $86 million, and it could reach up to $106 million with incentives. The extension will kick in next season.

Heading into the off season the Kings are likely going to prioritize re-signing Bogdan Bogdanović and possibly Kent Bazemore and Harry Giles. (Though with Giles, that ship has likely sailed after they declined his team option for 2020-2021)

The issue isn’t so much in the short term for the Kings, but down the road. One of the reason they declined Giles’ option was because they knew they’d be in financial purgatory in a few short years and they’d have to cut their losses starting with him.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, pretty soon Sacramento is going to have to extend De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley to lengthy and pretty expensive deals. In addition to that, maintaining your key role players like Richaun Holmes and Nemanja Bjelica may not be entirely cheap either. (Relative to Fox and Bagley they will be, but still)

So, when you’re already paying Harrison Barnes between $18 million and $24 million until 2023, having a near identical contract with Hield isn’t going to help them.

They otherwise risk losing out on their own players because they simply don’t have the money to retain them. Flirting with the tax line for a majority of the decade could be on the horizon for them.

So, one possible way to avoid this debacle is to continue to cut your losses. Hield is a fantastic shooter, a great shot creator, and a legitimate offensive threat. However, upwards of $106 million for someone who tends to be a defensive liability and could arguably be replaced by a cheaper option seems like it could cause some future headaches.

By trading him, you’ll be able to prioritize the assets that are best equipped the carry the franchise moving forward.  Once Hield’s extension is over, he’ll be 33 years old and could be well out of his prime. This isn’t a risk that the Kings should want to take.

Because this is the case, Sacramento may be less inclined to ask for a king’s ransom when talking about a potential trade. While he’s still an important asset and should be treated as such, the Kings will also be fortunate to have gotten the salary off the books.

In fact, depending on how long it takes for them to actually pull off the trade we may actually see the Kings giving up draft capital in order to shed the money. This was the case when Milwaukee threw in a first round pick to Detroit in addition to Tony Snell in exchange for Jon Leuer.

Teams are also expecting the Cavaliers to surrender draft capital when trading Kevin Love, because his contract is so large that it’ll temporarily cripple any team that acquires him.

Detroit has set themselves up to be able to explore multiple options this summer with the cap space that they’d freed up. So while this upcoming free agent class isn’t entirely interesting, they could still pull off a trade where they take back salary in order to land an asset.

In this case, it would actually be both. Hield is both a decent asset, and a ton of salary.

When you first think about it, the Pistons pulling the trigger on any trade centered on him would be financially crippling and would set the franchise back a few years.

There’s virtually zero incentive for Detroit to trade for a bloated contract only to maybe squeak into the playoffs which isn’t even the current objective.

You can try to rebuild while simultaneously try to make the playoffs, but that’s what the Pistons have done for the better part of a decade and it’s time to fully commit to the rebuild.

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Hield isn’t a young asset, and paying him the money to possibly win too many games and lose out on a better draft selection is not at all optimal.

However, if an opportunity were to arrive where Detroit can get him for a relatively low price, say Luke Kennard, a protected first round pick, and some filler, then the current objective might change.

Regardless of whether or not it’d be a good idea (and it likely wouldn’t be) the Pistons would have the chance to maximize whatever window is left in Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose‘s careers.

A healthy  lineup consisting of Rose, Hield, Snell, Griffin, and Christian Wood could win Detroit a decent amount of games, but who knows how they’d fare in the playoffs.

Even then the key word is “healthy”. While Hield doesn’t necessarily have a bad past with injuries, with the team already constructed in a way that seemingly anyone can go down with an injury and derail the season, the risk is too high.

He doesn’t increase the chances of getting Detroit through their rebuild any quicker, and again, by the time his extension is up, who knows where he’ll be at in his career.

If the Pistons wanted to use the aforementioned cap space to pull of a trade, it’d naturally be best for them to acquire someone who benefits them both today, and down the road when the rebuild ends.