Trade Time: Could the Detroit Pistons trade their pick for Darius Garland?

The Detroit Pistons could use the leverage of their upcoming draft pick to trade for their next point guard.

The Detroit Pistons select 7th in the 2020 NBA Draft scheduled to take place on November 18th and nobody has any idea what they’re going to do with the pick.

In what is widely considered to be a draft class weak on top tier talent with no defined pecking order the Pistons find themselves in need of a point guard while also being in a position to take the best player available.

With no certainty that the consensus top point guards in LaMelo Ball, Killian Hayes, or even Tyrese Haliburton will make it to the 7th pick and the difficulties that come with taking over a new team and preparing for a draft in the midst of a pandemic might Troy Weaver decide to forgo the uncertainty of the draft and trade the pick for a player already in the league such as Darius Garland?

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That’s right folks! Its time for our favorite game, Lets. Make. A. Trade!

So who could the Pistons potentially target in a trade that might be worth giving up a lottery pick for?

This question becomes even trickier considering Troy Weaver’s statements from the very beginning regarding whether the Pistons are rebuilding and can expect to be picking in this range again soon or whether now is the time to truly maximize their assets to build young talent.

With the Pistons being somewhere between rebuilding and a restoration the roster needs talent wherever they can get it from, especially at the point guard position, of which Derrick Rose is the only true lead guard on the roster.

One potential trade option? Darius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers. We already know that Weaver is not afraid of taking chances to bring in talent and after seeing the success the Thunder had this season after acquiring 2nd year guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might he decide to go to the well once more?

The Cleveland Cavaliers have three young guards in Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. and Garland, and after a season in which the Cavs experimented with combinations of the three in the back court it appears that Garland may be the odd man out of the trio.

The Cavaliers, who are desperate to get out the cellar they’ve been in every year since LeBron left the first time could be interested in this trade as they are also looking into trades to acquire a star and building a package of their own 5th overall pick coupled with the Piston’s 7th overall pick in the draft could be awfully enticing for a team out there looking to move on from an established star.

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Garland only played five games in college at Vanderbilt before going down with an injury and then was put in a bad position in Cleveland where he had to share the back-court with another ball dominant young guard in Collin Sexton and deal with the tumultuous team situation that ultimately led to the exit of coach John Beilein partway through the season.

Despite this, Garland managed to average 12.3 points and 4 assists per game while shooting 35 percent from three and 87 percent from the charity stripe.

Garland is still only 20 years old (only a month older than Tyrese Haliburton) and could benefit greatly from a change of scenery and opportunity to play under an established coach in Dwane Casey who has been praised in the past for his ability to develop players, and learn from a veteran like Derrick Rose.

Having only played in 64 total games the last two years due to injury and the pandemic there is reason to believe that Garland is healthy and still has plenty more potential to tap into.

However, I would be remiss to acknowledge that Garland certainly has his detractors as its worth noting that he was dead last in the NBA in win shares this season, a statistic that measures the estimated wins contributed by a player, a statistic that fellow rookie Sekou Doumbouya finished only 11 spots higher in than.

However with the uncertainty that Hayes, Ball, or even Haliburton would be available at #7 and knowing the horrendous situation in which Garland played in this season I believe that the Pistons may be a great opportunity for him should they decide to take a pass on the draft and make this trade.

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