Fans of the Detroit Pistons are especially frustrated with the Bruce Brown trade after a recent move.
The Detroit Pistons have officially wrapped up their preseason, and one final roster move needed to be made before opening night. Detroit decided to waive Dzanan Musa, who only appeared in one game and was acquired in exchange for Bruce Brown.
Anyone who watched Musa play with the Nets and their G-League affiliate should have known that he never really stood a chance with this roster. While it’s true that the Pistons are taking fliers on a plethora of raw projects, it’s equally true that Musa didn’t fit the timeline.
Instead, the only thing that remains from the deal with Brooklyn was the 2021 second round pick that they also sent over. It’s worth noting that it was the least favorable of four second rounders that the Nets owned at the time.
This has somewhat justifiably sparked some frustration with the fans. Brown was more or less the quintessential embodiment of what Pistons fans looks for in players. Additionally, he was easily Detroit’s best on-ball defender and he was making promising strides offensively.
It also could be easily argued that he fit whatever timeline Detroit had set up.
However, with their lack of second round picks over the next few years (a situation that only got worse with the Luke Kennard trade) it created a scramble to try and accumulate some by any means necessary.
The issue with keeping Brown on this roster is that for as promising as he became as an overall product, his role on this team would have been left ambiguous. Assuming all the same moves were made, between him, Wayne Ellington, Svi Mykhailiuk, Saddiq Bey, and Josh Jackson, the rotation would have been ever more cluttered than it already is.
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Dwane Casey had already reiterated that they weren’t interested in continuing to play Bruce at point guard, and even if he was, the minutes would’ve been equally clunky.
The way that fans are trying to explain this is that Detroit trade Brown away for a second round pick, and that it doesn’t seem fair.
The question then becomes: What was he worth then? As valuable as he was to this Pistons team, it’s clear that Brooklyn won’t have much room for him to play barring any injuries.
He could’ve been moved to a team who’s more in the same position as Detroit, sure, but they probably wouldn’t be too keen on moving draft capital. Seemingly every single team in the league has their own version of Bruce as well.
To that same point, the idea that trading him for a second round pick is a “bad trade” is inherently flawed. Where did Detroit draft Brown in 2018? The second round. Admittedly they got pretty lucky with him, given the number of second round picks who don’t pan out, but the principle remains the same.
Players like him come around every single year. Troy Weaver has a solid track record with his drafting, and Pistons fans need to be patient.
It’s perfectly okay to still be a bit sour over the move in general, though. Even with someone like myself who is urging you to get over it, I too think it was a frustrating move. But at the end of the day, it’s not a make or break deal for their season or their rebuild.