The Detroit Pistons could end up as the third team in a blockbuster trade.
If you’ve looked at the big trades that have gone down in the NBA the last few seasons, most of them involved multiple teams.
When big salaries are being moved, it’s not always easy to make the money work in a two-team trade, as not every team has the necessary contracts to send back.
Teams that want to trade for a superstar and don’t have a big contract they want to move usually have to bring in a third or even fourth team.
These “extra” teams are usually bad ones looking to pick up an asset in exchange for helping the deal work.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have done this brilliantly, gathering assets in exchange for taking on a bad contract, as they did with Al Horford, picking up three draft picks (one in the first round) for their troubles.
The Thunder had the necessary cap space and veteran contracts to make such a deal work. The Detroit Pistons don’t have the cap space but they could help facilitate a deal with their veteran contracts.
Detroit Pistons: 3-team trade for Derrick Rose
The Detroit Pistons have three veterans in Derrick Rose, Wayne Ellington and Mason Plumlee who could be used as pieces in bigger trades with multiple teams.
All three have impact skills that could help a contender and would be sweeteners in a 3-4 team trade involving a superstar. They also have team-friendly contracts that might be needed to make a big trade work.
Here is an example but there are a lot of possibilities.
The Wizards may or may not trade Bradley Beal but if they do there aren’t many contending teams who have the necessary contracts to match up.
A team like the Nuggets would love to get Beal but their prime trade asset, Michael Porter Jr. isn’t making enough money to be the centerpiece of the trade.
Even with Gary Harris’ contract, the Nuggets still come up short so would need another contract in Rose’s range that they don’t have.
This is just a theoretical but it’s easy to see how Derrick Rose makes this trade more attractive to Denver and still allows the Wizards to get a big haul without taking on any long-term money.
For their assistance, the Detroit Pistons get back a project player with some upside and two second-round picks, which is a realistic haul for Rose and Ellington.
The point is that Derrick Rose, Wayne Ellington and Mason Plumlee have moveable contracts and are more than just salary filler as players.
If the Detroit Pistons can get involved in the right trade, they might be able to get more than trading any of their veterans in a two-team deal.