Detroit Pistons: Breaking down the Delon Wright trade
Detroit Pistons: Why did the Pistons trade Delon Wright?
Delon Wright has had a mini-renaissance for the Detroit Pistons and is having a nice season but he was not part of the long-term plans.
The Pistons have a lot of guards already and Wright was probably going to be taking a lot of the minutes, so the Pistons wanted to clear time on the floor for their young guards.
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The other and more important reason is money.
Delon Wright is guaranteed around $8.5 million next season, while Cory Joseph’s $12.6 million is only partially guaranteed at $2.4 million according to Spotrac.
The Pistons are going to save around $6 million in cap space even if they cut Joseph in the offseason, which will allow them to make further moves and possibly take on a bad contract in exchange for an asset as teams like Memphis have done successfully in recent years.
The Pistons also get two second-round picks for their troubles and though these picks are pretty worthless on their own, could be packaged with others to move up in the draft or to make a future trade.
Troy Weaver got himself more cap space and more draft capital for a guy who was not part of the future anyway, so it was a successful trade for the Pistons.
This move could also be a sign of things to come.