The Detroit Pistons hold the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft for the first time since 1970. General manager Troy Weaver has said trading the selection is ‘an option’. Let us look at how it went for teams that traded the No. 1 in the past.
As far as most Pistins fans are concerned, July 29 can not come soon enough. That is the date of the 2021 NBA Draft. They just want NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to announce ‘With the first pick, the Detroit Pistons select Cade Cunningham out of Oklahoma State’ and start saving money for playoff tickets.
However, there is over a month between the draft lottery and the actual draft. Things can happen. Bad things, evil things, like trades that involve taking other team’s leftovers for the No. 1 pick.
Most media generated trades basically go like this:
"Overrated player (usually James Wiseman) plus mid-round/late draft picks and trash players = No. 1 pick in draft"
No clue why so many trades involve Wiseman coming to Detroit. The Pistons have a better rookie center in ‘Beef Stew’ and, if Detroit truly wants a center, they could just draft Evan Mobley, who fits the modern game a lot better.
(Off-topic: If the Warriors really wanted a tall, playmaking guard, they could have simply taken LaMelo Ball last year instead of Wiseman last year.)
While all this chatter is, for the most part, just that, stuff to talk about to stir up interest before the draft. However, there is a small kernel of truth inside it all.
GM Troy Weaver is a guy who looks looks at all angles, and is not one to prematurely close any doors. When he was asked, hours after winning the lottery, about trading the draft choice:
#Pistons Troy Weaver on possibility of trading the No. 1: "Yes, that's an option."
— Rod Beard (@detnewsRodBeard) June 23, 2021
Does that mean the Pistons are looking to trade the pick? No. But Weaver is signalling he is willing to answer the phone and talk. You never know what crazy offer some desperate team could make (see 1993).
So it is a good time to look back, and see what happened when a team traded the first pick in the NBA Draft (h/t Sam Gardner).
It has occured seven times in NBA history (warning, it did not go well for teams that currently, or have been, based in Philadelphia).
In Chronological order:
1950: Pistons trade for player drafted No. 1
Kind of ironic that there is all this talk about the Pistons trading away the No. 1 pick, when they were the first club in NBA history to actually pull off a trade for No. 1.
There is a bit of an asterisk, as the trade was made the year following the draft, but the player did make his NBA debut with the Pistons.
Back then, the Pistons were in Fort Wayne, Indiana and, after winning the NBL (a pre-cursor to the NBA) titles in 1944 and 1945, were looking to make an impact in its new league, the NBA.
They also wanted a name to help draw fans to the North Side High School gym. Also, Allen County was building a facility that would give the Pistons a more modern place to play in the future.
Now, the professional basketball world was a bit different in the early ’50s. The NBA was the preeminent league in the country but players did not get paid millions they are now. (a few years later, the Pistons top draft pick, George Yardley, did not immediately sign because he could make more money as an engineer).
Chuck Share, a rare, athletically gifted 6-foot-11 center, was selected No. 1 in the 1950 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. Boston general manager Red Auerbach caught heat for not picking local hero Bob Cousy (they would get him later).
However, Share was an Ohio native and was not really interested in going to Boston. Instead, Share signed with the Waterloo (Iowa) Hawks of the upstart National Professional Basketball League, as they offered him the massive sum of $2,500 to sign with them.
That league folded after a few months,
The Pistons, at the time, had a problem signing guard Bill Sharman, who they had gotten the right to in the dispersal draft for the Washington Capitols. He was also pursuing a baseball career.
Pistons owner Fred Zollner thought he had a chance to sign Share, so he arranged a trade:
"Celtics receive: Bill Sharman & Bob Brannum Pistons receive: Chuck Share"
Aftermath:
As would occur for the next 35 years, Auerbach fleeced his trade partner.
Share made his NBA debut with the Pistons on November 1, 1951 at the Syracuse Nationals. Share led the team with 21 points, in a 90-75 loss.
However, that scoring outburst proved to be an outlier. Share averaged just 4.2 points, 5.1 rebounds in 14 minutes during two-and-a-half years with the Pistons, before being traded to the Hawks.
With Share at center, surrounded by stars and only having to be a role player (sound familiar?), the Hawks would beat the Bill Russell-led Celtics in the finals to win the NBA championship. The Celtics would not lose another playoff series for nine years.
Sharman would eventually drop baseball and became an eight-time NBA All-Star with the Celtics.
So the Pistons are the first NBA team to trade for the player who went first in the draft, and it did not go well.
How did the other six trades do?