The Detroit Pistons have a rich history of trades that have yield mixed results.
We’ve been taking a look at some of the best trades in team history and have so far broken down a home run trade with the Celtics, a mutually beneficial trade with the 76ers, a trade with the Lakers that keeps on giving and two swaps with the Cavaliers that set up the Bad Boy era.
The Pistons have also made nine trades with the Los Angeles Clippers with typically mixed results.
The first one that immediately comes to mind was the disastrous decision to trade for Blake Griffin, in which the Pistons gave up a haul of players and picks for a guy who was in decline and on the worst contract in the NBA.
Let’s try to forget that one.
Instead, we’ll focus on the most recent trade the Pistons made with the Clippers, which was a 3-team blockbuster that turned out great for Detroit.
Detroit Pistons: The best trade with the Clippers, out with one era, in with another
The most recent trade with the Clippers was a massive one that also involved the Brooklyn Nets:
This was a huge and confusing trade but the meat of it for Detroit was that they got Saddiq Bey in exchange for Luke Kennard and four 2nd-round picks.
Saddiq Bey is already better than Luke Kennard, and made the first-team All-Rookie last season on his way to setting several rookie records for 3-point shooting.
Kennard did have a better 3-point shooting percentage than Bey, but took half as many attempts, so Bey was really the more effective scorer and he’s roughly a billion times better defensively.
The Detroit Pistons got the best player in this deal and all they had to give up was two players from an era they are trying to forget and a bunch of 2nd-round picks.
That is a small price to pay for a core player, so this deal worked out great for Troy Weaver and the Detroit Pistons.