Detroit Pistons: Best trade in team history with the Orlando Magic

The Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic have made five trades together and nearly all of them were home runs for Detroit.

We’ve been taking look back at some of the best trades in team history, including a championship trade with the Celtics, a trade that keeps on giving from the Lakers, a swap of an elite scorer with the 76ers, two trades with the Cavaliers that brought the foundation of the Bad Boys and a recent swap with the Clippers that landed a piece of the current core.

But some of Detroit’s best trades have arguably been with the same franchise, as the Pistons have fleeced the Magic several times in their respective histories.

It was actually hard to choose, as the Pistons once traded a washed up Brandon Jennings and role player Ersan Ilyasova for Tobias Harris, a trade I would rank higher if the Pistons didn’t then inexplicably include Harris in the disastrous trade for Blake Griffin.

The Pistons were also able to unload Darko Milicic onto the Magic (sorry Orlando) in exchange for a (first round!!) pick that eventually became Rodney Stuckey.

But if we are talking the best trade with Orlando, there is really only one to choose from.

Detroit Pistons: A risky trade brings a Hall-of-Famer to Detroit

This trade didn’t look great for Detroit at the time, but it paid big time dividends eventually:

This was one of the weirdest trades in Pistons’ history, as they swapped Hill, who was a 5-time All-Star and coming off the best season of his career for undrafted Ben Wallace, who most people had not heard of. Hill was heading into free agency so in an effort to not lose him for nothing, the Pistons orchestrated a sign-and-trade with Orlando.

Joe Dumars was dragged for this trade, and if Twitter had existed back then, it might have exploded with Pistons’ rage. It wasn’t the trade itself, but the fact that he waited too long and got “nothing” for a guy who was a superstar (albeit one with an ankle injury).

But Dumars must have been able to tell the future, because this trade couldn’t have worked out better for the Detroit Pistons.

Hill barely played in the following three seasons in Orlando, battling injuries that ultimately derailed his career. He never again had a season like his final one in Detroit, where he averaged over 25 points per game and was a triple-double machine.

Wallace meanwhile, made four All-Star appearances with Detroit (it should have been at least two more), led the league in rebounds, blocked shots and won Defensive Player of the Year four times in addition to helping to bring a title to Detroit.

Wallace was recently rewarded by being inducted into the Hall of Fame, the first undrafted player to make it.

This was a case of trading a player at the exact right moment and dodging a bullet, as the Pistons got the best of Hill and then traded him out for the best of Wallace, getting both player’s primes.

Thanks, Orlando! And let’s trade again soon!