Yesterday had a flurry of NBA news, some of it directly involving the Detroit Pistons and some tacitly.
The Bol Bol trade for Rodney McGruder and a second-round pick was voided after the Pistons saw something in Bol’s physical that they didn’t like.
In completely unrelated news, the New York Knicks traded Kevin Knox and a first-round pick for Cam Reddish of the Atlanta Hawks.
Reddish had been loosely connected to the Pistons in rumors, as had the Knicks, who were reportedly interested in a trade for Jerami Grant.
Neither move is going to shake the foundations of the league by any means, and the Detroit Pistons may have dodged some bullets by missing out on these two particular players.
Bol Bol had too many red flags for the Detroit Pistons
I’ll admit that I was somewhat intrigued by the idea of Bol Bol, as the Pistons don’t have any type of rim protection and he’s a 7-foot-2 forward who can allegedly block shots.
But this is a guy who could not get off the bench for the Denver Nuggets, one of the NBA’s best teams at developing players, and had only played 20 minutes or more three times in his entire career.
These two things are big red flags, and though I was mildly intrigued at the prospect of Bol, I didn’t expect him to be an impact player for the Pistons, and if I had to guess, I’d say he won’t be long for the NBA if things continue this way for him.
There have also been rumblings about his attitude and work ethic and the more I hear about Bol, the less I want him around Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons. To be honest, I was more interested as seeing Bol as a potential surrogate preview of Chet Holmgren.
There is a reason the Nuggets (a very well run team) were willing to give Bol Bol up for very little, whether it was red flags about his health or his attitude, so the Pistons probably dodged a bullet there.
This was one of the least consequential trades in NBA history and further proof of how desperate we Pistons fans are to have anything other than Cade and Bey to be excited about.