The Detroit Pistons will be looking for offseason upgrades any way they can get them, whether it is through the 2022 NBA Draft, free agency or trades.
The recently-eliminated Utah Jazz are a team that will have several players potentially hitting the market, through none of their free agents are top-end guys.
That list might be getting bigger, as a recent rumor about Rudy Gobert has the NBA world buzzing:
I know I am not usually @utahjazz breaking news guy, but a source close to situation has informed me that Rudy Gobert is at "him or me" point with Donovan Mitchell and will demand that one of them be traded in next few days. Doesn't feel they will win championship together.
— Sean O'Connell (@realOCsports) May 2, 2022
The All-NBA center and 3-time Defensive Player of the Year is reportedly getting impatient with the pairing with Donovan Mitchell and may want out.
Of course, this is just a rumor and these kinds of “sources” are wrong all of the time, so this is certainly not a guarantee that Utah breaks up their team.
But if they do, Gobert is the one likely to be shipped out, as Mitchell is younger and considerably cheaper than Gobert and probably easier to build around.
So if Gobert is on the market, should the Detroit Pistons be interested?
Detroit Pistons: Many ways to use cap space
As we’ve discussed many times, the Detroit Pistons will have some amount of cap space to spend the summer and could use it to try and nab a free agent.
But they could also use it to absorb a contract in a trade where they didn’t send back equal money. They also have Jerami Grant’s expiring contract to potentially send back in any big trade, and he’s a guy the Utah Jazz were connected to briefly at the trade deadline.
Trading for Gobert is possible but not easy, as the Pistons might have the players and contracts, but Utah would almost certainly want draft compensation as well, which the Pistons don’t have until they convey the pick they owe to OKC, which may not happen for several seasons.
The only leverage the Pistons would have is that they are one of the few teams with cap space who would be able to take on Gobert’s contract without sending bad/equal money back.
So, just for the sake of argument, let’s assume the Pistons could swing a deal for Gobert that somehow didn’t include a draft pick, Cade Cunningham or Saddiq Bey, which I think is extremely unlikely, is he even a guy they should pursue?