Detroit Pistons: Is adding a distant pick worth another year of losing?

Detroit Pistons: The trade is definitely worth it

Raise your hand if you think Kelly Olynyk, Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel and Kemba Walker are going to make the Pistons good next season. No? Didn’t think so.

This team is going to be bad either way, so they can either win around 30 games and not make the play-in, or win around 20 games and not make the play-in, your choice.

Losing one more season gives them a chance at another top pick, plus another down the road when the Lakers could be horrible and Detroit could be good, which means Detroit could be adding a top pick to a playoff roster in 2027, which is how you stay good.

As for player development, they’ll get even more! Jettisoning guys like Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel ensures that young players Jaden Ivey and even Jalen Duren will get plenty of minutes next season, which is how young players improve.

Cade, Ivey, Duren, Bey and Stewart will forget all about losing in a few years when they are winning, building off the experience they got when they were bad.

There’s no arguing that losing again would suck for fans, but we’re tough, we can handle one more season of this, especially if it means adding another star and getting to see the young guys play huge minutes. We are essentially donkeys at this point and we’ll keep chasing the carrot.

So what do you think? Would you tank for one more season to get a first-round pick in the distant future or would you try to keep the momentum from after the All-Star break and keep making incremental improvement?

Those are the questions Troy Weaver and the Detroit Pistons are trying to answer right now as they weigh the pros and cons of trading for Russell Westbrook.