Detroit Pistons: Would this Bojan Bogdanovic trade really help?

Detroit Pistons: Bojan Bogdanovic trade to the Atlanta Hawks

The Pistons’ biggest weakness at the moment is that they lack defense, athleticism and rebounding from their forwards.

Both Saddiq Bey and Bojan Bogdanovic are slew-footed defenders who can’t really guard wings and don’t play above the rim. Neither of them are very good rebounders, which puts a lot of pressure on the Pistons’ undersized bigs on the boards.

Collins is not the accomplished scorer and shooter that Bogdanovic is, but he is a better defender and rebounder. He fits the timeline age-wise much better and is already under contract through the 2024-25 season with a player option for one after that. His salary is reasonable and will look even more so once the salary cap spikes again.

The Pistons have plenty of money and this would be one way to get a younger talent without overpaying on the 2023 free agent market, which is not great.

This is a guy who has shown real potential as a two-way forward and had a season where he scored 21.5 points and got over 10 rebounds per game while shooting 40 percent from 3-point range.

At his best, Collins is a better all-around player than Bogdanovic and could return to that level with an increased role in a situation that better suited him.

He reminds me a bit of Andrew Wiggins, who many had written off before he landed in the perfect situation and started thriving as a two-way forward right around the same age that Collins is now.

He fills a need and still has an opportunity to get better, so this would be the type of deal the Pistons might jump at.

Or not.