Last season, both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Minnesota Timberwolves were right where the Detroit Pistons are soon hoping to be, young teams that made the playoffs and were on the verge of being contenders.
Both were surprise teams, as the Cavaliers finished 9th in the Eastern Conference with a 44-38 record and the Timberwolves finished 7th in the Western Conference with a record of 46-36.
Both teams were built around young talent that they drafted and both looked to be on the cusp of something special that could be sustainable, as the core of their team was young and they had the right mixture of veteran talent around them.
Both teams decided to go for it in the offseason, trading huge troves of assets to acquire star players from the Utah Jazz, with the Cavaliers landing guard Donovan Mitchell and the Timberwolves getting Rudy Gobert.
Both teams gave up good players and tons of picks to get their targets without disrupting their cores, yet, the Cavaliers are currently 26-16, the 5th seed in the East, and the Timberwolves are just 20-22, good for 10th in the West after losing their second game of the season to the lowly Detroit Pistons, who had only one center, Nerlens Noel, in the lineup.
The trade has worked out well for Cleveland, who look like a legit contender in the East and should be for years to come, while Minnesota fans are wondering if they can build a time machine to go back and undo their trade.
So what happened? These trades can be a lesson to the Detroit Pistons, who hope to be in position to make a similar move soon.
Detroit Pistons: The big move has to be the right one
Teams are not built on paper, something the Detroit Pistons know all too well, as they have added talent to their team this season only to watch them get worse, largely due to a complete collapse of the defense.
The Pistons were not likely to be good this season even if Cade Cunningham hadn’t gotten hurt, and without him, they are again one of the worst teams in the NBA. But that shouldn’t last long, as Detroit has some very exciting young talent and a ton of cash to spend in free agency.
They are maybe one or two seasons away from looking to make a big trade of their own to complete the roster, as both the Cavs and ‘Wolves did this past offseason.
But as those trades have shown, it needs to be the right one or it can cost you dearly.
The Cavaliers gave up some good players for Mitchell, as well as several future picks, but it was the right call, as he was exactly what they needed. Their defense has stayed one of the best in the league while their offensive rating has gone up with Mitchell, as he gave them the firepower they lacked.
The Timberwolves, on the other hand, have seen both their offensive and defensive ratings get worse after adding Rudy Gobert, who was supposed to shore up their defense and help their young scorers in the pick-and-roll.
Gobert has not proven to be a good fit, which shows you that adding a big name isn’t always the right move. You can point to the injury to Karl-Anthony Towns as the reason for Minnesota’s slide this season, but they have identical records (10-11) with and without KAT this season.
There were huge question marks about how Gobert would mesh with KAT and Anthony Edwards and the doubters have been proven right so far. Now Minnesota is stuck with a defensive specialist in decline, who they will be paying $46 million in 2025-26 when he is 33-years-old, an oft-injured tweener center in Karl-Anthony Towns who will be making $60 million in 2027-28, few draft picks between now and 2029, no cap space and Anthony Edwards hasn’t even signed a rookie extension yet.
In other words, a they went from promising up and comer to mess in the course of one offseason because they either made the big trade too early or for the wrong guy, your choice.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers got a guy who meshed perfectly with what they already had and look set up to be contenders for the foreseeable future. They gave up a ton of draft picks too, but already had their young pieces in place and traded for a guy who is only 26-years-old, while the Timberwolves went after 30-year-old Gobert.
The lesson to the Detroit Pistons? Be the Cavaliers, not the Timberwolves. Detroit may only get one shot to add a big name once they have their pieces in place and look to be on the cusp of contending and they have to make the right choice.
Minnesota jumped too soon and for the wrong guy, when they could have just let their team grow together around superstar Anthony Edwards. Like I said, you don’t build a team on paper, and getting the right guy is far more important than making a move that grabs headlines.