Pistons: Proposed trade of Bojan Bogdanovic to Heat has pros and cons

Detroit Pistons: Trade of Bojan Bogdanovic to the Miami Heat

The Detroit Pistons have said that they would require at least one unprotected first-round pick for Bogdanovic and this might be as close as they can get, as the Heat are extremely unlikely to end up in the top-4 anyway.

The Heat are currently 6th in the Eastern Conference, so the pick as of the writing of this would be the 22nd in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Coupled with Nikola Jovic, who was the 27th pick in last year’s draft, the Pistons would essentially be getting two late first rounders for Bojan Bogdanovic, as Jovic is just 19-years-old. Considering Jovic would still be young in this year’s draft, getting two picks for a 33-year-old might be the best the Pistons can hope for if they are really intent on trading Bogdanovic.

Jovic is a 6-foot-10 forward who hasn’t played much this season as a rookie, but he’s been compared to Danilo Gallinari because of his 3-point shooting and playmaking potential. ESPN scout Jonathan Givony had this to day about Jovic coming into the draft:

"“Jovic’s combination of size, ballhandling, passing, dynamic shot-making, confidence and youth is intriguing to NBA scouts, drawing comparisons to oversized international guards like Danilo Gallinari and Deni Avdija.”"

Jovic is obviously still a work in progress and is not going to help Detroit’s woeful defense, but he has potential and would add another young talent to the Pistons.

The elephant in the room is Duncan Robinson, who is currently out after getting surgery on his finger and could miss as much as another month. But the real problem is his contract, which pays him $18.1 million next season, $19.4 the season after that and $19.8 million in 2025-26, though that is only partially guaranteed.

If you were getting the Robinson from 2019-20, when he was one of the best volume 3-point shooters in the league, you’d probably jump on this deal, but does that Robinson exist? Will he ever regain that form?

He’s still only 28-years-old, so there is time, but that is an expensive role of the dice. At his best, he’d replace a lot of what Bogdanovic gives the Pistons as a 3-point shooter, but at his worst (what we’ve seen this year), he’s one of the worst contracts in the league for his production, as he is averaging just 6.9 points per game on 33 percent from 3-point range.

The contract is bad, but Robinson may still have some good basketball left in him and the Detroit Pistons would still have the same amount of cap space to spend this summer.

Also, the Miami Heat aren’t a great team this season, and there is no guarantee they’ll improve with Bogdanovic, so it’s possible that pick could end up being better than it is right now. The problem with most of the “pros’ is that they contain a lot of “ifs,” which is why it is far easier to see the cons of this one.