Detroit Pistons: A blown move that looks even worse after Irving trade

Every team in the NBA has moves they wish they could take back, and that certainly includes the Detroit Pistons.

The Pistons have unfortunately been involved in some of the marquee blunders in NBA history, the biggest probably being when they selected Darko Milicic instead of Carmelo Anthony or Dwyane Wade.

More recently, the Pistons gave away Khris Middleton as a throw-in in the Brandon Jennings trade and he ended up becoming a three-time All-Star and NBA champion at the exact position they are currently lacking.

But the recent Kyrie Irving trade has shown a light on another blown move for the Detroit Pistons, which looks even worse now.

Detroit Pistons: Spencer Dinwiddie was a lost opportunity

The Detroit Pistons drafted Spencer Dinwiddie with the 38th pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and the pick had a chance to be a home run for the Pistons.

But they lacked the foresight or patience to develop the big point guard and gave him little chance to thrive even though the teams he was on were terrible. Dinwiddie did show some promise as a rookie, appearing in 34 games, but in his second season was benched behind Steve freaking Blake and only saw action in 12 games.

The Pistons promptly gave up on Dinwiddie and traded him away for nothing, getting only Cameron Bairstow in return, a guy who played in 36 NBA games, never showed anything and ended his career in the Australian league.

Meanwhile, Dinwiddie went on to have a very successful career as a combo guard, peaking in 2019-20 when he averaged over 20 points and 6.8 assists per game for the Nets and was a borderline All-Star. Injuries have been an issue for Dinwiddie, but he’s been a productive role player for Brooklyn, Washington and most recently, the Dallas Mavericks, where he was averaging 17.7 points, 5.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game this season while shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range.

He was the centerpiece player in the Kyrie Irving trade, so the Mavericks were able to use him, Dorian Finney-Smith and a 1st-round pick to land Kyrie.

It’s easy to look back and say what teams did wrong, but trading Dinwiddie (who had shown some promise) for Cameron Bairstow was a questionable move at the time and looks even worse now that we have seen him become a good role player and be a trade asset at the deadline.

Given the many incarnations the Detroit Pistons have gone through since trading Dinwiddie, it’s hard to say how his career would have turned out in Detroit, but it’s a move the Pistons wish they had done differently.