Detroit Pistons: 10 worst trades in franchise history
#1 Acquired Allen Iverson in exchange for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb
This trade is the equivalent of watching an aging vet – today, the best example that comes to mind is, locally, is Miguel Cabrera – flounder around years after their prime. For those who don’t know, Cabrera is a surefire Hall-of-Famer who has spent the last 15 years playing baseball for the Detroit Tigers. Unfortunately, it’s been five years since he’s been any good.
Iverson scored 17 points a night for the Pistons in his 54 games with the team but the most meaningful numbers he racked up while in Detroit were at the casino. His heart didn’t seem like it was in it, and it just didn’t work. He was 33-years-old at the time so it’s not fair to go too hard at him. His mere acquisition did have it’s element of excitement. But it was fool’s gold.
Plot twist, the aging veteran analogy has nothing to do with A.I.
Then President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars had been trying to reel in a big fish for years, whether Iverson himself or the one and only Kobe Bryant. While Dumars is celebrated for being the architect of a superstar-less championship basketball team, he had long-coveted a superstar to build around. The irony.
Near the end of his tenure, it was clear that Dumars was burnt out. After winning championships on the court, and in the front office, and racking up personal achievements like having the league’s sportsmanship award named after him, the man who had represented the Pistons for over 20 years – and did it better than anyone else ever has – finally departed the organization.
The postscript is Chauncey Billups. No, he didn’t do anything especially spectacular after being traded away, but he did continue to play well and excel as a leader for the Denver Nuggets and then briefly for both the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers.
When he was traded, his presence was missed immeasurably by both the fans and his teammates. Ben Wallace may have been the backbone of that superstar-less Pistons team, but Billups was the lynchpin. He held everyone accountable, and together. His loss was so profound that it was symbolic. Most fans won’t even remember that Billups returned to play his final 19 games in the NBA for the Detroit Pistons in the 2013-14 season, but trading him away marked the end of an era and the beginning of the one we are currently mired in.