The Detroit Pistons will have several difficult roster decisions to make this offseason and are hoping to avoid the mistakes of the past.
They’ll have to decide whether to give extensions to Isaiah Stewart, James Wiseman and Killian Hayes or to let them enter next season on expiring deals.
Keeping the wrong guy, or giving him too much money, can be a mistake that hampers a team for years, but giving up too early on a player can be even worse, as the Pistons know all-too well.
Troy Weaver already knows about the former, as he gave Marvin Bagley III a three-year deal that now looks like a disaster, as he has once-again missed a ton of time and is a terrible fit with the rest of their roster.
He’s trying to avoid the second mistake, which is giving up on a guy too soon. He already traded away 2020 1st-round pick Saddiq Bey (time will tell if that was a good move) and could do the same with Killian Hayes this offseason.
Will those moves come back to bite him? It’s awful watching a former player blow up on another team, a position the Detroit Pistons have been in before. Here are seven guys the Pistons gave up on too soon, in no particular order.
7 players the Detroit Pistons gave up on too soon
#7: Ricky Pierce
Pierce only played 39 games for the Detroit Pistons after being drafted 18th in the 1982 NBA Draft before promptly being traded after his rookie season. Pierce went on to have a long and productive career that included an All-Star appearance for Milwaukee in a season in which he averaged over 22 points per game.
Pierce ended up playing for eight different teams in his career and got buckets for all of them except the Pistons after they ditched him early for two second-round picks.
#6: Arron Afflalo
The Detroit Pistons drafted Afflalo with the 27th pick in the 2007 NBA Draft but didn’t give him much of a chance. He only played two seasons with the team before being dumped to Denver in exchange for a second-round pick. Afflalo didn’t put up big numbers in those two years but did show the ability to play defense and hit the 3-ball.
The Pistons have basically been looking for their 3-and-D wing ever since, which is what Afflalo became as soon as he left Detroit. He got more minutes in Denver and made the most of them, and by his fifth year in the league he was averaging 15 points per game while knocking down 40 percent of his 3-point shots.
He eventually ended up in Orlando, where he hit his peak, averaging 18 points per game on 42 percent shooting from long range. It’s arguable that Afflalo would be even better now, but he’s definitely a guy the Pistons gave up on too soon.
With some exceptions, we won’t know who a player is going to be until he hits 25-years-old, which his the exact age Afflalo took off as a player.
7 players the Detroit Pistons gave up on too soon
#5: Tobias Harris
The Detroit Pistons were finally on the good side of a lopsided trade when they acquired Tobias Harris from the Magic for practically nothing back in the 2015-16 season.
Harris was bucket getter from early in his career and continued in Detroit, where he averaged 16 and 18 points per game over parts of three seasons.
But then Harris was dealt as part of the massive package that landed Blake Griffin, a move that looked horrible at the time and proved to be so even though Griffin arguably had the best season of his career with the Pistons.
The problem was that it was only one season. After his magical 2018-19 season, Griffin fell off a cliff and was never the same guy again. Eventually the Pistons had to pay him to go away, buying out the last two years of his deal at a steep cost.
While Griffin was relegated to end of the bench role player, Harris just kept plugging away and doing what he does best, making shots, averaging right around 20 per game in the five seasons after being traded from Detroit.
Harris is still a key player on a very good team, averaging nearly 15 points per game, while Griffin barely plays for the Celtics. Griffin may have been the better player for one year, but Harris was the better investment and has been the better player since it happened.
7 players the Detroit Pistons gave up on too soon
#4 and 3: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown
KCP is player the Pistons probably wish they had back now, as he’d be the 3-and-D veteran wing that they are missing.
The Pistons took KCP 8th overall in the 2013 Draft and his draft status is partially the reason fans were disappointed with his early results. He did average over 14 points per game in one season for the Pistons, but was never much of a shooter, which is one of the reasons (in addition to some off-the-court stuff) that Detroit simply gave up on him.
The Pistons renounced his rights and just let KCP become an unrestricted free agent, which seems like GM malpractice, as they could have gotten something for him in a trade. Instead, he went on to become a very good role player, winning a ring with the Lakers and then becoming a key part of the Denver Nuggets, who currently look like Pistons 2.0 with several of Detroit’s cast offs.
His teammate Bruce Brown is another guy who could have made this list, as he too was given away for practically nothing and has evolved into a quality role player on a good team.
Brown is now a do-it-all guard/wing who can defend just about every position and both he and KCP are averaging double digits for the best team in the Western Conference.
They are both tough defenders who hustle and do all of the little things, the exact types of guys the Pistons are missing.
7 players the Detroit Pistons gave up on too soon
#2: Spencer Dinwiddie
There were so many mistakes made regarding and adjacent to Spencer Dinwiddie that it’s hard to know where to start.
For one, he was drafted just three spots ahead of reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, a miscalculation that the entire league wishes they could have back.
You can’t blame the Pistons too much for that, as they got a good player in the second round in Dinwiddie, a combo guard who is still averaging 18 points per game.
Their less forgivable mistake was giving up on Dinwiddie too soon and the reasons why were even worse, as Detroit decided Steve Blake was the better investment and gave him all of the minutes as backup point guard instead of developing Dinwiddie.
After just two seasons and 46 games in Detroit, Dinwiddie was dealt for Cameron Freaking Bairstow, a guy who never played a meaningful minute in the NBA. Meanwhile, Dinwiddie has been a borderline All-Star a few times and is still a very productive player on a good team.
7 players the Detroit Pistons gave up on too soon
#1: Khris Middleton
Middleton, like Dinwiddie, was another situation where the Detroit Pistons hit a home run in the second-round of the NBA Draft only to give the player away.
Middleton was the 39th pick in the 2012 Draft and played just 27 games in Detroit before he was traded as part of the move to acquire Brandon Jennings. The wild part is that Middleton was an afterthought in the trade, as Brandon Knight was the big get for Milwaukee. Little did they know that Middleton would become the best player in the group.
He immediately started making an impact for the Bucks, playing all 82 games in his first season, averaging 12 points per game and shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range, so the Pistons didn’t have to wait long to see their colossal mistake.
Middleton just kept getting better (Brandon Jennings didn’t if you were wondering), culminating in three All-Star selections and being the second-best player on a title team. When healthy, Middleton is one of the best two-way wings in the game, the exact type of player the Pistons have been looking for since.
He is proof that you never know what you are losing when you give up on young players too soon, which is a mistake Troy Weaver hopes he hasn’t already made.