The Detroit Pistons have the worst record in the NBA and it doesn’t look like that is going to change any time soon.
While some of the other tankers have won in recent games, Detroit just continues to pile up the losses, dropping 14 of their last 15 games to get a commanding 2.5 game “lead” in the race to the bottom.
The Pistons are hoping that some luck in the NBA Draft Lottery and the right free agent/trade additions will be enough for them to finally be competitive next season. Every lottery team wants a chance to draft Victor Wembanyama, but if the Pistons fall, they will have plenty of other options.
Detroit Pistons draft: The 2nd pick and team building
The Pistons have a 13.4 percent chance of landing the 2nd pick, and if they do, there will be a lot of options on the table.
It would put Detroit in the position of taking the best non-Wembanyama prospect available, but if they don’t feel there is a huge difference between pick two and say, pick seven, they could also try to trade the pick to one of the teams looking to start over at point guard with Scoot Henderson.
There are two teams in the Eastern Conference that have a player the Detroit Pistons could definitely use, and they might be able to build a better and more coherent team by trading the second pick for an established player at a position of need.
Detroit Pistons: 2023 NBA Draft trade with the Toronto Raptors
The Eastern Conference is still far from settled, so we don’t yet know which teams will make the playoffs and which ones will be in the lottery.
The Pistons will be a huge part of this, as they will play just about every team in the hunt for the play-in tournament and could be the spoiler or help them pad their win totals.
Currently the Raptors are sitting in the 9th spot, just a game ahead of the Bulls and 2.5 ahead of the Pacers. If the Raptors were to fall out of the top-10 or lose in the play-in tournament, they may look to re-tool, especially at point guard where Fred VanVleet is looking for a big pay raise after a down season.
If the Detroit Pistons had the 2nd pick, they could use it to entice Toronto into a trade.
In this scenario, the Pistons solve their wing problem with OG Anunoby and also take back whatever lottery pick the Raptors end up with, obviously the higher the better.
In exchange the Raptors get their point guard of the future in Scoot Henderson and take on Marvin Bagley III. This would potentially give the Detroit Pistons a much-more balanced lineup with a real wing.
- Cunningham/Hayes
- Ivey/Burks
- Anunoby/Livers
- Bogdanovic/Stewart/Rookie
- Duren/Wiseman
But is Anunoby really enough to give up the second pick in the 2023 NBA Draft? There might be a better option out there depending on how the season finishes.
Detroit Pistons: 2023 NBA Draft trade with the Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets are another team to keep an eye on, as they have lost three in a row and are now just a game ahead of the Heat for the 6th spot and a guaranteed place in the playoffs.
If the Nets were to continue to lose and end up out of the playoffs, they could be another team looking to revamp around a young star point guard like Scoot Henderson.
This deal would require the Pistons to use some of their cap space to absorb a bad contract, but might be worth it:
Detroit once again gets off Bagley III in this one (you might have noticed a theme) and gives up the second pick in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Joe Harris’ corpse and whatever pick the Nets end up with. Houston has the right to swap picks with the Nets, but will likely have a better pick, so Detroit would get the Nets’ pick if they were to fall into the lottery.
Cunningham, Ivey and Bridges is a trio you can build around and would finally give the Pistons the wing they have long lacked.
For either of these trades would work, obviously the other team would have to consider Scoot Henderson to be worth dealing a very good player and the Detroit Pistons would have to believe that player would be better for the team than Scoot.
There are a ton of moving parts here, and both Toronto and Brooklyn could end up making the playoffs, making this even less likely, but if Detroit doesn’t like the idea of adding another guard, they could look to trade that second pick for an established wing.