The Detroit Pistons will have the 5th and 31st picks in the 2023 NBA Draft and a lot of possibilities for what to do with them.
Detroit has reportedly been “aggressively” pursuing trades for the 5th pick, and that was before they made the big splash by hiring coach Monty Williams and making him the highest paid coach in the NBA.
Does hiring Monty Williams make a trade more likely? Not necessarily, as Troy Weaver was going to explore trades either way and won’t make one unless the right deal is there for a player who can help them now, or for additional draft assets.
Today I am going to put on my GM hat and fire up the trade machine to see some of the possibilities the Pistons have when it comes to making a draft trade.
Here is a hypothetical trade with each team in the top-10 of the 2023 NBA Draft.
Detroit Pistons: Possible draft trade with every team in the top-10
#10: Dallas Mavericks
This trade with the Dallas Mavericks made a little more sense before the Monty Williams hire, as it seems less likely that the Detroit Pistons are going to want to move veterans for youth with Williams on board.
This is the type of move that could make the Pistons worse in the short term, so they’d have to absolutely love someone available at 10 and have high hopes of landing an impact free agent with some experience to replace Bojan Bogdanovic.
The Mavs are desperate and will almost certainly trade that 10th pick, and there is some argument that Bogdanovic is not a great fit with the Pistons given his lack of defense on the wing. The Mavs may want Detroit to eat more of their terrible contacts as well.