The Detroit Pistons have one glaring problem with their roster that will have to be addressed before next season.
They have four centers who will all be chasing minutes, two of them have fairly redundant skills and they are paying $25 million for two backups, which is not a smart allocation of cap space in the modern NBA.
Please find me a good team that has $25 million in cap space tied up in two backup centers who can’t shoot. I’ll wait.
Troy Weaver has repeatedly (which scares me) talked about playing two bigs as necessary to compete in the Eastern Conference, but if he’s been watching the playoffs he’d know that none of the top teams are doing it.
Regardless of what Weaver thinks, it’s hard to see new coach Monty Williams using two-big lineups that sacrifice defense, passing and shooting just to shoehorn Weaver’s vision onto his rotations.
So a trade of either Marvin Bagley III or James Wiseman (the two bigs with redundant skills) makes sense, but it won’t be easy.
Detroit Pistons: Trading Marvin Bagley III or James Wiseman
If all four of the Detroit Pistons’ big men had different skills then you could maybe justify keeping all of them, but MBIII and Wiseman are very similar as mostly post players who can’t shoot and aren’t great rim protectors or defensive rebounders.
But trading either one of them isn’t going to be easy, as both are due over $12 million next season and have done little to justify that cost.
Wiseman is on an expiring deal, so would represent an unproven $12.1 million rental, which may have some appeal to a younger team that wanted to take a flyer on potentially high-end talent, as the Pistons did this past season.
Bagley III has two years left on his deal, so may be even more difficult to move, especially after he once again missed half the season with injury, a theme in his career. MBIII has still yet to top the 62 games he played in his rookie season and has since played 13, 43, 48 and 42 games, not exactly an Iron Man.
In other words, the Detroit Pistons aren’t going to be getting a huge return in a trade, and will either need to find a team with a similarly odious contract, one that is desperate for a center, or one looking to shed salary for next season.
But even given those limitations, a recent trade proposed by Bleacher Report misses the mark.