The super high risk, high reward trade for the Pistons

Detroit Pistons: Trading for Zion Williamson

Firstly, I am dubious that the Pelicans really want to trade Zion Williamson, as to do so would be to give up on a guy before he’s really done anything and they’ve already invested quite a lot in him in terms of money, effort and time.

However, they did just fire his favorite coach Teresa Weatherspoon and he just had a closed door meeting with team president David Griffin, which could be something, or could not.

Also, his value is likely at an all-time low, so if they really want to move him, it would be smart to wait until he was healthy and playing well, though if he was healthy, they probably wouldn’t want to trade him, as Zion is a top-10 player in the NBA when firing on all cylinders.

Secondly, they may only be interested in Scoot Henderson, whose skillset would fit in nicely with CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram, giving the Pelicans a team that could still make the playoffs and compete even without Zion.

But in this hypothetical, the Pels are willing to take a risk on another dynamic guard while improving their draft station and cutting a ton of money:

In this trade, the Pistons and Pelicans swap picks, bringing New Orleans up to five and knocking Detroit to the back end of the lottery. The Pistons take Zion Williamson off their hands and the Pelicans get their dynamic guard in Jaden Ivey as well as a ton of cap space.

I don’t think this is anywhere near a no-brainer for either team, as Zion is a generational, face-of-the-league talent when healthy and this would be selling low for New Orleans. And for Detroit? This would be a super high-risk trade that could potentially lose someone their job if it didn’t work out.

But if it did? The rewards would be huge for the Detroit Pistons.