Detroit Pistons: Passing on role players was smart

When competing for a championship, role players can be worth their weight in gold. But teams in the Detroit Pistons’ position evaluate role players differently than more competitive teams. At times, this has put Troy Weaver in a difficult position.

Throughout the last three years, he’s been forced to trade players for less than their worth because it wasn’t in the interest of the team to pay them fair market value. Other teams have been well aware of the Pistons’ position and often had more than one option to fill their needs.

Detroit Pistons: Trading away the role players was smart

Weaver traded both Bruce Brown and Luke Kennard for less than their “fair market” value, but he acquired something for players he couldn’t justify paying.

Brown was entering the final year of his rookie contract when traded to Brooklyn. Although I would argue he was underpaid his second year in the better borough and underpaid by Denver, his salary almost tripled and doubled again the next year. Rationalizing this outcome from strictly a business angle: he was competing in the playoffs, which meant his contributions paid for themselves.

The Detroit Pistons would have been paying him to wear an unnecessary neck brace while the fans chanted “Fade for Cade.”

Brown contributed great minutes on a Brooklyn team hampered by injuries and attitudes, and he helped the Nuggets win a championship. The man can ball, and he deserves to get paid.

Weaver traded him for Dzanan Musa and a 2021 second-round pick, and the opportunity to fold that trade into another involving Luke Kennard.

Kennard has proved to be a blistering shooter and was a better defender than I expected. My expectations were low. The Clippers proved they valued Kennard when they offered him a contract extension despite claiming to be worried about his health. Like Bruce Brown, Kennard’s salary almost tripled. Unlike Brown, Kennard was not underpaid. I estimate he received fair market value for his offensive skills, skills less valuable today to the Pistons than the Clippers or Grizzlies.

The Detroit Pistons traded a flame thrower for Rodney McGruder’s locker room presence and the draft pick that became Saddiq Bey, whom they traded for their fourth center.

After Brown, the Bey trade might appear to be the biggest head-scratcher. Bey filled a need for Detroit, but he wasn’t an athletic enough wing to stay in front of quick opponents or to create his own shot. He’s a decent shooter off the catch, and as he develops his offensive awareness, he’ll be better able to set screens, rotate, cut, and spread the floor. Bey fills a need in Atlanta, a team hoping to contend now, but like Brown and Kennard, he was too expensive for the Pistons.

Bey deserves a contract extension, and I hope he enjoys a long and successful career. I wish he were still in Detroit, and I’ll root for him whenever he isn’t playing against Detroit. He hasn’t proven himself versatile enough to be a central piece of Detroit’s developing core.

Was James Wiseman a worthwhile consolation prize? We’ll see. Wiseman has a lot of potential. He may realize that potential in Detroit, or he may make his way to a team where he thrives. Detroit, hopefully, will receive ample compensation.

The Pistons are still in the stage of trying to add star power to their young core, but it won’t be long before they too can start looking for role players to complement them. They might be a season away from looking for the type of quality role players that championship caliber teams need on their bench and paying them accordingly.

So it was smart for Weaver to pass on the role players for now, get what compensation he could and wait for the day when the Pistons are the type of contenders that need more than just “mentors’ on their bench.