Grade the trade: Pistons land superstar in ESPN 3-team trade

Grading the trade of Zion Williamson to the Detroit Pistons

If you look at the last 12 NBA champions, all but one of them had a top-5 player on the roster. The only holdout would be the San Antonio Spurs and that is arguable, as they had a young Kawhi Leonard and an all-time great in Tim Duncan to go along with Hall-of-Famers Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

You need top talent to win a title and the Detroit Pistons have limited ways to acquire it. They are hoping Cade Cunningham can eventually be that guy, but other than him, does Detroit have anyone who will ever be a legit MVP candidate? Questionable.

When he’s healthy, Zion Williamson is a legit MVP candidate, as we saw this past season when he had his team as the #1 seed in the Western Conference while averaging 26 points and seven rebounds on otherworldly efficiency.

Of course Zion is a risk, but for the Detroit Pistons to land an MVP-caliber player, they are going to have to take risks, as their tanking days are over, so it’s not likely they find that player in the NBA Draft.

Of course, you could just argue that they should keep their 5th pick, add more young talent, supplement it with a free agent or two and see what happens and that is certainly a valid train of thought.

The other is that the Pistons would only be giving up Bogdanovic (who is 34-years-old and has one year left on his deal), Isaiah Stewart (a role player, though this one would be tough, I love Beef Stew) and the #5 pick in a weak draft with no projected superstar talent outside of the top two.

The Pistons would still have some additional cap space to sign a free agent and suddenly go from the cellar to a potential playoff team without giving up any of their core guys:

They’d head into the season with a lineup that looked something like this:

• Cade Cunningham
• Jaden Ivey
• Free agent
• Zion Williamson
• Jalen Duren

That’s a team with huge upside, a ton of talent and every guy is 22-years-old or under. Get the right free-agent wing and this is a playoff team right away.

If it works out, the Pistons get a top-10 player for much cheaper than they ever would be able to otherwise and he is only 22! It’s a big risk, but if he gets injured again the Pistons would have some ways out, so it wouldn’t be catastrophic.

You need top players to win championships and this would be one way (albeit a risky one) for Detroit to get one. I may be in the minority here, but if the 5th pick, Bogdanovic and Stewart are the cost, I would take the plunge on Zion, bring huge excitement to Detroit and just pray that like Joel Embiid, Zion gets healthy after some bad injury luck and eventually becomes an MVP.

Grade: B+