Detroit Pistons: Trades to take on bad contracts for assets

The Bradley Beal deal unofficially opened the trade season leading up to Thursday night’s NBA Draft. As the Detroit Pistons look to use any opportunity available this offseason to improve their roster for the immediate and distant future, they might choose to take on overpaid players who could fill a need in order to also gain future assets.

Consider this approach a middle path between taking on more dead money and sacrificing future flexibility for a potential home run.

Detroit Pistons: The Clock is Ticking

Cade Cunningham has two years left on his rookie deal, and his extension will shape the Detroit Pistons’ financial situation for years to come. We’ve seen too many teams (Dallas, Washington, or Portland) crippled by an albatross contract and unable to put a team around their lone star. The Pistons haven’t made big financial commitments to anyone over the last three years, and the contract extensions they have made, both Bogdanovic and Bagley’s, end at the conclusion of Cunningham’s rookie deal. Isaiah Stewart deserves an extension and raise (and I hope he gets both), but his contract shouldn’t significantly affect the team’s cap space.

This means the Detroit Pistons have two years to acquire assets, role players, and put together a cohesive core that competes while maintaining the flexibility to improve through trades. Every move counts.

Detroit Pistons Asset Acquisition

While many fans might not want to hear it, the Pistons would benefit from acquiring more assets before committing money to role players. This might impede the team’s success in the short term, but skipping steps could keep the team mired in mediocrity.

Here are a few options that might require more patience, but could open doors down the line.

Pistons trade Cash Considerations for Evan Fournier and Future Draft Flexibility

The New York Knicks owe Evan Fournier just shy of $19 million this coming season and a team option for 2024-25. That’s a lot of money to pay a player not to play when you’re over the cap and trying to compete for a championship. Getting out from under that contract should be worth the Pistons’ highly protected future first round pick, allowing Detroit to trade future picks.

Could the Pistons throw in Bojan Bogdanovic and get more draft capital? After this year, the Knicks have all their own first round picks and protected picks from Dallas, Detroit, Washington, and Milwaukee, not to mention a plethora of savory seconds.

Pistons trade MB3 for Davis Bertans, Javale McGee, and 10th pick in Draft

After making the Western Conference Finals in 2022, the Mavericks struggled to compete last year, earning a fine for tanking to keep their pick in this year’s draft. They’re not a destination who will struggle to draw free agents if they can pay them, which Cuban will do.

The tenth overall pick won’t make their team better next year, but it could help them create cap space and/or attain veteran players. The Pistons can help Dallas do both.

If this trade requires the Pistons include any one of MB3, James Wiseman, or Bojan Bogdanovic, I say do it. They’re all players who could help Dallas, and Bertans and McGee’s contracts expire at the end of Cunningham’s rookie deal. The financial timing works. McGee, a Michigan native, three-time champion, and two-time Shaqtin’ a Fool MVP, which balances out, can serve as a mentor and third string center, and Bertans can provide shooting and size off the bench.

Pistons Trade James Wiseman for Duncan Robinson, Victor Oladipo, and 18th pick

Miami’s lack of size hurt them in the finals, and they were outrebounded throughout the playoffs. Getting younger, bigger, and more athletic would help, and Wiseman would thrive in the Heat system and be a great backup to Bam Adebayo.

Oladipo, assuming he opts into his $9,450,000 player option for next year, could be a solid mentor or simply waved.

Robinson is overpaid, his contract goes beyond Cunningham’s rookie deal, and he doesn’t have the lateral footspeed to defend more athletic players, but he works hard, gives effort defensively, knocks down open shots, and added a slashing game last year. Imagine Robinson constantly moving on offense and catching passes from an aggressive Killian Hayes.

After all, who could contribute more to the locker room than an undrafted player with exceptional offensive awareness, who worked his way to a successful career despite being less athletic than his peers, and who helped his team make two surprise trips to the finals?

These might not be the best moves open to the Pistons, but each of these deals creates more opportunities for the future without sacrificing more than potential in the present.