Could the Pistons outbid the Pacers in a trade for a star?

Could the Pistons outbid the Pacers for Pascal Siakam?

It should be noted that if Siakam hits the market there will be a lot of interest, as All-NBA players in their prime who have already won titles don’t become available very often.

If the Pistons were even interested (not sure they are) they’d likely be bidding against several other teams, not just the Pacers, and Siakam will likely have some amount of say where he ends up.

Even if it were just the Pacers, I’m not sure the Pistons would be able to offer up a compelling trade package better than the one Indiana can put on the table.

Both teams have some big contracts for useful shooters in Bojan Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield to get the money matching started. You can throw in guys like Marvin Bagley III and/or Killian Hayes (I’m sure Toronto is excited about this already!) for the Pistons and the Pacers also have young players like Andrew Nembhard, Jalen Smith or even Obi Toppin (can’t be traded right away) they could add to the package.

Neither team has a great offer in terms of players, so it would come down to draft picks, which is where the Pistons come up way short. The Pacers own all of their picks for the foreseeable future, while Detroit is still being stymied by the one they owe the Knicks, which is top-18 protected next season and can’t be traded until draft day. Detroit could go deeper into the future, but the Raptors are not likely to be as interested in draft prospects that are currently in middle school.

So without adding a part of their young core, there’s not a clear path for the Pistons to trade for Siakam, and that’s if the Pacers are the only other team involved, which they won’t be. Even if Detroit could get him, would they really want to? Yes and no.