Is proposed trade with Spurs worth it for the Pistons?

It’s no secret that the Detroit Pistons may need to make a trade this offseason.

They have four big men and not enough minutes to go around unless they plan to try and pigeonhole one of them into the power forward slot and play two bigs at once. But even if Detroit plays Isaiah Stewart at the four with Jalen Duren or one of the others, that still leaves two centers on a roster that might only have minutes for one of them.

Paying a third center who rarely plays over $12 million a season is not an efficient allocation of resources, so expect to hear plenty of trade rumors involving either Marvin Bagley III or James Wiseman.

Detroit Pistons: Trading Marvin Bagley III or James Wiseman

The problem is that neither of these players have a ton of value on the open market. MBIII has been injured A LOT, and still has two more guaranteed years. He’s not a power forward, as he can’t play on the perimeter on either end, and most teams aren’t lining up to trade for traditional centers who aren’t great defenders and can’t stay healthy.

James Wiseman, like Bagley III, has a ton of potential as a scorer, but is terrible on defense (seriously, watch the film), can’t spread the floor and isn’t even a good pick setter. They are both still young and have upside, but their limitations are also well established, so again, not many teams lining up to trade for them.

The Pistons would likely have to settle for one of four types of trades (outlined here), none of which are that appealing.

Yesterday we graded a trade that included Marvin Bagley III and Killian Hayes which illustrates just how little the Detroit Pistons can expect to get in return, which might make it smarter to just hold onto these players to see if they can provide more value to Detroit than they can get for them on the open market.

Today we’ll look at another trade that falls squarely into the “meh” category but shows what the Pistons are up against when trying to trade one of these bigs.