Detroit Pistons: 2 things that have slowed the NBA offseason

The Detroit Pistons made a flurry of moves around the draft and early free agency, but since then, things have gone quiet.

Detroit landed their new head coach in Monty Williams, added two more high-end draft picks and made trades for veterans on expiring deals.

But like many teams in the NBA, Detroit still has an open roster spot, and a wonky team that needs some tweaking.

There are several teams with open roster spots and some amount of cap space that need to make moves, but right now, the league is in a standstill waiting for big news to drop.

Detroit Pistons: The Damian Lillard and James Harden trades

Both Damian Lillard and James Harden have requested trades from their current teams even though they are both under contract for next season. In the case of Lillard, he only wants to go to Miami, which will probably take a multi-team trade since the Heat don’t have the necessary assets to get him by themselves.

With players like Tyler Herro potentially up for grabs, teams are in a wait-and-see mode when it comes to Portland. Harden would likely be slightly easier to move given his contract and the fact he hasn’t narrowed his choices to one team.

When and If these two get moved, it will likely be a massive deal involving a lot of players, draft picks and teams, so some teams are surely keeping an open roster spot or two hoping to get in on the action.

The Oklahoma City Thunder

One team that will almost certainly be involved in some trades this summer is the OKC Thunder, who currently have 18 players on their roster for next season and that doesn’t even include their two-way deals.

The Thunder could finally move some of their young players and draft assets in a big trade, but at the very least they are going to have to waive some players that other teams will be interested in.

The Thunder are under no pressure to do it now, as teams still have plenty of time to reduce their rosters, but at some point, players are going to be moved.

These two factors (which could end up being connected) have ground the NBA offseason to a halt as teams wait for a chance to take advantage of trades.