It’s been a relatively quiet offseason for Troy Weaver and the Detroit Pistons, who haven’t made the big addition some fans were hoping for.
Hope is all you have when you are staring at a 17-win season, a young roster and a load of cap space, but the Pistons chose to make conservative trades for Joe Harris and Monte Morris instead.
Most of the league has been in a holding pattern this offseason after stars Damian Lillard and James Harden requested trades from their teams. The Harden drama has just gotten uglier, with both sides digging in, and Lillard’s request to only be traded to the Miami Heat has made things difficult for the Trail Blazers to get max value for their star.
Teams are waiting around in the possibility of trading for one of these two, or at least being a third or fourth team in the deal.
Things have ground to a halt, partially because of these potential trades, but there may be some new teams joining the fray.
Detroit Pistons: Mystery team in East pursuing Damian Lillard trade
According to Mark J. Spears of ESPN, Miami isn’t the only team trying to trade for Damian Lillard, and a “mystery” team that he declined to name, has emerged as a suitor.
I immediately had fans of the Detroit Pistons in my inbox and on my timeline suggesting that Detroit could be that mystery team.
Don’t hold your breath on that.
It’s difficult for me to envision a scenario in which Detroit trades for Damian Lillard, but I’ll play along and look at some of the challenges and benefits of such a move and whether the Detroit Pistons even have the assets to do it.
Why the Detroit Pistons aren’t getting Damian Lillard
I’ll repeat for those in the back, I DO NOT THINK THE DETROIT PISTONS ARE GOING TO TRADE FOR DAMIAN LILLARD.
The “mystery” team is probably Boston or one of the other contenders who would benefit most from adding a future Hall of Famer on the back side of his prime.
Lillard has made it clear that he only wants to be traded to Miami, at one point even saying that he might sit out if traded elsewhere. He has since walked those statements back, but any team outside of South Beach that trades for Lillard will likely be getting an unhappy player who doesn’t want to be there.
Detroit is not exactly high atop people’s lists of teams they want to play for, so I am fairly certain Dame would not be satisfied being shipped to the Motor City and the team that was the worst in the NBA last season.
The whole reason Lillard has asked out of Portland is that he wants to win now and not waste years with a young roster, so why in the world would he want to come to Detroit, which is a rebuilding team that was even worse than Portland last season?
If he were willing to run with a young team, he may as well stay with the Trail Blazers, whose young core is arguably as good as Detroit’s.
I find it hard to believe that Troy Weaver would give up signficant assets for an unhappy player who wanted no part of Detroit and will be making $45, 48, 58 and 63 million per season over the next four years.
Lillard is also 33-years-old, so only has a few seasons of prime Dame left, which does not align with the Pistons’ timeline.
Even if they wanted to get him, would the Detroit Pistons even have enough to trade for him?
Detroit Pistons: Trade proposal with the Portland Trail Blazers for Damian Lillard
Even if the Pistons wanted to roll the dice on trading for an unhappy 33-year-old who might sit out and is still owed $214 million (THEY DON’T), it would be difficult to pull off without involving at least on other team.
Here is a trade that would work, at least financially:
Portland will want at least a promising young player, some expiring contracts and a pick or two to trade Lillard, so this deal would satisfy that.
Even though the Detroit Pistons would be getting the best player in the deal, I am not sure they’d be any better, especially in the long term.
It would leave them with a starting five of Cade Cunningam, Damian Lillard, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren.
Don’t get me wrong, the idea of Cade and Dame together is intriguing and his addition would be enough to push the Pistons towards the play-in, or at least near the win total Portland had last season, which was nearly double that of Detroit, but still not enough to get them in the play-in.
If Detroit wants to be stuck with a 30-35 win team for the next few seasons, this is the move to do it. It would definitely inject some life and hype into next season, but the results in the win column might not be a whole lot different.
In other words, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for a trade that sends Damian Lillard to Detroit. The Pistons might end up getting involved with their expiring contracts but Lillard will be headed somewhere else or staying in Portland.