The noise surrounding a potential expansion in the NBA continues to heat up, with the latest news suggesting teams around the league will be voting this offseason on the future plans for the league.
With a potential expansion seemingly on the horizon, fanbases have already began conversations about what players will be kept for each team in an inevitable expansion draft in the future.
Obviously, the rumored addition of two teams to the league to reach the 32-team mark directly points to organizations being forced to protect up to eight players.
For most, an expansion draft would present bad news, especially for team's with an abundance of young talent that could prove difficult to protect.
However, for a team like the Pistons, this could pose an opportunity for the team to move on from some unwanted contracts and create room for future moves.
Detroit could be in a golden position for an expansion draft
If an NBA Expansion Draft really were to take place, the original 30 teams in the league would likely be able to protect up to eight players.
For the Pistons, it's clear the front office would have several no-brainer decisions to make, but there's also a world in which the team could elect to cut their losses and take advantage of a potential out they didn't expect to come their way.
So let's break it down into three tiers:
Tier I: Pistons who would certainly be off-limits::
G Cade Cunningham
C Jalen Duren
F Ausar Thompson
Tier II: Players who would likely be protected:
G Ron Holland II
F Isaiah Stewart
Tier III: Players the team could consider moving on from:
G Duncan Robinson
G Caris LeVert
C Paul Reed
Pistons could find better value for the production
As seen above, there's far more players who could be on the chopping block rather than a guaranteed protection for Detroit.
For players like Duncan Robinson, whose contract ties him to the team for the next couple of years, and Tobias Harris, who seems to be a key player for the team to re-sign this offseason, an expansion draft could force Detroit to ask whether the value of their deals matches the production they’re providing.
If the answer is no, the Pistons' front office could opt to cut their losses and leave those players unprotected offering them an out that wasn't expected.
Most fans will put together a list of eight players to be protected and rank them by best players on each roster, but with new CBA guidelines, expect financial implications to play a major role in the decisions for each team moving forward, including the Pistons.
Obviously, by time an expansion draft comes into fruition, Detroit's roster could have already undergone some changes.
Still, the expansion draft could offer the Pistons a tool they didn’t expect—one that could help them free themselves from any contracts the team may feel are better to move on from.