The NBA playoffs aren’t even over, but every team, including the Detroit Pistons, is prepping for a busy offseason.
The offseason hype train left the station when it was reported that Giannis Antetokounmpo was willing to play for another team. He didn’t demand a trade but just the idea that he is willing to entertain one had GMs putting together their best hypothetical offers.
Even their best may not be enough, as the Bucks will be looking for an offer that not only enriches them, but bankrupts the other team, according to Sam Amick on a recent episode of the Ringer NBA.
"Like, they want every scenario to gut the other team. And Jon Horst is going to go for blood here, I’m telling you. He just got a new extension. He has the organization’s backing. Jon is not going to just try to be on good terms with Giannis—he’s trying to do right by the Bucks. And that means that if every scenario in play leaves the other team so gutted that Giannis might not actually be in that much better of a situation, then maybe that’s where he looks at the room and says, 'All right, let me stay put.”
Basically, the Bucks want Giannis to look at what’s left of the team he’s going to land on and come to the conclusion that he has just as much chance of winning in Milwaukee.
If this is the case, then the Pistons should be prepared to run away.
Detroit Pistons don’t want the Carmelo Anthony scenario
I’ve already written several times that the Pistons were a Powerball-level longshot to pursue Giannis anyway, and this report shows exactly why.
Not only are there other teams that could offer more in terms of draft capital, but the Pistons would have to gut their roster to get it done, even if they did have the best deal.
I called this the Carmelo Anthony effect in a recent article, an instance where a team trades away the bulk of their roster and assets for one star and is left without much of a team. Ask Carmelo, who never made it out of the second round of the playoffs after being traded to the Knicks and missed the playoffs entirely in most of his seasons in New York.
The Knicks gave up so much to get Carmelo that it was nearly impossible to build a good team around him, an effect that would be exacerbated by the new CBA, which makes building a deep roster extremely difficult if you have two supermax players at the top of the payroll.
Yes, the idea of pairing Cade Cunningham with Giannis is exciting, but if they had to give up Ausar Thompson, Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey and Ron Holland to do it, they wouldn’t be left with much of a team around their two superstars.
If the Pistons are going to try and land a big name, they need to find a deal like the Pacers made for Pascal Siakam, as they were able to land their second star without gutting the roster.
Giannis isn’t coming to Detroit, and if this is the cost, we shouldn’t want him to.