Pistons can make reluctant trade partners regret their greed

The Detroit Pistons aggressively pursued upgrades this summer, but were shut out of most of them, either by a ridiculous asking price or by teams with delusions about their immediate future. 

The Pistons had to settle for role players instead of the star they sought, and when you see what some of these teams were asking, even for non-All-Stars, and it makes sense that the Pistons were patient. 

And they can eventually use this patience to get one of their targets for less, punishing their respective teams for holding on for too long. 

The Pistons know this problem well 

When it comes to holding onto declining assets past their sell-by date, the Pistons have plenty of first-hand experience. 

Their entire tank era was littered with players they should have traded well before they actually did. Detroit held onto players like Jerami Grant, Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks way longer than they should have, and it eventually cost them, as the prices for veteran players in trades rarely go up with time. 

It’s a lesson Troy Weaver should have already learned, but one he may have to learn again. 

Expiring contracts, age and reality 

The Pistons were connected in rumors to several players who will enter next season on expiring contacts in Kawhi Leonard, Tyler Herro and Michael Porter Jr. 

Kawhi has already been moved (pending)(, but it seems as though the Bucks and Nets have no real interest in trading Herro or MPJ. This makes some sense, as tanking your way to the bottom no longer gets you the best odds, so teams don’t want to be truly bad. 

But if they wait and trade Herro and MPJ at the deadline, they will surely get less than if they traded them now, as teams would be viewing them as short-term rentals with no guarantees past next season. 

We could see the price of both of these guys drop significantly, especially if their respective teams just want to open up minutes for younger players. 

You then have Kyrie Irving, who has a player option past next season, so is also essentially on an expiring deal. He’s also getting older and coming off a serious injury, so who knows what that is going to look like next season. 

If Irving doesn’t come back to his old self, the Mavs will certainly regret not dealing him when they had the chance. 

Then you have our old friend Troy Weaver, whose asking price for TMIII, a player who has never sniffed an All-Star team or achieved much of anything, was beyond ridiculous, as he was looking for 3-4 picks. 

The hapless Pelicans won 26 games last season, and that was with a relatively healthy year from Zion Williamson. They did nothing this offseason, instead choosing to run it back, as no one would meet their sky-high asking prices for TMIII or Herb Jones. 

That’s a choice Weaver could regret when his team stinks again next season, and there still isn’t anyone to meet his absurd demands. He’ll have to lower the price or risk screwing over New Orleans the same way he did Detroit, by overvaluing his own players and keeping them for too long. 

The Pistons didn’t get their splashy addition this summer, but they’ll have their chance at the trade deadline, and the cost may have gone way down on some of their targets. 

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