The Detroit Pistons traded Isaiah Stewart early in the offseason in what was essentially a salary dump, a move they may now regret as the Jalen Duren saga drags into late September.
Stewart was the anchor of one of the league’s best defenses last season, but his inability to stay healthy in the playoffs coupled with his lack of offensive progress made him expendable, at least at the time.
Early in the summer, a quick extension for Jalen Duren looked inevitable, and with so much set aside for the starting center, Stewart became an expensive luxury that the Pistons couldn’t afford.
But the deal for Duren still hasn’t come, and the longer this thing goes, the less chance there is a favorable outcome for the Pistons.
I still think Duren will come to his senses and take the money, or that the Pistons will come up slightly from their reported best offer, as it’s too risky for Duren and too late in the offseason for Detroit to be looking for a new center.
The Pistons want Duren back in Detroit, but given the headache and the money involved, you do have to wonder if they traded the wrong guy.
Should the Pistons have traded Jalen Duren instead?
I should first say that I like Duren, think he’ll continue to improve and hope he does it with the Pistons. I also think that $190 million is more than fair, so I can see why Detroit is wary of anything more.
Let’s consider a hypothetical here: What if the Pistons had kept Isaiah Stewart and traded Duren instead?
If Detroit had immediately decided to sign-and-trade Duren, they would have had suitors and could have found a palatable deal. The Lakers gave up two unprotected first-round picks and two swaps for Walker Kessler, so that would be the floor for what the Pistons could have gotten for Duren.
They’d now have two centers for around half the price of what Duren is going to get and would have plenty of cap space and wiggle room to add another player to that group and then go hunting for a second scorer.
At this point, it’s difficult to say who that would have been, but we saw plenty of high-profile players change teams. Duren could have netted Jaylen Brown, for one example.
You could argue that the Pistons would be more versatile and financially flexible in this hypothetical and would no longer have to worry about the Ausar Thompson/Jalen Duren problem.
This also means they would have kept Stewart, a player who helped drag the franchise out of the trenches and wanted to stay and see it through.
The best-case scenario now is that Duren signs before training camp to a deal the Pistons’ cap sheet can stomach, but depending on how this turns out, the Pistons could end up regretting their decision to get rid of Stewart before the Duren deal was complete.
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