If you made a Mount Rushmore of players named in trade rumors over the last five seasons, Zach LaVine would probably be on it and plenty of them involved the Detroit Pistons.
LaVine’s entire career with the Bulls was dominated by trade rumors and not much has changed since he was traded to the Sacramento Kings.
His career has also been dogged by the same criticisms, which are that he’s not a winning player, he’s a poor defender, and he can’t stay healthy. These were all the reasons I was glad the Pistons didn’t trade for him.
LaVine is an anomaly, as he’s been very good on teams that haven’t won and has continued that pattern for the Kings. I am still not sold on the idea of LaVine, but it’s hard to ignore his numbers and what they might look like on the Pistons.
Detroit Pistons: Trading for Zach LaVine is not as risky
The Pistons are off to a great start, but still clearly have some offensive weaknesses, namely the lack of a secondary scorer who can consistently take the pressure off Cade Cunningham to do everything.
As we are already seeing, the crazy workload Cade has carried is taking its toll, so it would be nice to have another weapon to lean on. Jaden Ivey may be that guy, and the Pistons can’t make a move until they find out.
Even if Ivey looks like an answer, it wouldn’t hurt to add more scoring punch and that is one thing LaVine can provide. He’s averaging 24 points on 51/42/87 shooting splits, can create his own shot, is unbelievable shooting 3’s off the bounce and is doing all of that on a career low usage rate, so he’s not dribbling the life out of the ball.
You can blame LaVine for the Kings’ 3-8 start, but that seems much more about their poorly built roster than anything LaVine is doing.
He only has one more year on his salary after this one and played in more than 65 games in three of his last four seasons after playing 74 last year. He’s still an injury concern, but the contract is no longer a long-term cap killer.
The question is what the Pistons would have to give up to get him after he was practically given away by the Bulls. The good news is that they wouldn’t necessarily have to include Jaden Ivey, which I am certain would make him happy.
The bad news is that they’d almost have to include Tobias Harris to make the money work, along with either Caris LeVert or Duncan Robinson. If the Kings are going to blow it up, they may want two big expiring contracts in Harris and Robinson.
Isaiah Stewart is showing he can potentially be the starting four, but the Pistons would have to be comfortable with either him or Ron Holland handling the job.
It’s a move that would carry some risk, and we all know the knocks against LaVine, but he’s still one of the most efficient scorers in the league, and the Pistons wouldn’t have to give up any of their young core to get him.