The New York Knicks are getting ready to play their first game in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Detroit Pistons have played a big part in it.
The Pistons tested New York in a hard fought first-round series that Josh Hart compared to being a fight with “baseball bats.”
The Knicks were ready for the Celtics after having been pushed in the first round, and were able to repeatedly come back from big deficits, something they also did against the Pistons.
New York has been led by Jalen Brunson, a player tailor made for the big moments in Madison Square Garden, a guy who has thrived in the clutch and has already placed himself among legendary New York point guards. He's on his way to a statue if he can win a title this year, something New York hasn't seen since the 1970's.
Detroit played a much bigger role in the Knicks’ success than just a feisty first-round tune up, as they were part of a seemingly minor salary dump that helped bring Jalen Brunson to New York in the first place.
The Pistons trade that brought Jalen Brunson to the Knicks
Way back in 2022, the Knicks traded Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel and a second-round pick to the Pistons to clear the $19 million in cap space they needed to sign Jalen Brunson to a huge free-agent deal. You’re welcome, New York.
I’m so glad Detroit is no longer the vessel for other people’s problems, which was one of the hallmarks of the Troy Weaver era, when the Pistons took on mediocre and/or useless players for distant second-round picks, helping other teams more than they helped themselves.
Burks was ok for Detroit, but was injured plenty and didn’t have the kind of veteran impact the young Pistons needed, impact we saw from guys like Malik Beasley, Tobias Harris and Tim Hardaway Jr. this season.
You have to wonder how much more progress the young Pistons might have made if Weaver had prioritized putting better players around them instead of helping other teams in exchange for peanuts.
Let’s hope those days are over, as we are already seeing trade proposals where the Pistons are once again bailing out some other team financially, something Trajan Langdon should avoid unless it brings back players or assets that actually make the Pistons a better basketball team.
Langdon did take one apparent salary dump last offseason in Tim Hardaway Jr., but he got three second-round picks and THJ can still play. He had some big moments for the Pistons, so this wasn’t a Joe Harris situation like we’d seen in the past.
The future all that tanking promised is finally coming to fruition, so the Pistons will no longer be in the business of helping other teams.