Many moons have passed since Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was on the Detroit Pistons, but for those fans who remember the former guard starting his career in Motor City, it is a bittersweet reality that this season might mark the end for KCP.
There are around two dozen players active in the NBA right now who were drafted by the Detroit Pistons. A handful of them are currently on the team right now, of course, helping to propel them to the top of the Eastern Conference. Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland form a young core of homegrown talent.
A number of former PIstons are also scattered around the league. Of those Detroit alumni drafted by the franchise, who has played the most career games? Surprisingly enough, it's not Andre Drummond (922 career games) or Khris Middleton (790 career games). It is Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who has played in 933 games.
Remembering Caldwell-Pope's time in Detroit requires leaping into a time machine. The No. 8 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, "KCP" spent the first four seasons of his career in Detroit. While he did not turn into a star, he was a full-time starter by his second season and was on the 2015-16 playoff team that won 44 games, tied for the most the Pistons have won since 2007-08. That number should be shattered by this year's team, of course.
At the end of his rookie contract, Caldwell-Pope rejected the Pistons' contract offer and eventually the team renounced his rights, freeing him up to sign a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. From there his career took off -- not that he became a star, but that he found his role as a 3-and-D wing on contending teams.
Caldwell-Pope won the 2020 NBA Championship as a starter on the Lakers, hitting 45 3-pointers during their run to the title and often guarding the opposing team's best scoring threat. The Lakers somewhat inexplicably included him in the Russell Westbrook trade and sent him to the wasteland of Washington D.C., but a year later the Wizards sent him to a new contender in the Denver Nuggets.
Yet again, KCP was starting for a championship team, this time as the shooting guard for the 2023 Nuggets. He spent two seasons with Denver, but when it was time for a new contract they saw the writing on the wall and let the Orlando Magic sign him away.
It was in Orlando that his game began to drop off, and he was subsequently dumped on the Memphis Grizzlies this summer as part of the Desmond Bane trade.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is falling apart
Things have not picked up the 32 year-old guard on Beale Street. Caldwell-Pope is playing only 22.4 minutes per game, his lowest number since his rookie season, and shooting just 37.1 percent from the field and 32.9 percent from deep. He is averaging 7.6 points per game and his overall effective field goal percentage is a career-low amount at 45.5 percent. Overall, he is a disaster on offense.
The Grizzlies could desperately use some more help on that end, but they are floundering and Caldwell-Pope can do nothing to help them. He has been fine defensively, but he's not changing the game on that end. Add it all up, and you have a player who rates as below replacement level this season.
Soon the minute totals will wane as well, and his role will get reduced -- either because the Grizzlies need someone better in those minutes, or because the season is lost and they choose someone younger. If it wasn't for KCP being under contract next season for $21.6 million, this could be his final season in the league.
Longtime Pistons fans will remember Kentavious Caldwell-Pope starting his career in Detroit. It looks like he might be ending it in Memphis.