The Detroit Pistons have defied expectations this season, which has changed the narrative around their roster.
Most assumed the Pistons would pool some of their players and draft assets together at some point to get another star player to put next to Cade Cunningham.
Now, that is far from a certainty, as they’ve seen enough from him and the complementary players to think this might eventually be a title contender with continued improvement from the young core they have. None of their young players have reached their peak yet, and they are already a playoff contender, so this isn’t just Homer talk from fans that overvalue their guys.
Fans at the moment seem to be broken into three groups on this topic and they have all have valid arguments:
1. The “go get a star” group that feels the Pistons need to go after another star to make the next leap from playoff hopeful to contender.
2. The “let them cook” group who wants to the front office to exercise patience and let the core develop organically.
3. The “if it’s the right guy” crowd who doesn't want the Pistons to reach just to make a move, but would leap at an opportunity if the right guy became available.
You can make a case for any of them, but focusing on number three, who exactly would be the “right” guy? For me, it has to be a player who is clearly better than the sum of the parts it takes to get him.
It has to be someone who fits with the long-term needs of the team and isn’t just a stopgap to try and take a shortcut to contention.
There is one superstar who might be available this summer who would represent the riskiest of such players, but who would give the Pistons the potential to bring a title back to Detroit.
The Detroit Pistons and Zion Williamson
We’ve been down this road before, as Zion has often been a subject of rumors involving the Pistons, largely because most thought they were one of the few teams desperate enough for a star to take a chance on the riskiest one in the NBA.
We all know the deal with Zion: He is a superstar when on the court, an unstoppable force on offense who is averaging 24.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.3 steals and .9 blocks per game this season.
We also know that Tobias Harris is only under contract for one more season and the Pistons’ biggest long-term need is to secure a talent at the four, as they have their guys at pretty much every other position.
But as good as Zion’s stats look, and as tempting as the prospect of putting him next to Cade Cunningham is, we always get to the caveat that Williamson has only played 24 games this season and is a walking injury.
No one knows this better than Trajan Langdon, who tried to build a team around Zion as the Pels' GM, which proved painfully difficult when Williamson is always hurt.
Zion is only 24-years-old, but is there any reason to think his injury issues are going to go away with age?
He’s under contract for three more seasons after this one, so his age and contract do fit the Pistons’ timeline, but would it be a deal the Pistons ended up regretting? Ask the Pelicans, who have had some stacked rosters with Zion but were never able to win much because he couldn’t be counted on to be healthy.
The counterargument is that the Pistons won’t get too many chances to land a guy of Zion’s talent who isn’t even 25 and is locked up for the long term.
There’s also the fact that New Orleans may have no interest in trading him, as it would be tough to get equal value for an enigma like Zion.
The dreamer in me thinks about the Pistons being contenders as soon as next season, but the pragmatist says this is as big a roll of the dice as you can make in the NBA, and if it didn’t work out, it could be catastrophic to what the Pistons are building.
Given Langdon’s first-hand knowledge of the Zion conundrum, I doubt it’s a risk he would take, but Williamson is a difference-maker and his name will certainly be mentioned in rumors this summer.