The Detroit Pistons keep getting mentioned as a possible suitor for Kevin Durant even though they’ve given no indication they are interested in such a move.
I am on the record many times saying they probably shouldn’t be unless the price is right, as Durant is 36, and as good as he still is, Father Time is undefeated.
Durant is still one of the elite scorers in the league and arguably its best all-around shooter, but at some point, he is going to start to slide, and the Pistons don’t want to be the ones paying him upwards of $60 million a year when he does.
KD makes more sense for a team that is one guy away from title contention and already has their key veterans in place. The Pistons have no clue what they can be, as they’ve not even seen much of their core together and none of them are even near their primes yet.
Also, Detroit has been burned by these types of moves in the past, most recently by the Blake Griffin trade that set the franchise back significantly in exchange for meager short-term gains.
And Blake wasn't even the worst example.
The Detroit Pistons have a history of chasing washed up greats
When things go south for a great player, they tend to happen fast and without a ton of warning.
The Blake Griffin trade was a disaster for the Pistons, who ended up paying him to play for someone else. It’s the move that really started the tank in earnest.
But Blake isn’t the only washed great the Pistons grabbed towards the end of their career.
They made another disastrous trade of franchise legend Chauncey Billups for 54 games of a washed up and injured Allen Iverson.
The Pistons signed Josh Smith, a guy who was great in Atlanta and made the playoffs in every season of his career before coming to Detroit, leaving that Smith behind. The new Smith suddenly had no athleticism and turned into a chucker who couldn’t shoot, forming one of the worst Big 3s the Pistons have had in the modern era with Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe.
The Pistons signed a washed-up Tracy McGrady for the 2010-11 season, and he put up just eight points per game, lowest of his career.
The Pistons brought home Detroit native Chris Webber after he was waived by Philly, and even though he wasn’t as bad as Smith or TMac, he was a shadow of his former self, averaging just 11 points before Detroit let him walk in free agency.
Kevin Durant is certainly better than all of these players and has had a far superior career, but fans need to consider what his contract would look like in year three, not just for next season, and if he would ultimately join a list of great players who ended their careers with a thud in Detroit.