The Detroit Pistons have only the 37th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be busy.
There are expected to be a flurry of trades around the draft, especially if players like Kevin Durant and/or Giannis Antetokounmpo end up in trades that may require several teams.
While I don’t expect the Pistons to be in the running for either of these players, their cap space could allow them to facilitate trades for assets or to take on one of the players a team needs to discard to take on a max salary.
Here are three teams to watch on draft day and how the Pistons might be able to reap benefits from their trades.
San Antonio Spurs
There is widespread speculation that the Spurs will try to speed up their timeline by making a play for Durant or Giannis and they have the young talent, contracts and draft picks to get it done.
Even if the Spurs don’t make a trade, there could be a ripple effect from the draft if they select Dylan Harper with the #2 pick. Will the Spurs keep De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Harper?
They could ship out either Fox or Castle, guys the Pistons might have some amount of interest in.
Detroit could look for players or picks in exchange for cap space, another way to get involved with San Antonio, who figures to be one of the busiest teams this summer regardless of the path they choose.
OKC Thunder
It must be rough to be the Thunder. They are in the NBA Finals with the league’s youngest team. They can have all 15 players on their roster inked for next season, have a million future draft picks, and Nikola Topic (a guy many viewed as a top 5 talent) sitting on ice for the future.
It does leave them the problem of not having a roster spot for two first-round draft picks, so we could see them look to move up to consolidate or back for picks in the distant future. The Pistons could look to use their largesse of future second-round picks to move up to 24th in the latter scenario.
OKC is in the driver’s seat for a dynasty here but will have to make some kind of trade this summer, and the Pistons should be trying to wet their beak if they can.
Houston Rockets
The Rockets are another team with a plethora of young talent and draft assets to make a big move.
They may also feel they are one player away from winning a title themselves, as they are already great defensively, so adding Kevin Durant could push them over the top.
There could be a lot of moving pieces of they do make a move for KD or Giannis, with players like Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. potentially up for grabs in a trade.
With all of that money moving around, the Pistons’ cap space could be valuable and allow them ways to land one of the players involved, and a guy like Smith Jr. would be a nice fit.
It’s also very possible this will be a slow day for the Pistons, who could just take a guy with their pick and call it a night if the right deal doesn’t present itself, but there will be draft day trades, and I am sure Trajan Langdon will be exploring his options.