The Pistons preseason battle that could lead to a trade

The Detroit Pistons have had no shortage of injuries over the past few seasons, especially in their big-man ranks. 

Their top two centers last season, Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart, played 61 and 46 games, respectively, which led to Detroit running out a rag-tag group of big men that were arguably the worst in the league. 

James Wiseman played 63 games for the Pistons last season, six as a starter. Taj Gibson, who has been a veteran for around 75 years, played in four games. Marvin Bagley III had 15 starts for the Pistons last season and even Mike Muscala, who was only on the team for a few weeks, played 13 games and started four of them. 

If the Pistons want to improve, it starts with keeping their best players on the court, but this year Detroit will have some insurance. 

The Detroit Pistons signed Paul Reed as an insurance policy 

Detroit landed Paul Reed this offseason, an underrated big man who can block shots and grab rebounds in bunches. 

He also provides an insurance policy against another Stewart or Duren injury, a huge upgrade over the likes of the players listed above.  

The question is whether Reed is too good to be a third big man, and if so, whether the Pistons would consider trading one of their other centers. 

We’ve talked about some of the most important positional battles for the Pistons next season, but this early one could determine which of these players ends up on another team. 

It’s most likely that the Pistons enter the season with these three bigs on the roster, as one of them will almost certainly have to miss time at some point and you need backups, but there are a couple of scenarios in which the preseason battle at center leads to a trade.