The Pistons preseason battle that could lead to a trade

Jalen Duren is a monster in preseason 

Duren will get every chance to prove himself next season and it’s hard to see a scenario where he doesn’t win the starting job. 

Does that make Isaiah Stewart redundant? 

Stewart could play the role of all-purpose backup big man, slotting in at both spots as needed, but he’s also a guy that other teams have asked about in trades, so if Detroit made him available, he might net them a fair haul. 

If the Pistons don’t like Stewart at power forward and think he’s being wasted playing only the backup five, then moving him and promoting Reed does make some sense. 

JB Bickerstaff does have a history of playing two bigs, but his two bigs were both elite defenders and the Pistons don’t have one of those. He may try to pigeonhole them onto the floor together, but if not, someone is going to be left out until there is an injury. 

Is Paul Reed just an insurance policy against that or do the Pistons envision a bigger post-trade role for him? 

Detroit does have just over $10 million in cap space to play with, so they could potentially take back a player making around $25 million if they were to ship out Stewart.  

As of now, the Pistons will likely be happy having insurance for their top-2 big men, but if one of them drastically outplays the other in preseason, we could see one of them moved and Paul Reed taking their place.