Fans of the Detroit Pistons are waiting eagerly to see how new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon is going to handle his first offseason.
Will he play it safe? Go for a big roster shake up? Something in the meaty gray area in between?
We will find out soon, as the 2024 NBA Draft is less than two weeks away and could be the focal point of the Pistons’ offseason.
The 2024 NBA Draft could be the Detroit Pistons’ best chance for rapid improvement
Even though the 5th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft may not have the value it has in previous seasons, the Pistons are still well-positioned to make a big move on draft day.
There are teams like the Bulls that might want to move up, creating an opportunity for Detroit to pick up an asset or two.
Considering their copious amounts of cap space, the Pistons are also in a position to take back a contract in a draft day trade, which may be their best chance to get the impact talent they need without completely blowing up the roster.
That is exactly what happens in the following proposed trade, which sees the Pistons accelerate their rebuild without selling the farm.
Is this a team that could contend for the playoffs?
Detroit Pistons trade the 5th pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant, Matisse Thybulle and the 14th pick
James Edwards III of The Athletic (Subscription) recently proposed a trade in which the Pistons swap picks with the Trail Blazers while taking back Jerami Grant and Matisse Thybulle.
I have my doubts they'd give up this much to move up in a weak draft, but Portland has just started their rebuild and this trade would not only give them two picks in the top seven but would clear cap space for them to make additional moves.
This deal would hinge on the Trail Blazers being desperate for a reset around the young talent they have acquired and two more lottery picks in the 2024 NBA Draft.
As JEIII noted, talking them into Grant and the 14th pick might not be difficult, but tacking another useful role player on a team-friendly deal in Thybulle may be a bit too much to move up in a draft that few are excited about.
But what about the Pistons? Would they jump at this deal?
The Detroit Pistons rebuild on the fly
My first reaction to this trade is YES PLEASE.
If the Pistons can add two impact 3-and-D wings without giving up a young player AND stay in the lottery, they would do this deal 100 times out of 100.
Grant fills their biggest need for a two-way wing. He’s a plus defender and a guy who is now a knockdown 3-point shooter hitting over 40 percent. Some of the concerns with his fit with Cade Cunningham have disappeared, as Grant has evolved more into a pure 3-and-D guy who can get to the rim as a secondary scoring threat.
He wouldn’t have the kind of usage he did in his first go around with Detroit and will slot in as a guy who does most of his damage off the catch and shoot.
With Thybulle also on board, the Pistons would have a nice mix of defense and shooting in their wing ranks. They’d have three defensive dawgs in Ausar Thompson, Matisse Thybulle and Quentin Grimes to go along with Simone Fontecchio (assuming he’s re-signed) and Grant knocking down 3’s.
The Pistons could completely revamp their defensive identity and shooting at the same time with plenty of cap space left over to address needs at point guard and center.
This is a rotation that can at least compete for the play-in right away and still doesn’t have any egregiously bad contracts:
-Cade Cunningham/FA/Marcus Sasser
-Jaden Ivey/Matisse Thybulle/Quentin Grimes
-Ausar Thompson/Simone Fontecchio
-Jerami Grant/Isaiah Stewart
-Jalen Duren/FA center
You can shuffle this up however you like (and add the 14th pick as well) but the point is the Pistons would have 11-12 NBA players with complementary skills that would be easy to mix and match in myriad ways to always have shooting and defense on the floor around Cade Cunningham. They would have plenty of depth as insurance against injuries and finally have an actual team that makes sense.
And I didn’t even have to give up one of the young players to get it? Sign me up.