NBA Mock Draft: Trades for Pistons, Wizards, Rockets and Bulls in the lottery
#5: Detroit Pistons trade Marcus Sasser and the 5th pick to the Washington Wizards for Kyle Kuzma
Washington Wizards select Donovan Clingan
The Washington Wizards have indicated that they would like to add another first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and this would be one way to do it.
Would this be too much for the Detroit Pistons to give up for a non All-Star in Kyle Kuzma? Maybe, but you could also argue that Kuzma is better than any player that comes out of this draft, and the Pistons are fresh out of patience to wait around and find out.
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Kuzma is a proven 20+ppg scorer who would immediately be an upgrade for Detroit, and the best part is that he has one of the most team-friendly contracts in the NBA, which goes down from $23 to 19 million over the next three seasons, all prime years for Kuzma.
This would still leave Detroit plenty of cap space to make additional moves and they didn’t have to give up any of their core players. Detroit is trading an unknown for a sure thing in Kuzma, who is from Flint and would immediately be a fan favorite.
The Wizards address a huge need with Donovan Clingan, who gives them their center of the future to go along with Risacher, a nice draft for them so far.