Are the Detroit Pistons giving up too much in proposed trade with the Wizards?
The answer to this is yes and no.
If you are getting the Stewart and Grimes from this season, then this is a steal for Detroit, as the two only played 97 games combined in 2023-24 and made little impact on winning.
If you are getting a fully healthy Stewart and Grimes who both play a whole season, it starts getting more difficult to judge, as both are versatile defenders, more accurate 3-point shooters than Kuzma and give the Pistons more depth, which they desperately need.
Kuzma is certainly the best player in this deal, but the question is whether he is more valuable than what Stewart, Grimes and the 5th pick will give you.
Without knowing what else the Pistons would do after this, it’s hard to say if this is a good deal or not, as we’d have to know which players they added to fill those roster spots.
Kuzma would give the Pistons another legit option and even though he is not as accurate from 3-point range, he shoots twice as many as Stewart and is undeniably more of an offensive threat.
I don’t think the Pistons can make personnel decisions based on the potential of role players or teenagers in an unknown draft, so even though this one would be tough, they’d have to consider it.
They’d still retain all of their cap space, have a very good player locked into a team-friendly deal and would still have plenty of money to do other things.