The Detroit Pistons need to make a splash this summer, but how they are going to do it is anyone’s guess.
They don’t have a decision-maker at the moment and that person will have front office and coaching decisions to make before they even get to the roster.
With few impact free agents available, the Pistons could try to make a big trade, and Bleacher Report came up with one in which they land Kyle Kuzma.
Is this a deal the Pistons would make?
This wouldn't represent an all-in move for the Pistons in terms of trade assets, as they’d be giving up two young players as well as one of their available future draft assets. But they'd do it without giving up one of their best four young players, so it's a move they would have to consider. They'd retain this year's top-5 pick as well as their other top trade assets if they decided to make additional deals.
The pros are that Kuzma is an offensive upgrade, a legit scoring threat at the four that they’ve been lacking. He's not an elite 3-point shooter, but he takes enough of them to make teams notice.
He’s also on a team-friendly deal that goes down from $23 to 19 million over the next three seasons, a good bargain for a player still in his prime, especially given the escalating salary cap.
He’s an NBA starter getting paid like a role player, so Kuzma will continue to be good value for the next several seasons. The Pistons would still have plenty of cap space to use to make impact additions.
The cons are that the Pistons would be left with no future draft assets to use in a trade (other than this year's pick, which can't be traded until draft day) and may not be getting that much of an upgrade. Kuzma is better than Stewart, but if you had switched the two this season would it have made much of a difference? The Wizards were nearly as bad as the Pistons with Kuzma as one of their top guys.
But it’s a deal the Pistons would probably have to make, as Kuzma would move the needle some, is from Flint (grew up a Pistons fan) and would leave them money to make additional moves.
Kuzma has proven he can be the 3rd or 4th best player on a good team, so the question is whether the Pistons could add enough talent to make him that.