There was always hope that the Detroit Pistons would finally take the next step this offseason. That they would use the cap space that they painstakingly collected over the last few years to upgrade in a major way.
Guys like Isaiah Hartenstein or Naji Marshall were available and we saw countless articles discussing their presence here. I even saw a few pieces linking Detroit to the likes of Klay Thompson and Paul George but those were always unlikely.
Alas, the Pistons elected to withhold from a major signing, and instead, refilled their second round picks by trading for Tim Hardaway Jr., and addressed a scoring and power forward need in Tobias Harris. Outside of those two, however, Detroit still has close to $26 million in cap space to use, plus an ~$8 million MLE deal to give out. And there are plenty of options still out there.
It should be noted that this list is also in order of want for me. Detroit should look to sign one or two of these guys, and use the rest continuing as a salary dump location.
Gary Trent Jr., 6’5 SG
2023/2024 Statline - 13.7 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 1.7 apg, 42.6 FG%, 39.2 3PT%
Trent Jr. is coming off a deal that paid him $18.6 million last season with the Toronto Raptors after picking up his player option. Word on the street is that he is in for a stark pay decrease this upcoming year, likely down to the $12-$15 million range. Even if he did fall out of favor in Toronto, Gary is still just 25 years old, would fill depth at the 2 or 3 position, and is one of the better shooters in this free agency class at almost 40 percent three point success on 6.4 attempts, even if he is quite streaky.