4 Trade scenarios the Pistons must prepare for this offseason

2. Shaking up the Core Four 

There is no core of a team that has won 17 and 13 games in back-to-back seasons. If the Pistons don’t see their current configuration working, I could see them trading any of their young players not named Cade Cunningham. 

And that’s ok. 

Fans get so attached to young prospects and think it’s an attack to say that the Pistons should consider trading some of them, but that’s what team building is. 

You collect young assets and flip them for better, more complementary ones, it’s that simple. If you think Duren is not the defensive center of the future, then moving him for one who is is ok. If you don’t think Jaden Ivey works with Cade, then you go get a guard who does. 

You can’t build a team by the draft alone, and part of the reason you collect all of these picks and younger players is so you can eventually flip them for stars, the way Minnesota did. They found a couple of stars in the draft and then used young players and draft capital to get them help. 

This is not an admission of failure, it’s how team building works. So, it is not catastrophic if the Pistons “give up” on young players to try and bring in better ones.