The NBA trade deadline is a week away and it’s anyone’s guess what the Detroit Pistons are going to do.
Will they try to use their cap space to add talent and make a run at the playoffs? Will they simply take on a salary dump or trade veterans for assets? Somewhere in the middle?
Trajan Langdon has not tipped his hand and may be waiting until the last minute to weigh deals based on where his team is in the standings.
The Pistons are just off their toughest road trip of the season but will now have a long home stand to try and get right after finishing the trip 2-3 and dropping to the 8th seed.
Coming into the season, it looked as though there were a few Pistons who were destined to be traded, guys like Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr., who are on expiring deals and would offer valuable shooting to a contender.
But things have shifted with the Pistons exceeding expectations, so there were some surprise names in Bleacher Report’s recent article predicting each team’s most likely players to be traded.
Tim Hardaway Jr.
This name wasn’t a surprise, as THJ had “expiring veteran traded for second-round picks” written all over him coming into the season.
He’s proven to be more important than that and has seemingly found new life in Detroit after a rocky finish in Dallas.
He’s got connections to Detroit and genuinely seems to like playing there, so there may be some mutual desire for a reunion next season.
But I’d still bet THJ gets moved at the deadline, simply because the Pistons will need his contract to take back a big deal, either for a star or a dump of salary and assets.
He also might have some value on his own and the Pistons may be able to move him for more draft picks after already getting three 2nd-round picks when they traded for him last summer.
However this works out, that trade looks good for the Pistons, even though Quentin Grimes has been good this season.
Marcus Sasser
Sasser is not a guy I expected to see here, mostly because I can’t imagine why anyone would want him. Look, I like Sasser, but he’s a one-dimensional chucker with no size and he’s already 24-years-old even though it’s his second year in the league.
I do agree that the Pistons need an upgrade at guard, and acquiring one that can run the offense for stretches should be a priority. Sasser is not that guy.
It’s hard to believe there would be much of a market for him, but the Pistons may need his salary as filler or a sweetener, which is why I think he’s made this particular list.
Simone Fontecchio
As they say in my adopted home country of Ireland: Ack.
Ack, Simone, what happened?
After watching the Italian for 15 games last season, I thought the Pistons had found a player and wondered how he had slipped through the cracks for so long.
And when the Pistons signed him to a modest two-year deal this summer, I thought they had one of the best bargains in the league.
But Fontecchio just hasn’t been that guy this year and has yet to really carve out much of a role for himself. He’s ok on defense but not great, and if he’s not hitting 3-point shots offers next to nothing on offense.
He’s not been terrible this season, but hasn’t had near the impact I thought he might, which makes me think we may have overrated Fontecchio because the Pistons were so bad last year that he stood out by default.
That said, he’d be easy to move and there’s an argument that the Pistons should if they find the right deal, as he doesn’t have a clear role in the rotation moving forward and is just getting cardio right now.
Will any of these three players be Pistons in a week? We'll soon know.