The NBA trade deadline is still more than a month away, so the Detroit Pistons still have plenty of time to evaluate their players and make their plans.
If I had to bet, I would bet against the Pistons making a big move, as Trajan Langdon seems content to be patient, continue to develop and evaluate his young players and potentially still collect a first-round draft pick at the end of the season.
There are plenty of fans in the camp of doing something to improve the team at the deadline, as the Pistons are in the 10th spot, have been frisky (though inconsistently) and the right move could propel them up the standings in the mediocre Eastern Conference and into some meaningful games for the first time in years.
There’s also the Cade Cunningham factor, as he is playing at an All-Star level and I can see the argument of those fans who want to max out his potential now. Why wait to put better players around a guy who is clearly a star? I get it.
If the Pistons go that route, they could upgrade at the deadline in a number of ways, and one of them would definitely divide the fanbase.
Detroit Pistons rumors: Trading Jalen Duren
Pistons’ fans are divided on this one and they should be, as there isn’t a clear-cut case to be made either way, which is why I wrote earlier that it will be the toughest decision Trajan Langdon has to make early in his term as team president.
Duren is great at times but wildly inconsistent, which you’d expect from someone who is barely old enough to buy a beer. Trading him would be a risky but so would extending him this summer, so weighing that risk will be a key part of any decision the Pistons make.
Could the Pistons trade for Nikola Vucevic?
Just as a hypothetical, what if the Pistons could trade Jalen Duren and Tim Hardaway Jr’s expiring contract for Nikola Vucevic of the Chicago Bulls?
Vucevic is shooting the lights out this season, hitting over 58 percent of his shots and and a career-best 46.5 percent from long range.
He looked like a sunk cost last summer after a poor shooting season, but Vooch is putting up numbers and now his contract doesn’t look so bad. He only has one more year after this one, so fits the Tobias Harris timeline and is a deal the Pistons could absorb by sending the Bulls Duren and THJ.
The Bulls get a young center to go with their young core and get off Vooch’s final year. If they can then trade Zach LaVine they’d be on the way to keeping their 2025 draft pick and have a nice young nucleus to build around with a fairly clean cap sheet.
I know there are fans who think Duren would be too much to give up in a deal like this and would rather wait and ride out Duren’s potential.
That’s a fair argument and you can add that some believe the Pistons shouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize their top-13 protected 2025 pick.
But there are obvious pros to a guy like Vucevic on the Pistons
Vucevic trade would dramatically improve the Pistons’ offense and open up more minutes
The Pistons are currently a below-average offense, though they have improved slightly in points per game from last season.
Vucevic would give them another weapon, a guy who can get you 20 every night and do it in number of ways.
You want spacing for Cade Cunningham? How about a center hitting 46.5 of his 3-point shots? The Pistons wouldn’t lose a ton on defense, as Vooch isn’t much worse than Duren, or at least not drastically so.
The Pistons aren’t getting much offensively from the center position, but imagine lineups that looked like this:
-Cade Cunningham
-Jaden Ivey/Malik Beasley
-Ausar Thompson
-Tobias Harris
-Nikola Vucevic
Swapping Hardaway Jr. for Thompson would improve the Pistons’ perimeter defense and make them more dynamic defensively. No one is arguing that Vooch is a good defender and he might even be a step down from Duren around the rim, but more Ausar Thompson would help.
There are many different combinations that could work, and the added benefit is more Ausar Thompson at the wing.
The counterargument would be the Pistons would be giving up one of their best young players and paying more for a guy who might not make them that much better, and if not, why do it?
I hate riding the fence but I don’t have strong feelings about Duren, as I can see the case to trade him now, as well as the one for being patient. It’s not an exciting take, I know, but a trade like this shows exactly the type of move the Pistons could have to decide on in the future.