We knew Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors were going to dominate the regular season and they are already in full swing. Given that they have the young players, expiring contracts and draft picks to theoretically make such a deal, the Detroit Pistons have been included in some of the chatter.
Anyone who reads my work regularly knows how I feel about such a trade. It just doesn’t make sense when the Pistons would have to send back so many players to match salary, leaving a gutted roster that may not be better off, even with Giannis.
Detroit needs three salaries at least to match what Giannis makes, then they’ll also have to include all of their draft picks and likely some swaps. It’s the type of all-in move you make when you have a veteran team knocking on the door of titles. The Pistons are still a young and emerging team, so not really in the position to go all-in for one guy to push them into title contention.
Our friends at Bleacher Report came up with this deal, which is pretty much what I predicted it would take to land Giannis:
The question is not whether Cade Cunningham and Giannis would be good together: They would. The question is if the Pistons would be better off and have enough left to compete for a title around those two players.
Detroit Pistons roster: Is there enough depth to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?
We’ve seen superstar trades go south for the team getting the superstar, as they often have to give up too much of what made them compelling in the first place. The most famous case of this was the Knicks gutting their team to go after Carmelo Anthony and we saw the results.
Denver built a sustainable winner with the largesse from the trade, and the Knicks struggled to build a competitive roster around Melo, who had little success in the playoffs and never even sniffed a title.
If you were to switch Ausar Thompson out for Ron Holland in this trade, it might be more palatable and even desirable for the Pistons. Tobias Harris is on an expiring deal, and Jaden Ivey will be a restricted free agent next offseason unless he signs an extension in the next week, so those guys may not be part of the long-term plans anyway.
Thompson is the real sticking point, as it would leave the Pistons with painful little guard and wing depth and potentially force them to move both Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert into the starting five.
Is a starting lineup of Cade, Robinson, LeVert, Giannis and Duren better than the one they have now? Maybe. But who is coming off the bench?
Bleacher Report argues the short-term gains that could be there in an Eastern Conference missing two of its best players next season, but going all-in for a couple of runs at the East will look short sighted if it doesn’t work.
If the Pistons won a title with Giannis, then you forget about what you gave up to get him, but if they didn’t, they’d be mortgaging the entire future for the chance.