NBA Draft Rumors: Detroit Pistons reportedly open to trading 12th pick
The Detroit Pistons are reportedly open to trading the No. 12 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft for a player who can help them win right now.
At the end of the Detroit Pistons’ 2016 season, the future looked bright.
True, the Cleveland Cavaliers had just swept the Pistons out of the playoffs. But the young team, anchored by Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson and Tobias Harris, with Stan Van Gundy as the head coach seemed destined for great things. Before the 2017 season, the Pistons were the favorite team to take the next step to a potential contender.
The Pistons’ 2017 season was a disappointment. Detroit finished 37-45, four games out of the Playoffs. The team’s defense was inconsistent. The offense was even worse. Budding star Andre Drummond crashed back to earth. Reggie Jackson was shuffled in and out of the starting lineup — and he was not happy about that either.
Detroit’s 2017 season was a disaster. And the team is going to have to find a way to get back on the right track and regain their promise.
The place to start is usually the draft. The Pistons have the 12th overall pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
As is the case around the draft, the league’s rumor mill is beginning to churn. And the Pistons are at the center of it with a few veteran players to trade or explore.
Detroit seems willing to put the 12th overall pick on the table, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com:
NBA Draft scuttle: Hearing Detroit is open to discussing trades for its No. 12 overall pick in hopes of acquiring more of a win-now veteran.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 30, 2017
This is not too surprising. Stan Van Gundy is not exactly known for his patience. And the team certainly wants to reclaim its future a bit and get back into the playoffs after the 2016 appearance.
Not to mention, it is the team’s first season in the new Little Caesar’s Arena in downtown Detroit. The team probably wants to make a splash for that first year.
Somehow drafting a Justin Jackson, Frank Ntilikina, Zach Collins or OG Anunoby is not likely to move the needle very much for the team. If the Pistons can bring in a solid role player that could help move things along — especially since the league is anticipating the Pistons having to give a max contract to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to retain him in restricted free agency.
The Pistons have bigger problems to solve than the kind of player they can get for trading the 12th pick. The team’s core seemed to clash all last season with Jackson struggling to overcome an injury and Drummond struggling to match his intensity from the year before.
It is more likely, the Pistons are looking to use the 12th pick along with either Reggie Jackson or Tobias Harris (maybe even Markieff Morris) to add a veteran to the team’s core and offload some salary.
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Detroit undoubtedly has talent. The team should be looking to this Draft as a chance to add more. Instead, it seems the Pistons are ready to push their chips into the center of the table to make up for a lost season.