Desperate situations call for exceptional measures, and Pistons head coach and president Stan Van Gundy appears to be shooting his shot.
Van Gundy isn’t one to rush the process by trading away first-round picks, at least not impulsively or in excess. But according to NBA Insider Marc Stein, he’s open to moving his team’s lottery pick for this June’s draft:
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 (@ESPNSteinLine) May 30, 2017
The Pistons were one of the league’s biggest underachievers this year, going 37-45 and missing the playoffs when most expected them to be a shoo-in for the postseason. Though Van Gundy has been adamant that he thinks this core can be better, often citing that Reggie Jackson’s own struggles were injury-related, it makes sense that he’d dangle the 12th overall pick in exchange for some more immediate help. The Pistons, despite their record, are in win-now mode, and they could use another win-now veteran.
But a late-lottery pick alone won’t get them much. It’s unclear how much value the selection holds on its own, and the Pistons don’t have the flexibility to trade it away while taking on more salary. If they wait to move the actual player, they’ll be working with $2.3 million in outbound salary, which is hardly enough to land anyone of impact. They need to renounce Aron Baynes and Reggie Bullock just to evade the luxury tax before re-signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.They won’t have the juice to turn a pick into an established impact player without sending out more salary.
And if the plan is to ultimately attach salary to this pick, the Pistons have to figure out who that someone is. Reggie Jackson and Andre Drummond are two options if they’re looking to pivot, but the No. 12 pick and one of them gets the Pistons…who? They could attach Stanley Johnson to it, but then they’re still left with the ability to take back minimal salary. Tobias Harris and Marcus Morris certainly seem like happy mediums, but their contracts are perhaps the team’s most valuable.
Thus, the Pistons are in a pickle. It’s unlikely they’re able to just land a valuable veteran with the No. 12 pick. They’ll have to cut salary elsewhere, and if that’s the route they go, any move to do that will be more significant than minor.
