Trading for Blake Griffin may not be enough for the Detroit Pistons.
On the heels of striking a deal for the five-time All-Star, as first reported by ESPN.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Motor City’s finest may now be chasing a trade for restricted-free-agent-to-be Rodney Hood, according to The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor:
The Pistons might not be done making moves. Multiple sources say that they are after Jazz guard Rodney Hood and could send out forward Stanley Johnson. Hood is another injury-prone player, but these are the types of calculated risks Van Gundy needs to take to save his job. Griffin obviously offers higher upside than both Bradley and Harris, but his arrival suggests short-term rather than long-term planning.
Dealing for Hood would make sense in the micro. Though the Pistons acquired the best player as part of their blockbuster with the Los Angeles Clippers, they still gave up two wing talents, in Avery Bradley and Tobias Harris, to do so. That stands to torpedo their spacing, while the absence of Harris specifically leaves them with exactly zero wings who are adept at making shots off the bounce.
Hood isn’t as polished on the offensive side as Harris, and he’s isn’t the one-on-one defender Bradley can be, but he would begin to fill that void. Of course, giving up Stanley Johnson to get him could be a lateral move, since they’re trading a wing-for-wing.
Plus, Hood will be due a massive raise this summer, and the Pistons will already have around $74.3 million tied up in Griffin, Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson. They’ll run into a similar problem with Johnson, when he enters restricted free agency the summer after this one, but that still gives head coach and president Stan Van Gundy a year to figure out the finances.
More than anything, the Jazz simply may not bite. They won’t be commanding a king’s ransom for Hood, but a defense-first wing who can’t shoot hardly helps out one of the NBA’s more anemic offenses.
