The Detroit Pistons reportedly believe that they can make a splash in the trade market.
Detroit has lost 26 straight games since starting the season 2-1, and the team is on the verge of setting the single-season record for consecutive losses.
Despite that, it doesn’t appear that Pistons owner Tom Gores is planning to part ways with head coach Monty Williams (in the first year of a massive contract) or general manager Troy Weaver just yet.
“While Gores didn’t state it outright, the Free Press is hearing they’re specifically looking to add veteran talent and address glaring areas of need on the roster,” the Detroit Free Press’ Omari Sankofa II wrote.
“For now, the plan isn’t to part ways with Weaver or tweak the first-year coaching staff. The team believes it has the resources to make a splash in the trade market, and sees it as the logical next step.”
The Pistons have a ton of former lottery picks on their team, including James Wiseman, Marvin Bagley III, Jalen Duren, Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Killian Hayes and Kevin Knox II.
It’s possible that the team could move some of the younger pieces that don’t fit around a cornerstone like Cunningham to add veteran talent to improve the roster.
At this point, it’s hard for the Pistons to make things worse with a trade, as the group that the team currently has clearly isn’t going to be successful after this long losing streak.
“Number 1, we have an amazing set of young players,” Gores said. “Number 2, we have set ourselves up in the way our contracts are flexible. We had all these contracts that saddled us, we couldn’t be nimble. We are also set up with a lot of cap space, and you know I’m willing to do whatever it takes for this organization to be successful. As much as the vision feels blurry, to me it’s the same feel I had at the beginning of the season of a bright future. I still have that.”
While the Pistons have some solid young talent (Cunningham, Ivey, Ausar Thompson and Duren) a lot of the team’s young players have struggled to stay healthy.
Bagley has missed some time this season. He has played in 24 games, but he missed nearly half of the 2022-23 campaign, playing in just 42 contests.
Duren, who showed a lot of promise as a rookie, has appeared in just 14 games this season. Cunningham, who is showing he can be a piece the team can build around, missed the majority of the 2022-23 season.
With all of these injuries, the Pistons have struggled to mesh with their young group.
Not only that, but the team may have less leverage in trying to trade some of their oft-injured players to get a key contributor back.
It’ll be interesting to see who the Pistons target in the trade market as they try to revamp the roster that has struggled so much this season.
