Despite being in the midst of a historic losing streak, the Detroit Pistons reportedly have no plans to trade veteran Bojan Bogdanovic in an attempt to possibly improve for the future.
“Lastly, are you as intrigued by the Pistons’ future as you once were?” James L. Edwards III asked in an exchange with colleague Sam Vecenie. “The core young pieces are [Cade] Cunningham, [Jalen] Duren, [Ausar] Thompson and [Jaden] Ivey. They project to have a significant amount of cap space next summer. They don’t really have any assets to trade, though, and everything I’ve heard and continue to hear is that there are no plans to trade Bogdanović unless Detroit gets an offer it can’t refuse. The Pistons want to be good and don’t want to trade good players, even if Bogdanović’s role is reduced to a bench scorer next season.”
Bogdanovic finally returned from a calf injury sustained during training camp to make his season debut earlier this month. He has played in 12 games during the Pistons’ ongoing losing streak that reached 28 games with a heartbreaking loss at the Boston Celtics on Thursday.
The 34-year-old scored 17 points in 44 minutes in the overtime defeat and is averaging 19.7 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game this season.
It was thought that once he was healthy and able to play, the Pistons reportedly might consider trading him, with playoff contenders such as the Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers possibly among the teams that would be interested.
Bogdanovic set his career-high by averaging 21.6 points per game for Detroit last season, and the 10-season NBA veteran has shown he is still capable of bringing offense to a team. He has a 33-point game and five other outings of at least 20 points this season while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from 3-point range.
It has not really helped the Pistons, however, who set the record for the longest losing streak within one NBA season and equaled the all-time record that was set by the Philadelphia 76ers over the end of the 2014-15 campaign and beginning of the 2015-16 season.
Having not won a game since late October, the Pistons looked like they had a chance to end the streak of futility against the Celtics on Thursday. Detroit built a 21-point lead, fell behind but then rallied to force overtime before falling short. The circumstances of the loss were enough to draw a reaction from Miami Dolphins superstar Tyreek Hill.
Earlier reports suggested that if the Pistons did indeed look to trade Bogdanovic, they would seek young players and/or draft picks. However, they could believe that his veteran leadership will be more valuable to them as they attempt to turn their fortunes around this season and going forward.
