The Detroit Pistons didn’t take a swing last summer. Then doubled down this winter at the trade deadline.
They were a season removed from 14 wins, a surprise playoff participant, when they made that first decision. And at the deadline this past February? When they even more surprisingly held the East’s No. 1 seed?
No thanks, we’re cool was essentially the response from president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon.
I would have doubled down, too.
Trade deadline deals in the NBA don’t do much to change the season these days. That work is done in the summer, and even then, lately the relatively modest moves have brought the most success. (Hey, I said, “relatively.”)
Which means it’s time for the Pistons to make a move. No, they don’t need another big star. They do need more shooting, ball-handling, play-making and maybe even a little more rebounding. That could come in various forms.
Not so long ago a superstar on the move dictated which city got to hold a parade. These days the best teams fill their holes more astutely, and more specifically. Even so, acquiring a much-needed non-star can feel like a gamble at the time.
Or not.
Josh Giddey, anyone?
The Oklahoma City Thunder happily gave up their potentially higher-ceilinged lottery pick for perimeter pest Alex Caruso the summer after OKC got bounced in the second round. They had young talent in lots of places but lacked fortitude and savvy in key spaces and needed reinforcements as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams developed.
Williams, in particular, struggled in that 2024 second-round loss to Dallas. He couldn’t shoot. Now he can (at least when he’s not injured).
And yet, without Caruso and Josh Hartenstein (who came via free agency from New York), the Thunder aren’t your defending NBA champions. The pair gave OKC muscle on the boards and one of the better stoppers in the game.
But they were far from stars, and even now, with rings on their fingers, they remain relatively anonymous in the galaxy of the Thunder. Still, they represent the kind of offseason moves that make the difference these days.
The question of when to go all in is subjective, of course. Then again, it shouldn’t go unnoticed that the Pistons just lost in the second round. A parallel with the Thunder? Not quite – Langdon doesn’t have the assets OKC’s Sam Presti did. But the Pistons do have promising young talent.
Only two Pistons are untouchable
In other words, it’s time … to make a move, to take a risk, to give up some future picks and consider everyone under contract as potential chips in a deal, except for Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson.
Sorry, but this is my space, and I don’t care that Thompson doesn’t shoot 3s, or finish well or even dribble well, sometimes. Well, the last two matter, and Thompon’s got to get a lot better at both. But he can.
As for the shooting? It doesn’t matter. Without him, the Pistons don’t rally to beat the Orlando Magic, or take the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games, or even secure the No. 1 seed (not that it ultimately mattered).
Thompson is that important to winning. He is his own disruptive system, and though he couldn’t do much to stop the Cavaliers on Sunday, May 17, neither could Cunningham. These young Pistons didn’t bring it. That’s a lesson, too.
Besides, demanding Thompson develop a corner 3-pointer would be like insisting Luka Doncic learn to face guard or defend in any capacity. Thompson is that good. No, defense doesn’t mean quite as much as offense in basketball. But it matters way more than it’s often considered.
Here is what Cavs’ coach Kenny Atkinson said after Game 7, when asked what adjustments his Cavaliers had made against the Pistons.
“We were just, like, ‘If he’s near the ball, throw it to someone else.’ And I’ve never experienced that in the NBA,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it, where even if you have a great player with the ball and he’s on it, it’s ‘Pass it to someone else.’”
Does that sound like a player to trade? No, not unless you’re getting a bona fide All-NBA’er back. And even then, Langdon would pause. He just saw what everyone else did, which is the point, I suppose of him sitting tight in July and then February.
He wanted to see, to study, to gauge. He knows that while fans may clamor for splashy winters, the most meaningful building and retooling come after the season. Oh, it wasn’t that long ago when a superstar’s movement led to trophies.
Dream big, but make smart moves
Kawhi Leonard to Toronto? That worked for the Raptors in 2019. Kevin Durant to the Warriors a couple years before that? LeBron James to the Lakers in 2019?
Sure.
Get an in-his-prime superstar and your title chances rise. Those three managed four titles in all with their new teams, in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. But in the five years since? Each champ already had stars and found specific fits to their puzzle.
The Milwaukee Bucks got there after trading for Jrue Holiday – a really good player, not a star player. The Warriors won in 2022 despite losing Durant to the Brooklyn Nets by adding free agents Otto Porter and Nemanja Bjelica, which is to say: smarts and shooting.
The Denver Nuggets added muscle and defense and a little more shooting to the Nikola Jokic/Jamal Murray duo. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown, anyone? While Boston finally got over the top when they got Holiday from Milwaukee and added Kristaps Porzingis.
More defense. More rim protection. More shooting.
All five champs in the past half-decade gave up assets to get better and brought in talented additions. But they were the right additions.
Some of those additions will take the court for the Pistons in the form of more development by the talent already on the roster. They are young. Young players tend to get better. No team listed above wins a title without their young players getting better.
In the end, it has to be both – a difficult balance, no doubt.
But Langdon has taken his time and studied it, figured it out. He wanted more ammo, and more info, and he has a lot more of both. He also has enough on the roster to take a gamble.
It’s time. The last month had to have convinced him of that.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: It’s time for Pistons to take an offseason gamble. But not quite the one you think
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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