Pistons Blog

This is a question I've asked often over the past year, but with the injury to Kelly Olynyk and the potential suspension of Isaiah Stewart, its become much more relevant. I have nothing personal against Rodney McGruder. He plays hard on the rare occasion his number gets called and is well known to be a great teammate. Coach Casey loves him for his leadership & positive influence on the teams many young players. However when it comes to the on court product, McGruder doesn't move the needle at all. He's buried on the depth chart as the teams 8th wing option and usually only gets off the bench late in blowout games. Meanwhile the Pistons have been struggling all season to protect the paint and routinely get out rebounded by large margins. Opposing players are having a field day taking the ball to the rim and getting plenty of second chance opportunities when they choose to shoot from the outside. Our undersized starting bigs with the 6'8" Isaiah Stewart &

Though many Pistons fans (including myself) would hate to see it happen, I believe the Pistons should strongly consider trading Jerami Grant ASAP while his value is still sky high & his excellent 2020-21 season is still fresh on the minds of NBA GM's. With Cade Cunningham starting to assert himself on offense, Grants scoring numbers (and trade value) will likely take a hit. While Grant is an above average player & a strong defender, only his scoring avg last season and career 3pt shooting percentage stand out as superior when looking at his stats. He's a below average rebounder for a PF and doesn't block many shots either. If Grants scoring drops from an average of 23 PPG last year to say 17 PPG this season, Jerami would go from having the numbers of an all-star caliber player to looking like an Evan Fournier clone on the stat sheet. While Fournier is a solid player, there is not one team in the NBA that would give up much in a trade for him. I think Grant is a

There have been plenty of rumors that have linked the Pistons to Marvin Bagley of the Kings, but as most have realized the Pistons don't currently have the players avaialble salary wise to match up in a deal for him due to the recently signed player rule. The rule prohibits any player that reached free agency and is signed during the offseason to be traded until after the 60th day of the league year. That date this season is December 15th. The only players the Pistons can currently trade are Cade, Grant, Bey, Stewart, Hayes, Josh Jackson, Garza and Livers. Out of those 7, the only 2 players i could see being in play for a Bagley deal are JJ and possibly Livers. However thier combinded salaries of $6M is not enough to trade for Bagley and his $11.3M conract. The problem is with Kelly Olynyk injured the Pistons could really use Bagley now. There is a potential solution to make it happen. If Troy Weaver can find a higher salaried player that he can trade Josh Jackson (and potentiall

Last season it seemed like nearly everything Troy Weaver touched turned to gold. By midseason Weaver had nearly turned over 100% of the roster he inherited (Sekou Doumbouya was the only man left standing), two of his mid round #1 picks had cemented themselves as key rotation players, and his free agent signings that had been mostly panned by the media as overpays were looking like bargains. Yes the team was losing a lot of games, but they were playing highly competitive games nearly every night they took the court. For the first time in years Pistons fans were optimistic about the future of this team. That excitement reached its peak when the ping pong balls fell our way in the draft lottery and the Pistons landed the #1 overall pick and drafted Cade Cunningham. The Pistons headed into the '21/22 offseason with nearly $12M in cap space and 8 players under contract (Plumlee, Stewart, Okafor, Grant, Doumbouya, Bey, Jackson, Hayes) plus Cunningham's upcoming rookie contract. On

The Pistons suffered a big blow when they lost PF/C Kelly Olynyk to a knee injury. Olynyk is expected to be out at last 6 weeks, and the team sorely lacks the depth up front to make up for his loss. Due to trade restrictions placed on recently signed players the Pistons are very limited on who they could offer up in a trade to find his replacement. The only PIstons players eligible to be traded before 12/15 are Grant, Stewart, Bey, Hayes, Cunningham, J Jackson, Garza & Livers. Out of that list the only 2 I could see Detroit being willing to move is Josh Jackson and possibly Isaiah Livers (for salary purposes). One other option would be to relaase a low cost, little used player (Like Rodney McGruder) and sign one of the avaialble Free Agents Bigs who could be avaialble via trade and fit into Josh Jackson $5M salary slot (would need to have a salary between $2.8-$8.8M) JayMykal Green - DEN: With all the injuries the Nuggets have been suffering Green may not be considered ava

1. Traded cash to UTAH for Tony Bradley and a 2020 #2 pick (Saben Lee) A solid first trade for Weaver to kick off the rebuild. Taking on Bradley's expiring $3.5M contract was well worth it to land an early 2nd round pick. GRADE: B 2. Traded a protected 2021 #1 pick to HOU for Trevor Ariza, and a 2020 #1 pick (Isaiah Stewart) IMO Houston GM Rafael Stone made a tremendous deal by getting Weaver to agree to include a protected 2021 #1 pick in exchange for the #16 overall pick and agreeing to take on Trevor Ariza's $12.8M salary. Stone doubled down and burned Weaver again on the sign and trade for Christian Wood by rolling it into the Ariza trade while only having to surrender a 2027 #2 pick and some extra protections on the #1 pick we had sent to HOU in the original deal. Weaver giving up a future #1 pick to take on a major salary dump was questionable to being with, not getting that #1 pick back (or a future #1) to accomodate the Wood sign and trade was negligent. GRADE