Detroit Pistons Could Stay Quiet at NBA Trade Deadline
Jan 31, 2015; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy and players on the bench are upset with a call during the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
The Detroit Pistons seasons started out in not so hot fashion. In fact many considered them the worst team in the league. However a midseason turnaround thanks to the waiving of Josh Smith has turned this team into an almost playoff contender. At the start of the day the team sits 2.5 games out of the 8th playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The team may not be an over .500 team, but they don’t need to be in the Eastern Conference.
With the NBA trade deadline many teams are shopping and selling players in hopes to get past the last hump of the season. The Detroit Pistons could be one of those teams looking for a key player that could help them get into the last spot and make the playoffs for the first time since the 2008-2009 season.
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Also making the Pistons seem like a team looking for a key player is the loss of point guard Brandon Jennings who tore his left Achilles tendon in a January against Milwaukee Bucks. The thought would be to find a player that could replace Jennings at least for the rest of the season. Jennings won’t be back until September when training camp for the new season starts.
However, it seems like the Pistons won’t be big mover and shakers near the trade deadline because who are they really going to trade? It is clear that this is a much better team than the one we saw at the start of the season, so why change anything? They haven’t been playing the best basketball in the past two weeks, but they also aren’t falling apart in front of us.
The loss of Jennings is tough, it is tough for any team to lose an impact player such as Jennings was. However, there are only 30 more games left in the season along with an All Star game break. It is not like this team lost one of their best players at the start of the season, it is in the tail end of the season and they are 2.5 games out of the last playoff spot. If anything, this team is at a fork in the road and have to decide which way they want to take in dealing with this situation they are in.
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They can go left and take the short approach to it. This means the front office says “let’s do the best thing for us that will get us into that last playoff spot”. Which is not really a terrible approach, they haven’t been to the postseason in 5 seasons and so to keep fans happy, being there in April would help. You go out and try to get a big name player that you could use to win and might end up only being a rental player.
Or they could right, which is looking at the future and not depending on this season to be the season you get to the playoffs. The team wouldn’t shop players or really be looking for anyone, but continue to keep the core that they have and see how it works out. This also is in no way a terrible plan to take because it protects you from giving away good young players, or getting players that end up busting when they get to you… Cough Allen Iverson cough.
Both have pros and cons to whatever plan the team takes. Maybe they can find a hybrid path and find a way to help themselves long and short-term. Fans can only hope that the team doesn’t make a move that ends up hurting the team not only for the short-term, but also the long-term, again looking at you Iverson trade.
There are some rumors that are finding their around the Twitters and social sites that the Detroit Pistons might be shopping Greg Monroe. While none of those “reports” have really anything to back them besides the person making them saying “this could happen”. It does make you feel the need to go look at the roster and see what the team does have to use as trading bait.
When you get there you really don’t see much to shop. Not that the players aren’t good, just that they are important enough to the team that trading them could cause the team to play drastically differently and you don’t know if that will be good or bad. If after the team waived Smith and they continued to play bad, then I would think yes, this team should be trading and finding new pieces.
Yet, they played really well, and are still playing considerably pretty well, so there isn’t this big need for trading to get new players. What do you guys think the Pistons should do? Trade, don’t trade? Let us know below.
If anything it will be interesting to see what the Detroit Pistons do or don’t do at the trade deadline. Stay connected with Detroit Jock City for your Pistons news while the trade deadline creeps closer.
Next: Why the Pistons have to depend on their big men to make the playoffs