The Detroit Pistons are continuing their offseason moves to not only build their team for next season but also to set themselves up for the future. GM Trajan Langdon has been trying to find the right balance between making win-now moves and maintaining financial flexibility to be able to pay the team's young core.
With this in mind, the Pistons traded Caris LeVert to the Milwaukee Bucks for Taurean Prince and Gary Harris. Detroit had to include two second-round picks to incentivize the Bucks to take LeVert on, per ESPN's Shams Charania. This was a part of a larger six-team trade that also had Detroit's John Collins deal folded in.
Pistons continue to make financially motivated trades to re-sign Jalen Duren
With this trade, the Pistons offload LeVert's $14.8 million expiring salary. In return, they get Prince and Harris, who make $3.8 million each next season. They are both on expiring contracts as well, meaning that the Pistons aren't taking on any long-term salary. Shedding over $7 million in salary for two second-round picks is decent value for Detroit, but it also highlights how bad a signing LeVert turned out to be.
When the Pistons signed him to a two-year deal last summer, they were hoping LeVert would be a secondary ball-creator and lead bench units with his playmaking. Unfortunately, he was a shell of himself for most of the season, especially offensively. As the Pistons ascended to potential title contenders, it became obvious that they had to upgrade LeVert's salary slot.
The problem is, they didn't necessarily upgrade the roster with this move. Prince and Harris are capable veterans as deep bench players, but they weren't included in this deal for their on-court contributions.
What this accomplishes for the Pistons is purely financial. The Pistons have created two trade exceptions in this deal, one worth $15 million and the other $5.2 million, per cap expert Yossi Gozlan. This gives them some flexibility in ensuing moves.
More importantly, however, the Pistons went $46+ million under the luxury tax line. This means that they can re-sign Jalen Duren and still stay under the tax. Since the Pistons don't have a roster spot right now, one more move has to be made before Duren is brought back. This should open up even more space under the tax line.
The Pistons clearly set things up so that they can sign Duren and stay under the tax. As understandable as this is, if this is all they end up doing this summer, Pistons fans will be severely disappointed. After all these moves, including the LeVert trade, it's not clear that Detroit's roster is better than it was last season.
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