With the Kawhi Leonard saga officially over in LA, the Jalen Duren-Detroit Pistons stalemate is now the biggest remaining offseason storyline. All eyes are now on the best player who is still unsigned on the market.
After Kawhi's trade to the Toronto Raptors was finally processed, ESPN's Shams Charania had a fascinating report. Speaking to TSN, Charania said that the Pistons, along with the Timberwolves and others, were interested in trading for Leonard and giving him an extension. But Leonard narrowed down his preferred destinations by signaling that he wasn't willing to extend with teams other than the Raptors and the Spurs.
This understandably scared off teams like Detroit and Minnesota. Knowing what we know now, should the Pistons have been more aggressive in trading for the 35-year-old superstar?
Pistons front office did the right thing by not trading for Kawhi Leonard
Even if Leonard was unwilling to sign a new deal with the Pistons, there was nothing to stop Detroit from acquiring him via a trade. They could have had him as a one-year rental or tried to convince him next offseason to stay in Detroit. Considering how much his reputation has been tarnished due to the cap circumvention investigation, Leonard could have had some interest in staying in Detroit and competing for championships for many years to come.
This obviously would have been a big risk for the Pistons. Whether they should have done it would have depended on the price.
The Raptors gave up Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round picks, a first-round pick swap, and two second-round picks.
Let's assume that this was the offer the Pistons had to beat early in the offseason before they made their moves. Assuming that they wouldn't want to include Jalen Duren or Ausar Thompson in this trade, Detroit could have used Isaiah Stewart, Caris LeVert, Ron Holland, and Duncan Robinson as matching salary in the deal.
Since that is a worse package in terms of players than Toronto's, the Pistons would have had to include more draft capital. Fortunately, they had all of their draft picks going forward. Three unprotected first-round picks plus another pick swap may have gotten it done.
Would this have been a good idea?
Without a guarantee that Kawhi would stay long-term, that is too much to give up. The Pistons are asset-rich, and they should fire their bullets for a significant upgrade. But a 35-year-old, injury-prone superstar, regardless of how good a player and fit he would have been in Detroit, wasn't the right choice.
Pistons fans can criticize GM Trajan Langdon for the offseason activity, and some of the criticisms are well-deserved, but not acquiring Kawhi Leonard for this price was one of the better decisions the front office made this summer.
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