The Detroit Pistons made their first move of the offseason on draft night, trading three future second-round picks to move up from No. 21 to No. 17 and select Ebuka Okorie out of Stanford. There will be more moves from Trajan Langdon and the front office to further add to this roster, but the Okorie selection signals their intentions for free agency and the trade market.
One of the most obvious takeaways from Detroit's decision to aggressively go after Okorie is that Tyler Herro is likely not going to be a Piston this summer. He was considered one of the top targets for the Pistons, even after he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Giannis Antetokounmpo deal. There were rumors that he could be rerouted to Detroit as the Pistons look to add more shot creation and shooting.
Now, the chances of that happening are significantly lower.
Pistons shouldn't be chasing Tyler Herro after drafting Ebuka Okorie
With the addition of Okorie, the Pistons now have three point guards around Cade Cunningham between the rookie, Daniss Jenkins, and Marcus Sasser. While Jenkins can hold his own defensively, all three of these players are better offensive players than they are defenders. In fact, Okorie and Sasser are especially undersized and will be serious liabilities on that end of the floor.
Herro isn't necessarily undersized, but he is a poor defender. He struggles against the quickest point guards, but is also not strong enough to defend up. He has largely been targeted defensively whenever he was on the court in Miami.
Considering that the Pistons also have Duncan Robinson in the rotation, that is simply too many players who are defensive liabilities. Not only would it be difficult to play Herro and Robinson together, but it would be almost impossible for Herro and Okorie to play significant minutes sharing the backcourt due to the defensive limitations.
Given that the Pistons specifically targeted Okorie and gave up assets to bring him in, it seems unlikely that they would invest resources into a player with such redundancies with Okorie.
Sure, Robinson could be a part of the Herro trade, or the Pistons could move on from Sasser to balance out the roster. But this wouldn't be the smartest use of resources. Detroit needs to start focusing on the wing rather than the backcourt. Whether it's to a big trade for Trey Murphy or another forward, the Pistons have to shift their priorities away from another offense-first guard.
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