Pistons Might Ditch Draft

June 19, 2009 · Paul Raymond · Jump to comments

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Today’s Detroit Free Press reports that the Detroit Pistons are considering trading out of the first round in the NBA Draft. The Pistons currently hold the 15th pick in next week’s draft, their highest slot since 2007 when they selected Rodney Stuckey. He’s worked out pretty well for them I’d say, so why would they look to move out of the round? The answer is somewhat surprising, it’s all about the money?

With the current economy money is playing a major role in this years draft. There are actually numerous teams looking to trade out of the first round. Looking to avoid the guaranteed contract. I’d have to say I don’t like the reasoning one bit. It’s bad enough that in Major League Baseball, the best players usually don’t get drafted where they should because of sign ability concerns. But this is now hitting the NBA?

Not wanting to pay contracts is one of the biggest things I hate about the baseball draft. Now we have NBA teams who want out of the draft so they don’t have to pay guys who might not be an immediate help. It’s pretty annoying, but for a team like the Pistons could it be smart?

The 15th pick in last years draft was Robin Lopez by the Phoenix Suns, he made $1.6 million last season. That’s a decent amount for a rookie who may never see the court. Remember the Pistons were bounced in the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers but weren’t far from being an Eastern Conference contender. They had made six straight NBA Eastern Conference Finals before missing the playoffs this year. So it’s not like they are a bad team.

In fact, the Pistons had health issues most of the year and were maybe one or two players away from being a contender. Team president Joe Dumars knows this and is looking for ways to get the team back there.

The Pistons have a lot of cap room this offseason approximately $20 million. If they can dump that first round pick for a second round or a future first, they can theoretically save themselves an additional $1.6 million (the amount of Lopez’s deal last year). So Detroit could have just under $22 million in cap space for free agency or trade.

That’s a lot of money for a team that only needs to get a little bit of help to reach its goals. Unfortunately for them they aren’t the only team looking to trade down.

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