Grade the Trade: Wizards flip Kyle Kuzma for top-5 pick in NBA Draft, 2 players
By Jack Simone
Grade the Trade: Detroit Pistons’ perspective
Despite their embarrassingly-bad season this past year, the Detroit Pistons have supposedly been attempting to compete for a while now. They just haven’t had much success in doing so.
In a draft that is expected to be one of the weaker ones in recent years, trading the fifth pick for a solid starter isn’t as bad of an idea as it may seem at face value.
Rather than taking a chance on a young player, the Pistons would bring in a player who would be able to help Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, and the rest of their young core push for the postseason.
Despite the Washington Wizards’ bad season this past year, Kuzma put up some solid numbers. In 70 appearances, Kuzma averaged 22.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.2 assists while shooting 46.3% from the field and 33.6% from behind the three-point line.
Detroit is very high on their core four players: Cunningham, Ivey, Ausar Thompson, and Jalen Duren. However, now that Bogdanovic is gone, adding a power forward could be a priority this summer.
There are some rumors that they could look to sign Tobias Harris in free agency, which would make a Kuzma trade relatively useless, and Simone Fontecchio actually looks like an underrated piece, too.
Trading the fifth pick to push for improvement isn’t a terrible idea, and Kuzma would be a nice pick-up. The move isn’t flashy, but it would make the Pistons better.
Grade: B