I've been obsessed with the idea of the Pistons pulling off a One Red Paperclip trade. Since Stan Van Gundy used this offseason to basically add a bunch of minimally significant, moveable parts, the idea struck me that some of these moves could be potential stepping stones to something greater. For those of you who don't know the One Red Paperclip story, a guy named Kyle MacDonald started with a red paperclip and made a series of trades, gaining a bit of value with every trade, until he ended up with a house.
I noticed in the Ersan Ilyasova trade that Stan gave up 2 guys he was going to cut anyway for a guy he could use, and in the trade that brought over Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock, and Danny Granger, Stan gave up a future 2nd-round draft pick. Both trades were deals where the Pistons were giving up very little to almost nothing in order to gain useful players. The hidden cost on the Pistons' side is the loss of cap space which hinders their ability to sign good free agents, but for the sake of this post I'm looking at asset-for-asset moves and leaving cap space out of the picture.
Instead of trading a red paperclip for a house, we're trading 2nd-round picks and guys we want to waive for a championship roster. Is this possible? As sort of a test case, let's look at how Joe Dumars constructed the 2004 Championship team.
First, Joe D took over the team prior to the 2000-2001 NBA season. The year before, they went 42-40, made the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference, and lost to Miami in 4 games in the first round. The top contributors on that team were Grant Hill, Jerry Stackhouse, Lindsey Hunter, and Christian Laettner. He had a lot more to work with. If the team as constructed when SVG took over was the red paperclip, Joe D was starting with the Coleman Stove.
The first big move involved the Pistons' best player, but it was still kind of a "something for nothing" deal in that Grant Hill was leaving Detroit as a free agent. They managed to get a couple of players in return by swinging a sign & trade with Orlando. We all know how that worked out.
Grant Hill --> Orlando, spent multiple seasons on the DL before getting traded to PHO
Chucky Atkins --> Detroit, starting PG, then backup, then traded
Ben Wallace --> Detroit, starting C, won multiple DPOY, AS appearances, centerpiece for championship defense
Dumars was shipping lots of guys out. Lindsey Hunter was traded for Billy Owens (meh), but the next notable deal was the Laettner trade.
Christian Laettner --> Dallas, basically washed up, ended up in a trade package to WAS
Terry Mills --> Dallas, never played there, signed with IND and was totally washed up
Cedric Ceballos --> Detroit, washed up, dumped on MIA for a 2nd-rounder who was in turn traded for Zelly Rebraca
Eric Murdock --> Detroit, waived
John Wallace --> Detroit, mediocre backup who was then traded
A very key move was Dumars' deadline deal later that season.
Jerome Williams --> Toronto, mainly bench player, ended up traded to CHI
Eric Montross --> Toronto, backup C, retired after the following season
Corliss Williamson --> Detroit, 6th-man type post scorer several years including 2004
Kornel David --> Detroit, played in 10 games, did nothing
Tyrone Corbin --> Detroit, waived
Dumars wasn't the greatest drafter in round 1, but he did nail many of his 2nd round picks, getting Mehmet Okur with the 38th pick of the 2001 draft. The groundwork for the 2004 championship team and the Rasheed Wallace trade was laid at this point. How did Dumars expand on that in the '01-'02 season? He started by trading 2 2nd-rounders to Toronto for Zelly Rebraca, a capable backup C who ended up part of the Rasheed Wallace trade.
The next move was a classic example of a something-for-nothing trade that Dumars utilized to turn the Pistons from also rans into contenders.
John Wallace --> Phoenix, was next to useless at this point in his career
Jud Beuchler --> Phoenix, a 3PT specialist who did nothing else and was basically done
Cliff Robinson --> Detroit, starting PF for 2 yrs, capable stretch-4 and defender, traded
Dumars rounded out the roster moves of the '01-'02 season by picking up Jon Barry & a draft pick (who became Delfino) for Mateen Cleaves, and then drafted Tayshaun Prince with the 23rd overall pick. Looking to build off of the 50 wins of the previous season, Dumars used the mid-level exemption to sign Chauncey Billups and then followed that by making another key move that helped build the championship team.
Jerry Stackhouse --> Washington, played a couple of solid years before being traded
Brian Cardinal --> Washington, played 5 games & got waived, career backup elsewhere
Ratko Varda --> Washington, waived
Rip Hamilton --> Detroit, played here 9 seasons, usually leading the team in scoring
Hubert Davis --> Detroit, played 3 games, got waived
Bobby Simmons --> Detroit, waived
Stackhouse was Detroit's leading scorer, averaging NEARLY 30 ppg one season, but he seemed to disappear in the playoffs. Hamilton was possibly less talented a scorer, but he was more reliable and provided better spacing with his midrange game. Chauncey was famously a steal for the MLE. That Pistons team won 50 games again and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1991. Like the '91 ECF, they were swept. Clearly they needed one more piece to get over the hump, and owning the Grizzlies' #2 overall pick might have been that piece except Dumars drafted Darko.
Detroit needed one more big piece to be seriously considered a contender. They couldn't get past New Jersey, let alone match up with any of the Western Conference elite. That led to the deadline deal that became the linchpin of the Pistons' 2004 title contention: The Rasheed Wallace Trade. I'm including the sources of each player involved in the trade so you can more fully appreciate the moves that led up to it.
Chucky Atkins (acquired in Grant Hill S&T) --> Boston, started at PG for the final 3rd of the season for Boston before being traded to LA for, among other things, the Rondo pick
Lindsey Hunter (acquired in trade for Michael Curry) --> Boston, waived, re-signed with Detroit (he leaves but always seems to come back) and was a key sub on the title team
#25 pick in 2004 --> Boston, used to pick Tony Allen, a defensive BEAST
Zeljko Rebraca (acquired in trade for 2 2nd round picks in 2002) --> Atlanta, played in 3 games and signed elsewhere in the offseason
Bob Sura (acquired in trade for Cliff Robinson & Pepe Sanchez) --> Atlanta, got a LOT more burn than he did in Detroit, signed elsewhere in the offseason
#17 pick in 2004 (acquired in trade for Rodney White) --> Atlanta, used to pick Josh Smith, we all know how that turned out
Rasheed Wallace --> Detroit, provided another one-on-one scorer and floor spacer, and his elite man-defense in the post allowed Ben Wallace to be a free-range shot blocker. 'Sheed provided 2 1/2 quality years before his skills started to erode and his volatility got the better of him
Mike James --> Detroit, quality backup PG. When Chauncey Billups went down and the Pistons wanted to just SHUT DOWN the opponent completely, they'd take out Rip and bring in James to run with the rest of the starters, Lindsey Hunter starting for the injured Billups. James was out of Detroit the following year
To recap, here is a list of all the major players on the '04 team and the player(s) who were the source of their acquisition, with the degree of separation in parenthesis (only going back to the earliest source in the Dumars era, otherwise Corliss & Darko could be sourced back to a trade back in 1982). If a player was part of a previous trade that was already sourced, I won't bother putting the same info in twice.PG Chauncey Billups --> MLE (1)
SG Rip Hamilton --> Stackhouse, Cardinal, Varda (1)
SF Tayshaun Prince --> 2002 NBA Draft (1)
PF Rasheed Wallace --> Hill (2), Curry (2), '02 2nd rd picks (2), Laettner (5), White (2), '04 1st rd pick (1)
C Ben Wallace --> Hill (1)
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Okur --> 2001 NBA Draft (1)
Hunter --> Curry (1), then signed off waivers
Corliss --> Montross (1), Williams (1)
James --> same as 'Sheed
It's notable that of the top 9 players who got a ring, 2/3 of them were acquired by trade. Sometimes a something-for-nothing trade peters out and doesn't have any payoff in the long run. Other times, those tiny improvements can snowball into pulling off a 50 cents on the dollar hijacking like the Rasheed Wallace trade.
Right now SVG is gathering assets. He's already pulled off 2 something-for-nothing trades. Can he pull off a Red Paperclip deal? Will we be evaluating a deal some 2 or 3 years in the future and say, "you know, this all started with a 2020 2nd-rd pick"? We can only hope.
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