Pistons that Almost Were...

Now that the Pistons have selected Dwane Casey to be their next head coach, they need a GM who can run a better ship than SVG did (or Dumars, in his last 5 years). That got me thinking about trade near-misses Dumars and SVG had in their time here.

2007 - Kobe vetoes trade for Rip, Tay, and picks.
This one would've been a coup for Dumars, but Kobe shot it down. He had demanded a trade and wanted to go to Chicago, but they couldn't make the pieces work. Detroit and LA had the details all worked out, but Jerry Buss talked Kobe down off the ledge and he stuck it out. He would go on to be league MVP the next season and win 2 more titles. Could he have won a 'ship here with Chauncey, Sheed and Dice? Probably.
Grade: Not Dumars' fault, but MAN... 1/2 a facepalm.

2009 - Detroit rejects Ray Allen & Rondo for Rip, Tay & Stuckey.
Ainge reached out through an intermediary and was summarily rejected. Allen's contract was expiring, so it's not as sweet an offer as it looks on the surface. Still, we would've had Rondo through his prime, the horrific 2009 FA moves Dumars made probably wouldn't have happened, and we would've had cap space in the bigger free agency summer of 2010.
Grade: Would've had 4 AS appearances out of Rondo, instead of 0 from Rip/Tay/Stuckey. 4 facepalms.

2014 - Stan turns down multiple offers for Greg Monroe.
Ugh. We don't know what was offered, but anything would've been better than what ended up happening. The Suns were the most aggressive suitor and they had guys like Dragic & Bledsoe that they were trying to get rid of. Even a weak tea offer would've been better than Stan opting to ship out Josh Smith for nothing, stretching his contract until 2020, then losing Monroe for nothing that summer.
Grade: Stan set off a chain of events that continues to screw us to this day. 10 facepalms. 

2015 - SVG prefers to draft Stanley Johnson over the 6 picks Boston offered.
This might be the most inexcusable non-move of the bunch. Danny Ainge was desperate to draft Justise Winslow, and started offering up the farm - 6 picks, including potentially 4 first-rounders. Fortunately for Boston (and unfortunately for us), Stan Van Gundy was so enamored with Stanley Johnson that he turned down a deal that included the Jaylen Brown pick and the Terry Rozier pick, among others. Brown & Rozier started for a team that made the ECF, Stanley Johnson comes off the bench for a team that couldn't win 40 games.
Grade: Inexcusable. INFINITE facepalms.

Most of Dumars' gaffes involved bad drafting and bad contracts. He tended to do well in trades, although the Ben Gordon trade wasn't great and turning down the Allen/Rondo trade probably led to some of his worst moves. 

Stan made a couple of decent trades early on, but he got progressively worse. Not dealing Monroe at the beginning of the '14-'15 season was just dumb. Nixing Boston's offer for the 8th pick was an all-time boneheaded move.

Look at who we could've had! Kobe in 2008 (not the GM's fault), Ray Allen in '09 and Rondo through his All Star years, whoever on the Suns instead of no Greg Monroe and negative cap space of Josh Smith, and finally Scary Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown instead of Stanley Johnson. Why didn't these deals happen? Other than the Kobe deal, it was because the GM at the time overvalued what he had and failed to look into the future. Whoever the next GM of the Pistons turns out to be, learn from this. 

Now Here's a Thought...

Blake Griffin is the best player to play in a Pistons uniform since Grant Hill. In a vacuum, I love the fact that we have such a dynamic player on our team. He's also got a great attitude and is one of the more marketable players in the NBA. The problem is that he doesn't exist in a vacuum. He comes saddled with a monster of a contract (average salary of $34.2M thru 2021, with a $39M player option for 2022), and his skill set doesn't match well with Detroit's other star/good-ish players.

The Pistons still don't have a head coach or a GM, but whoever ends up in that role will have his or her hands full trying to make this roster work. We're maxed out, salary cap-wise, and this still is a borderline playoff roster AT BEST. I've got an idea that could fix both the player fit problems AND some of our salary woes in one fell swoop.

Trade Blake Griffin for Kevin Love straight up.

Stay with me here - Cleveland IS going to lose in the Finals, probably by getting swept tonight. That's a fact. LeBron IS going to sign elsewhere next year. Not necessarily a fact, but this is almost assured. So what does Cleveland do? They've mortgaged their future for the present. They don't own a pick in the first round this year, and they could lose their pick in either 2019 or 2020 if it falls out of the top 10. Their roster, sans LeBron, would be headlined by Kevin Love, a good player who has never headlined a playoff team in his career. Plus, even with LeBron's salary gone, the Cavs would still be too close to the salary cap to get a star in free agency. If Cleveland doesn't get a star player in exchange for LeBron via sign & trade (as suggested by The Ringer in this piece), the Cavs are STUCK. 

There's no replacing LeBron, but... if the Cavs did this deal for BG, they'd have an All Star PF and at least be under the luxury tax. A team of Blake Griffin, George Hill, Tristan Thompson, Kyle Korver, and Rodney Hood could make the playoffs in the East next year, especially if LeBron goes West. Look, the Cavs are screwed either way if/when LeBron leaves. Trading for Griffin would definitely ease the blow.

Now, the impact for the Pistons...

Love is not as dynamic a player a Griffin, but he's still pretty good. Love's rep as a lights-out shooter is deserved (.458/.415/.824 this year), but he's also a great rebounder AND a great low-post scoring threat. If his defense was a little better, he'd be a perfect match next to Drummond. He's quietly having a pretty good finals too, other than some sub-par 3pt shooting. We'd also clear about $1oM in salary from our books, still putting us over the cap, but it would allow us to use the full $8M MLE on a free agent instead of the $5M taxpayer exception.

The presumed starting lineup would be Drummond, Love, Johnson/Bullock/FA, Kennard, and Reggie Jackson. The SF position is still a bit dicey, but we could do better to fill it if we had that $8M MLE to spend (Trevor Ariza??? Sign & trade for Jabari Parker???).

We (the Pistons) don't have a lot of options. We're a team built to contend, but we're not a contender. It's possible if Griffin & Jackson are healthy next year, and we get a coach that can create a viable offense out of Drummond and them, the Pistons might be a playoff team. That's not enough, with this payroll. A trade for Love could move them from borderline playoff team to borderline contender.