The Pistons have had a wild, up-and-down season, with more downs recently — Stan Van Gundy’s squad has dropped nine of their last 10 games. At 22-26, Detroit has slipped to ninth in the East, three games back of the Sixers, and it’s clear the team is in in need of a shake up in order to make a late push for a playoff spot.
With the trade deadline just over a week away, the Pistons are reportedly being “aggressive” in shopping around the NBA for upgrades in an effort to re-establish themselves as a playoff squad. While Reggie Jackson has typically been the name floated out there at the deadline over the past two years, he appears to be getting a reprieve this year in favor of his backcourt mate, acquired this past summer in a trade from the Celtics, Avery Bradley.
Bradley has averaged 15 points, 2.1 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game this season in 40 games, as he’s been limited at times with a groin injury. Whether injury related or not, he’s not been as effective as the Pistons had hoped when they acquired him from Boston over the summer for Marcus Morris and let Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk in free agency. The biggest disappointment has been Bradley’s defensive numbers, as the Pistons have been significantly better defensively with Bradley off the floor than on it, which flies in the face of his reputation as a strong two-way player.
With Bradley on the court, Detroit’s defensive rating is 107.9. When he’s off the floor, that improves to 101.5. The Pistons’ offensive rating improves as well from a 102.9 to 105 when he’s on the bench. So, it should come as little surprise that Detroit would like to move him and get something in return now rather than fork over a significant contract this offseason or see him walk for nothing. As ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski writes, they are still looking to get a good return for Bradley, despite his relatively poor showing so far this season.
The Detroit Pistons have made starting shooting guard Avery Bradley available in trade talks, league sources told ESPN.
So far, Detroit’s asking price for Bradley, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, is significant, league sources said.
The question is what the Pistons can realistically look to get in return for Bradley that will help them become a contender. Bradley makes $8.8 million this year and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer who will be looking to cash in on a big contract, as Woj notes. Teams may still think he provides value and if they think he can be the kind of player he was in Boston (although his on/off advanced numbers on defense there are worse than his reputation indicates as well) then there might be a quality player to be had. And beyond his struggles this season, Bradley has been accused of sexual assault and settled the case at the end of 2017.
The biggest problem Detroit has in searching for deals for Bradley is that they can’t take on any big contracts because they are already capped out. With Bradley only making $8.8 million and them not having any big expiring deals to package with him, a deal with someone like Charlotte for Kemba Walker in which they take one of the Hornet’s bad contracts in return seems out of the question. Boban Marjanovic ($7 million) and Ish Smith ($6 million) could theoretically be tacked on as they have just one year remaining on their deals, but even still that doesn’t offer Detroit a ton of wiggle room to take on big money in a deal.
With Stan Van Gundy pulling the strings, one wouldn’t expect Detroit to just sell Bradley off for a bad contract and a future asset, so it will be fascinating to see how things play out in Detroit at the deadline and whether they will have any ability to make a splash that can pull them out of their current spiral. If not, they’ll have to hope Jackson’s eventual return will do the trick.
