After losing an NBA-record 28 games in a single season and starting the season with the league's worst record of 3-36, the Detroit Pistons are shaking things up…but with an eye to the future .
On Sunday, league sources confirmed to The Athletic that Detroit has agreed to send Marvin Bagley III, Isaiah Livers and two second-round picks (2025 and 2026) to the Washington Wizards for Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala.
The move, first reported by ESPN, sets the Pistons up for what is sure to be a big summer. Bagley had one year left on his contract at just over $12 million, while the players Detroit is acquiring are seeing their contracts expire. Detroit could have around $60 million in roster spots this summer, with the contracts of Gallinari, Muscala, Alec Burks, Joe Harris and Monté Morris all expiring after this season. James Wiseman and Killian Hayes are in the final years of their rookie contracts. Veteran Bojan Bogdanović has a partially guaranteed contract that would wipe more than $17 million off the Pistons' books if they part ways before June 24.
That means a lot of flexibility and, in turn, the possibility of a complete roster overhaul for a franchise that clearly needs it.
This move is Detroit's first step toward righting the wrongs of last summer and this season. However, all of this will be for naught if the Pistons can't take advantage of significant financial flexibility. Honestly, after this season, there are no more excuses.
This trade publicly states that the Pistons plan to make significant roster improvements this summer. Financial flexibility was a key concept among the organization's leaders. That's all well and good, but if Detroit doesn't fully utilize it, it could continue to be stuck where it has been for most of the last decade: in the basement of the NBA.
When most people hear “cap space,” they immediately think of free agency. And yes, while Detroit's cap space could lure a potential, unrestricted, top-level player in free agency – say, Pascal Siakam from Toronto – the Pistons could also look to add multiple players, expected to cost around $20 million to $30 million per year – people like Buddy Hield from Indiana and Tobias Harris from Philadelphia. Additionally, the Pistons could make big offers to upcoming restricted free agents like Tyrese Maxey and scare away their current teams.
Perhaps most importantly, cap space can be used to acquire players in a high-leverage situation – see Detroit get the No. 13 pick in 2022 to acquire players/salaries (Kemba Walker) from the New To take over York Knicks – or to exchange a high salary player without having to adjust salaries. For example, let's say Detroit gets the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, doesn't particularly like that class and wants to trade with the Utah Jazz for Lauri Markkanen, for example. The Pistons do not have to match salaries to accept Markkanen's deal.
Because Detroit has significant cap space, it can add pieces in a variety of ways. But if that space isn't used by the right players, then what was it all for?
The Pistons have a huge summer ahead of them, perhaps the most critical in the last 20 years for the organization. The table is poised to build a competitive roster while retaining the majority of the promising young talent it has acquired over the past four years.
Doing it is a different story.
Let’s see how the Pistons handle this situation. From here there are no more excuses.
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(Photo by Isaiah Livers: Rob Gray / USA Today)