Why the Pistons were big deadline winners without taking a big swing

Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. explain why they believe the Detroit Pistons were one of the biggest winners at the NBA trade deadline. Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

The Detroit Pistons, I think should get- Mm-hmm … the winner tag, or get a winner tag, rather, for their deadline.

Like, I know there was a lot of conversation around, well, what should Detroit do?

They are the best team in the East.

They have a little bit of a gap with the one seed now.

Should they make an all-in swing?

Let’s get a star in the building in the three or the four spot to really solidify themselves as a championship contender.

Should they make a smaller move around the edges?

Should they do absolutely nothing?

They end up in that middle ground.

Let’s make a minor swing.

We send out Jaden Ivey, we get Kevin Huerter in the building, we don’t do much else.

I like the Kevin Huerter fit for them.

It’s thirty-one percent from three so far this year, but this is a career thirty-seven percent guy, a guy that can spot up and knock down shots, a guy that can come off of a screen or just in general, can relocate into open spaces and knock down threes.

Detroit need some more shooting and spacing in the half court.

Kevin Huerter helps with that.

The fact that he is comfortable putting the ball on the floor, someone that can playmate for you, can run some pick and rolls or initiate some handoffs for you, just felt like a good bit of business for Detroit to address a need.

They do so giving up Jaden Ivey, but someone that I don’t think was a major part of the future because of how the team has kinda progressed over the last year and a half.

If you can turn that into a need without giving up anything else major, like, that feels like a plus to me.

So I, I start with Detroit, Steve.

You know, I’m gonna co-sign your Detroit winner, ’cause I was on the team of, hey, you guys have made this run to the top of the Eastern Conference.

I hear people saying, “Make a swing.”

No, no, no, let’s see exactly what you have, how far this can go, and then let’s see what you need after the postseason run.

And so being able to add a Kevin Huerter, who, if you remember last year for Detroit, a lot of what JB Bickerstaff did was, “Okay, we need spacing, and so we’re gonna have shooting on the court.”

And this year, we didn’t have some of the shooting we had the year prior, so we’re going to the dog pound, and we’re gonna have defense on the court.

But you know what?

We do need some shooting, so I think Kevin Huerter just plays right into it, and I think he laid it out perfectly.

It’s a big win for Detroit as far as being able to keep what we have but kinda build on it on the margins.

I think to the Jaden Ivey portion, it’s tough.

I thought he did a heck of a job this year, coming back from injury and understanding what the team had progressed into and fitting into what they had progressed into.

The problem is, they had progressed into something that didn’t necessarily need Jaden Ivey to the same degree that it may have had before, and so that’s where you end up with a move.

But I think it’s a, it’s a win for Detroit.

Why the Pistons were big deadline winners without taking a big swing

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