{"id":706567,"date":"2026-04-09T11:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706567\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:54:23","slug":"tolu-smith-signing-doesnt-mean-what-people-think-for-the-pistons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/706567\/","title":{"rendered":"Tolu Smith signing doesn’t mean what people think for the Pistons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Detroit Pistons\u2019 recent signing of Tolu Smith to a full-time deal had many wondering how it would affect other players on the roster, specifically Paul Reed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the present, signing Smith meant ditching Bobi Klintman<\/a>, which not only got rid of some dead weight, but allowed Smith to be part of the playoff roster, a nice insurance policy to have in case someone gets hurt since Klintman was never going to play anyway.<\/p>\n

The signing also led to speculation that it could be the end for Paul Reed. <\/a>This makes some sense, as the Pistons may look to cut Reed\u2019s money and go for the cheaper\u00a0option. Reed has been a luxury as a third center this\u00a0season the\u00a0Pistons may not be able to afford once their roster gets more expensive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s\u00a0also played well enough to have some trade value this summer, as\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0certainly outplayed his third center\u00a0status,\u00a0and there are teams that would love to have him as their backup or even as their starter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But all of these are future\u00a0problems,\u00a0and there is no\u00a0reason why\u00a0the Smith signing\u00a0has to\u00a0affect Reed at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul Reed is too valuable to the Pistons to give away\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reed has proven himself to be an important part of the roster this season, as\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0appeared in 63 games, 10 of them as a starter.\u00a0The Pistons have gone 7-3 in his\u00a0starts,\u00a0and Reed has been ready every night whether\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0starting or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Injuries and suspensions have forced him into more games than the Pistons might have\u00a0anticipated, but\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0shown that a third center is more than just a\u00a0luxury,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a necessity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can seriously ask where the Pistons might be right now if they\u2019d not had Reed to fill in for Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart this season, so he\u2019s a guy they value and aren\u2019t going to trade just to save a little money or pick up a second-round pick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m\u00a0not saying the Pistons\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0trade Reed, as they might if they need that cap space, but they\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0do it just to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul Reed is still under contract\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve\u00a0seen a lot of fans acting as if Reed\u2019s departure is a done deal, but that\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0true at all, as he is still under contract for next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s\u00a0on a team-friendly deal that he is\u00a0outplaying by\u00a0a wide margin, so why would the Pistons not want him? They\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0going to find a better third center for the cost, and even though Tolu Smith has played well when called upon,\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0not proven he can be counted on like Reed has.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith\u00a0essentially just\u00a0took the spot of a guy who\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0playing anyway and had no future on the team. Those things\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0be said about Reed, so the Smith signing had nothing to do with\u00a0BBall\u00a0Paul\u2019s future with the Pistons.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Pistons\u2019 recent signing of Tolu Smith to a full-time deal had many wondering how it would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817],"class_list":{"0":"post-706567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","13":"tag-philadelphia76ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116374618981403688","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}