Over halfway through a season in which they moved their star player Kemba Walker to clear the way for the new guard duo of Terry Rozier and Jamal Murray, the Pistons have done it again and shipped off loud-mouth guard Terry Rozier to the San Antonio Spurs. At the time of the trade Rozier was the leading scorer for the team, but rumblings from within the Pistons locker room made it seem like he wasn't a very good fit.
First there was the story of him calling out Kemba Walker, which many veterans who were around with Kemba took exception to. Then he started taking over games late and at times losing them due to his me-first mentality. Jamal Murray and him never clicked and there was obvious tension during one game in Boston when the two we're yelling at each other on the bench during a blowout loss.
Things seemed to smooth over for a few weeks, until late last week a report emerged that said that Rozier wasn't showing up for practice and was spotted urinating on the Kemba Walker photo next to the teams championship trophy. Head Coach Chauncey Billups refused to comment following that report, but said that the team was acting immature at times, which was leading to the losses piling up.
It seemed like the GM finally had enough and decided to ship Rozier out of the Motor City. There were rumors for over a week that Rozier had offers on the table, with one source stating that there were three potentialoffers with one still being ironed out in the last week. Once it looked like a decision was close to being made, the Spurs reportedly made an offer to the Pistons that made them re-consider the other offers. It wasn't long before the GM accepted the offer and the short stint for Rozier had ended in Detroit.
The return - expiring contracts in Reggie Bullock and Ryan Anderson and the Spurs 2023 1st Round pick. The Pistons roster is thinned out a bit now in talent, but the Pistons liked the value they had to clear the 13 million off the CAP for next season in addition to picking up a lottery pick.
Additionally, lets look back at the trade that netted Rozier in the first place:
OKC Sends:
Terry Rozier
Detroit Sends:
Jordan McRae
Josh Davis
Trey Lyles
James Siakam
With that said, that same package netted the Pistons the expiring and Spurs pick for this season.
In what is being called a weaker draft, the Pistons are hoping to land a good prospect in this upcoming draft. With no glaring need on the roster, they are said to be looking to take BPA instead of draft for need.
The Pistons were in the market for Walter Tavares as well, but Portland ended up with the big man and the Pistons decided to hold onto the expiring draft pick of Bobby Portis and their pick this year in order to maintain total flexibility. The Pistons are still in first place in their division surprisingly with this roster and they are planning to maintain that standing through the rest of the year, but it will be a shock if they can stop the talented rosters of Miami or Boston in the playoffs. Its going to take a master stroke to do it, but Coach Billups said he is up for the task.
For next season, the Pistons will finally have cap space and 3 first round picks in what has never happened under this GM and it will be interested to see what GM emplep7 does with that flexibility.
2028
