After years of injury-riddled seasons, Derrick Rose had a resurgence in Minnesota. As a sixth man of the year candidate, he averaged 18 points and scored a career-high 50 in a single game.
When he signed with the Pistons in the 2019 offseason, nobody was sure if that performance was sustainable. But, before the NBA’s hiatus, he was continuing his tear, averaging 18.1 points, 5.6 assists, and 2.4 rebounds per game on 49% shooting.
Needless to say, he is a valuable point guard and teams around the league are trying to trade for him. Despite their failure to find a deal before the deadline, they had multiple opportunities to trade for him and league execs think they should have taken it.
In hindsight, the Pistons, the Western Conference executive said, should’ve taken whatever they could have gotten. Whether it was simply getting a younger quality player or a couple of second-round picks, adding to their relatively limited trove of rebuilding resources would’ve been the smart play. Detroit has its own first-round picks for the foreseeable future, but the Pistons don’t have a 2020 second-round pick. Their only second-round pick in 2021 is from the Lakers. They also have the lesser second-round pick between Golden State’s and Cleveland’s in 2023, acquired in the Drummond deal. They don’t have the rights to their own second-round pick until 2024.
Rose has a relationship with Detroit and while no deal right now is imminent, it’s certainly realistic to think they’d trade him again for the chance to acquire a first-round pick.
Without Blake Griffin’s injury history, the team has been unable to formulate a consistent stretch of victories and they currently hold the fifth-worst record in the NBA.
With the pieces to start a rebuild, they might be better off starting over. We’ll see soon enough how the situation develops.
