The Detroit Pistons reportedly will be actively pursuing trades after the holiday season. Pistons beat writer David Mayo of MLive.com expects team president and coach Stan Van Gundy to blow up the team and trade away players between late-December and January.
With a 3-19 record, Detroit appears headed to the draft lottery this summer. Before then, though, Mayo expects Van Gundy to be active in trying to find trades that could net him assets for the future to build with.
"A roster break-up is not the holiday conversation the Detroit Pistons expected to have but it is the one worth addressing now, in a season soured before the quarter-pole, and not likely to improve enough for any meaningful achievement this season other than to prepare for future seasons," Mayo wrote Tuesday. "... The Pistons could get out in front of the markets with a late-December or January deal. Before executing trades, the first step could be rotation changes, barring some dramatic reversal of fortunes in the next two weeks."
Mayo expects Van Gundy to try to move Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings, simply because of their large contracts - Smith is due $13.5 million annually through the 2016-17 season, and Brandon Jennings is owed $8 million-plus through the 2015-16 season.
Greg Monroe is on a qualifying offer, which expires at the conclusion of the season and will make him an unrestricted free agent in July. He reportedly turned down lucrative contract offers from Detroit, seemingly an indication he has no desire to return to the Motor City after the season.
The qualifying offer he signed gives him a no-trade clause, which would allow him to veto any potential deal involving him. While there're teams who would be interested in Monroe, no teams are likely going to trade valuable assets for a player who they can sign as a free agent after the season.
The NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 19.
