New Detroit Pistons president Trajan Langon certainly has plenty of work to reshape Detroit’s roster into something worth building. He has plenty of options — young players to ship out, a top-5 draft pick to use or trade, and $65 million in cap space to either grab legit starters or to sell off for future assets.
He also has what might be his most (only?) appealing non-Cade Cunningham asset that appeals to playoff-caliber teams in Isaiah Stewart.
Beef Stew is a switchable, quality defender who can stretch the floor as a five (and probably only a five), and would look much more impactful on a 55-win team when he is the fourth-best player on the floor than he does in Detroit when he is probably the closest thing to a two-way player on the entire roster.
Yahoo Sports reports that the Pistons are “evaluating the market for Isaiah Stewart,” mentioning his name with other centers seemingly on the trade block, including Mitchell Robinson, Brook Lopez, Clint Capela and Walker Kessler.
It’s interesting that the first name that crops up in a trade rumor in the Trajan Langdon era is Stewart. Famously, New Orleans, Langdon’s previous employer, had asked Detroit for multiple seasons about the potential availability of Stewart.
To be clear, the story does not indicate when the team’s evaluation of the market took place. It could have been the waning days of the Troy Weaver era or it could have occurred once Langdon arrived.
Stewart would appear to plenty of playoff teams looking to bolster their primary rotation with a versatile big man who could stretch the floor, rebound enough, and guard multiple positions.
What the Pistons could get in return for Stewart is unclear.
Other bits of Pistons news in the same Yahoo Sports piece includes:
- Last year’s trade talks with the Bulls for Zach LaVine centered on the mostly expiring salary of Bojan Bogdanovic.
- The Pistons are viewed around the league, at least at the moment, as the most likely dumping ground for unwanted salary in exchange for future assets and draft capital. Let’s just hope if that is the route the team takes, a better deal emerges than Joe Harris at $20 million for future seconds.
- Detroit is also expected to re-sign Simone Fontecchio. But all already knew that.
- In a bit of tortured sentence construction, there seems to be an implication that Detroit is not interested in trading UP from its No. 5 pick in next week’s NBA Draft. There is no conclusive evidence that they want to trade down, however.
- Speaking of potential trades down, Portland and Memphis are listed as potential trade up candidates. The Blazers have contacted Houston about a trade for No. 3 and the Grizzlies apparently are interested in grabbing big man Donovan Clingan.