Pistons Becoming Wolves?

Going into the off-season, Joe Dumars had essentially two tasks that he needed to complete. While neither task would be a particularly easy one to fulfill, doing so with one would seem to jeopardize the other. Imagine being told you have to make an already massive tree grow taller and help the young sapling that is growing under the cover of the first mature into a tree of its own. That is the summer Joe Dumars faces. Make the second best team in the NBA, the best and do so while developing young center, Darko Milicic. Recently a trade rumor has surfaced that would seem to make great strides toward completing the task, but a massive trade is not the only way for Dumars, and the Pistons, to succeed.

The rumor was Kevin Garnett for Rasheed and Ben Wallace. A trade that seems, at first glance, completely unrealistic, but as you look longer, it seems to make more and more sense. Detroit’s new coach is Flip Saunders, the man who coached KG in Minnesota. Chauncey Billups and Garnett have played together before, in Minnesota. Chauncey is a winner now and KG could thrive in a situation where he didn’t have to face the power forwards the west has to offer. Garnett in Detroit could be a perfect situation for him and really, for the Pistons, really the only way to dramatically improve a team that barely finished second last season. Plus trading the two Wallace’s means there’s a starting center position opening up and what better way to fill it than with a seven-foot tall victory cigar?

But why would Minnesota trade Garnett? Maybe he’s sick of loosing in the playoffs and discretely asked if there were any other directions in which the team could head. Garnett is a classy guy and would be hard pressed to demand a trade publicly, but don’t think for a second that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t walk up to Kevin McHale and ask what the Wolves are doing to build a championship team. He did it two years ago and he got Sprewell and Cassell. Now those two are gone and old and he’s likely asking that same question. Adding two Wallace’s would be exactly what the Wolves would need to make a strong regular season, and playoff showing. Those two would give the Wolves instantly one of the toughest front lines in the NBA. Even without Garnett the Wolves would still have offense. Rashad McCants is going to be an explosive scorer in this league and could become the team’s number one option. He’s the rookie of the year if this trade goes down. Wally Szerbiak and Rasheed Wallace are able to provide consistent and even occasionally dominant output. And at this point in his career you can count on Sam Cassell to be a slightly better offensive weapon than Ben Wallace, but only slightly. If you have to trade a mega star, trading him for the best 4,5 punch in the NBA isn’t a bad trade.

But, you ask, can the Pistons be improved and not totally change the outlook of their team? Certainly. But Joe Dumars would have to trade at least two of his players. The Pistons are good enough that they could get a superstar in a trade for two of their very good players. Trading Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince for Shawn Marion would accomplish what the Pistons need to, plus Marion is a much more talented scorer than either of those players. A frontcourt of Darko, The Gong and the Matrix wouldn’t be too bad and might even be an improvement from what they had last year. Another possibility is a trade sending Rip Hamilton and Antonio McDyess to the Celtics for Paul Pierce. In that trade you get a legit superstar, and a chance to bring Darko off the bench. Danny Ainge might not make that trade without a draft pick to sweeten the deal, but it would be an overall upgrade. A trade of Billups, McDyess and Prince for Gilbert Arenas and Jarvis Hayes might be something to consider. The Wizards might not even be able to turn that package down. If Dumars intends to improve his team through a trade, he should carefully consider all of the available options, but in the end, a trade for KG is the best.

You loose the heart and soul of your defense, but you gain an MVP. It’s an obscenely tough trade to pull the trigger on for either party involved. But, it’s a trade that’s so absurd, you can’t help but hope that McHale and Dumars can find some way to make it work.