Detroit Pistons Offseason: 2026

[NYLion]

17 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

I can't see them moving Murray.  An all NBA level guard under 30 who averaged 25 and 7 while shooting 43% from three.  

Braun could be moved but his new extension and bad season drops his value a bit.  

The biggest problem Denver will have making these types of trades.  They can't bring back any salary.  Not many teams have the space to eat $20+ million salaries and if they send salary back to Denver, it doesn't help the Nuggets.  Plus, to get teams to eat salary you often have to include draft picks.  Denver has no tradable first round picks.  

I agree that trading Murray is a longshot but there were some rumors out there that he might be available. I think Braun could be tradeable because he had a good upward trajectory before the setback this season and is young enough to bounce back. I'm sure they'll attempt to trade him to free up money rather than trade Watson who has a higher upside but I'd love if he became available, he'd be one of my top targets. Ayo Dosunmu has been one of my favorite targets going back to the trade deadline so I hope Langdon is targeting him. 

[Deleterious]

Wouldn't that be a kick in the junk

 

[gehringer_2]

3 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Wouldn't that be a kick in the junk

 

Well, has has shot the three ball better than Duren recently .......

[Deleterious]

Jake Fischer reported today that the Lakers, Bulls, Raptors, and Hornets will all be pursuing Mitchell Robinson this summer.  

IMO that would remove the Bulls or Lakers from the Duren race if they acquire Robinson.  The Bulls have enough money for both, but if you have $65 million to spend and use it all on two very limited centers, you're cooked.  Then the Lakers do not have enough for both.  

I don't think either one was ever going after Duren to be honest.  Nobody offers restricted free agents anymore.  

[Betrayer]

9 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Jake Fischer reported today that the Lakers, Bulls, Raptors, and Hornets will all be pursuing Mitchell Robinson this summer.  

IMO that would remove the Bulls or Lakers from the Duren race if they acquire Robinson.  The Bulls have enough money for both, but if you have $65 million to spend and use it all on two very limited centers, you're cooked.  Then the Lakers do not have enough for both.  

I don't think either one was ever going after Duren to be honest.  Nobody offers restricted free agents anymore.  

Exactly. Pistons have all the leverage here if they let him test the market...but they won't.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Betrayer said:

Exactly. Pistons have all the leverage here if they let him test the market...but they won't.

spending any time on the ins and outs of the NBA CBA is something I'm not willing to do, but in my limited understanding I don't see any downside to making him an offer and letting see if he can beat it out on the market.

[Betrayer]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

spending any time on the ins and outs of the NBA CBA is something I'm not willing to do, but in my limited understanding I don't see any downside to making him an offer and letting see if he can beat it out on the market.

They'll say it's player coddling...sorry, "relations". We wouldn't want to upset the pampered star making 30-40 mil a year by allowing the market to set his value.

[Deleterious]

I imagine one of him or Reed is gone.  You can't have $60 million tied up in your C position.  

 

[Deleterious]

They could use cap space or the MLE to offer him more if they wanted.

 

[Deleterious]

Vegas summer league starts July 9th.  All 30 teams will be attending.

I imagine only Lanier and Smith participate from the main roster.  Plus anyone they draft.

There are two smaller summer leagues before Vegas.  One in California and one in Utah.  But Detroit usually doesn't participate in those.  

[Deleterious]

A few things with a sign and trade. 

The rule is once an offer sheet is signed the player is ineligible for a sign and trade.  At this point, Detroit either matches or let's him walk. Those are the only two choices. 

Teams can start negotiating with players on June 30th but no contracts can be signed until July 6th.

So if a team agrees on an offer sheet with Duren before July 6th, a sign and trade could still be worked out since it can't signed until July 6th. 

[Shinzaki]

Tolu Smith can rebound...be interesting to see if he can do anything else

[KL2]

On 6/7/2026 at 12:40 PM, gehringer_2 said:

 I don't see any downside to making him an offer and letting see if he can beat it out on the market.

[gehringer_2]

33 minutes ago, KL2 said:

LOL - but it would be a mistake for overpay for Duren, where it wouldn't have been to 'overpay' for Max. 

But they didn't make a serious counter offer to Max, Mike Ilitch instead wanted to fancy himself insulted and after having been snubbed on opening day after winning the CY and generally treated by his manager as Verlander's red headed step brother, it wasn't going to take much for him to want to wave good-bye to Det. 

We seem to be on better terms with JD.

[Deleterious]

The only thing worse than overpaying Duren is talking about baseball.  

[Deleterious]

Oh man, it's going to be Zach Lavine isn't it?

[buddha]

7 hours ago, Deleterious said:

The only thing worse than overpaying Duren is talking about baseball.  

even better, this summer is all about soccer talk!

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

Oh man, it's going to be Zach Lavine isn't it?

would you give up a first this year for paul george?

 

[Deleterious]

16 minutes ago, buddha said:

even better, this summer is all about soccer talk!

We were going to come over and catch a game or two and were shocked you guys are not a host city.  She isn't really interested in going to Kansas City.  

How did you guys miss out?

[Deleterious]

18 minutes ago, buddha said:

would you give up a first this year for paul george?

 

36-year-old who is always injured and owed $110 million over the next two seasons.  I think you have the draft pick going the wrong way.  But no.

Availability is a big deal to me.  I can't build a team around a guy who misses 50% of the games.  Then cross my fingers he is healthy in April.  If I took a chance on a guy like that he would have to be very cheap and very talented.  PG isn't either of those anymore.

Even if you ignore the 25 game suspension last year, he missed 20 of the 57 games he was eligible to play.  

[buddha]

22 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

We were going to come over and catch a game or two and were shocked you guys are not a host city.  She isn't really interested in going to Kansas City.  

How did you guys miss out?

we refused to pay the bribes to fifa.  rahm was our mayor then and he's running for president now (believe it or not), so there is a puff piece in the athletic about how he turned down fifa because of all their ridiculous rules that will end up costing each host city millions.

in reality we spent all our bribe money trying to get the olympics so there was none left to bribe fifa.

i can still remember seeing sweden v russia in the silverdome in 1994.

[Deleterious]

Jake Fisher reported the New Orleans only wants immediate help for Murphy, no draft picks. 

I still say Detroit needs to move Thompson is they give Duren a big contract . I wonder if NO would do Thompson for Murphy straight up 

Problem is, Murphy is about their only shooter. So I doubt Thompson would interest them much.

[Betrayer]

Moving Thompson would be the dumbest thing this team could do. Cade is the engine that makes your offense exist. Thompson is the engine that makes your defense exist. The defensive turnaround for this team was night and day when he came into the starting lineup and his on/off stats prove it as well (on both ends).

Obviously I'm in favor of moving Duren for numerous reasons, but let's ignore the money stuff and just talk about this notion that you can't have two non-shooters starting. I don't buy it. This was one of the final 8 teams standing and very close to being one of the final 4. However, you can't do it with Tobias as your starting 4 and Robinson as your starting 2.

If Tobias shot 40% from three and was willing to take all the open threes they kept getting him in the playoffs then things look very different. Replace him with a competent and willing shooter (who can defend a bit) and this team is at least in the ECF against a Knicks team they dominated in the regular season.

Same with Duncan. Replace him with someone who is still a solid shooter, but adds either shot creation or defense (both would be tough since that's an All-Star).

I have no ideas what trades are out there to make my plan happen, but they're obviously bringing Duren back. It would be monumentally dumb for them to compound one bad move (overpaying Duren) with an even worse move (trading Ausar).

[gehringer_2]

28 minutes ago, Betrayer said:

Moving Thompson would be the dumbest thing this team could do

I'm ambivalent on Ausar. I agree they are not a good team without him so that implies he's a must keep. He is critical to *this* team. But it goes back to your larger question - is the construction model of team with the D only specialist the one that can get you a Championship? You've stated the case, it's still a maybe to me.

Back in the day it worked for the teams Rodman was on, though he was also a rebounding beast, which Ausar isn't. But the game is too different to compare.

[buddha]

31 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I'm ambivalent on Ausar. I agree they are not a good team without him so that implies he's a must keep. He is critical to *this* team. But it goes back to your larger question - is the construction model of team with the D only specialist the one that can get you a Championship? You've stated the case, it's still a maybe to me.

Back in the day it worked for the teams Rodman was on, though he was also a rebounding beast, which Ausar isn't. But the game is too different to compare.

the bet is ausar continues to grow and turns into more of what his brother is.  ausar as ball handler and offense initiator.

it just bugs me that they're willing to go so high on duren and are apparently not even thinking about moving him.

in the end, it means they move stewart, which should be enticing to lots of teams.