What if this offseason, the Pistons acquired a recent fifth overall pick in the NBA Draft?
The cost: Not a thing.
And this player, an exceptionally athletic combo guard, was coming off a season, at age 22, in which he averaged 17.6 points per game while hitting 40 percent from 3-point range. And essentially all his key numbers trended in the right direction.
This player’s salary cap hit: Under $10.2 million.
Hopefully that provides some perspective on Jaden Ivey.
He is a developing player, not a trade chip. You win championships by honing talent like Ivey, not discarding it. Those who view Ivey as a disposable trade piece are proprietors of convoluted logic and short memories of just how much Ivey emerged before he suffered a season-ending injury.
The Pistons won four of their last five games, three of them on a West Coast trip, with Ivey in the starting lineup. The Pistons lost their first four games, and the season appeared headed for another disaster, but then they were 14-12 with Ivey in the lineup.
He played an integral role in their turnaround, which only would have been enhanced if the Pistons had both Ivey and Ausar Thompson, who missed the first 22 games, at their disposal.
There was a drumbeat that Cade Cunningham and Ivey couldn’t play together. It made no sense. The Pistons were so bad, Cunningham could not win with any of those players. They were lacking experience and woefully young, or depending on overmatched vets with ridiculously fat contracts. Ivey fit into the inexperienced and young category with Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart and Thompson.
Ivey can run point. He did as a rookie with mixed results on a 17-win team with Cunningham out, but his best trait is playing downhill with speed in the open court. He has developed an effective spot up three-ball. He understands the element of changing pace instead of just charging.
At Purdue, the 6'4 Ivey averaged just 2.6 assists per game, including only 3.1 as a second-team All-American the last of his two college seasons. He's averaged 4.4 over his first three seasons in Detroit. Most importantly, no member of the Pistons responded to J.B. Bickerstaff’s coaching more than Ivey, who had inexplicably been in Monty Williams’ doghouse.
This is not urging the Pistons to stay the course and do little this offseason, expecting to just improve organically. It’s recognizing that Ivey would have helped the Pistons a great deal in the playoffs against the Knicks. Ivey with the injured Beef Stew would have helped the Pistons even more.
And the Pistons are in a better salary cap situation than all but a few teams, and Ivey’s contract only helps them in that regard. Adding would be great, but subtracting a player with Ivey’s skill and potential would be foolish.
He is a missing piece that’s already there.