Detroit Pistons: 3 reasons to trade Reggie Jackson

2. The Pistons can move Jackson to create salary cap space

A team with a high payroll and limited space under the salary cap will inevitably have to part ways with some of its better players if it wants to make room to operate in free agency.

Every fanbase would love for their team to dump its worst players, keep its top guys and still afford more great pieces, but that’s not how the business works. Most players who have large, cap-suffocating contracts have those contracts because they are (or were) pretty good on the court.

Jackson is the Pistons’ third-best player by most metrics, including salary. According to HoopsHype, he is making $17 million this season and is slated to make $18 million next season, the last year of his contract. Griffin and Drummond are the only Pistons who earn more.

If the Pistons — who are right up against the luxury-tax threshold — want to be major players in the 2019 free agency market, trading Jackson seems almost inevitable.

Of the team’s expendable players, Jackson is the most expensive. Other contracts the team would benefit from unloading sooner than later are those belonging to Jon Leuer ($9.5 million next season) and Langston Galloway ($7.3 million next season). Then there’s Josh Smith, who hasn’t played for the team since 2014 but is still owed money this season and next season.

Trading Jackson for a player or collection of players with contracts that expire this year might not help the Pistons improve this season, but could set them up for better things down the road.

The 2019 free agency class is headlined by Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard — both long shots to land in Detroit for any amount of money — but also features more realistic options such as Tobias Harris, Khris Middleton, Goran Dragic, Spencer Dinwiddie and J.J. Redick.