Detroit Pistons: Pros and cons of trading Reggie Jackson

Con: Immovability

One of the main issues with trading Jackson will be the ability to trade his contract. We’ve seen, in just the past year, teams had to give up key future assets to make deals like this happen. The Pistons already a lack a lot of core young pieces or quality draft picks to help their rebuild. While trading Jackson would give them more cap space, it would also hurt their ability to develop organically via the draft or through player development.

We’ve seen the struggles that teams have had to move bad contracts, such as Ryan Anderson, formerly of the Houston Rockets. Anderson sat on the bench for nearly a full season with a $20 million paycheck signed to him because the Rockets couldn’t move him. While they eventually got it done, they had to take on the remainder of Brandon Knight‘s deal along with Marquese Chris, who no longer cracks the rotation.

The Pistons don’t have a lot of young assets as things currently stand, and they traded away the first round pick that became Miles Bridges. Bridges hasn’t been quite the 3-and-D type he was supposed to be, but he is young and versatile. This team needs to focus on getting younger and better, and trading away Jackson would impact its ability to make that happen due to the contract he has.