Each NBA team’s best trade in franchise history
Detroit Pistons
Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins for Grant Hill to ORL (2000)
If you traveled back in time and told a random Detroit Pistons fan that their beloved team would trade away Grant Hill and win a championship shortly afterward, they would probably still be laughing to this day.
Conversely, telling an Orlando Magic fan that this trade will ultimately blow up in their face would probably elicit the same gut-busting response. It would be hard to blame them: at the time of the trade, Hill was seen as a legitimate superstar; some even dubbed him the next Michael Jordan.
There was a lot to love about Hill’s game. At 6-foot-8, the former Duke Blue Devil was a terror for guards that were too slender to handle him in the post and forwards that couldn’t match his athleticism and footwork. And if teams decided to double team him or send help, he possessed the vision to find open teammates.
In short, the Hill trade seemed like a massive get for the Magic, especially considering what they gave up to get him: young rotational point guard Chucky Atkins and limited center Ben Wallace. Doesn’t seem like a big win for the Pistons, does it?
But as we know now, the trade was an overwhelming win for Detroit. While Hill struggled with injuries throughout his Orlando run that rendered him a shadow of his peak self, Wallace, who flashed upper-tier defensive potential with the Magic and the Washington Wizards, became arguably the best defensive center in the game.
His stinginess down low (he led the league in defensive box plus/minus in five of his first six seasons in Detroit) turned a horrible defensive team into one of the league’s best, peaking with an upset of the Los Angeles Lakers’ superteam in 2004 to win the NBA Finals.