The Pistons’ decision to move Isaiah Stewart already looks a lot messier than it did when Detroit treated it like a simple salary dump.
Back in the early part of the offseason, Stewart seemed like the obvious odd man out. He had been the anchor of one of the league’s best defenses last season, but the playoff health concerns and the stalled offensive growth made him easier to move once the Pistons started staring at the money tied to Jalen Duren.
At the time, the logic was straightforward: a quick Duren extension felt inevitable, and with that kind of commitment looming for the starting center, Stewart started to look like an expensive luxury Detroit couldn’t really keep around.
But the longer this drags into late September, the shakier that move feels.
The Duren deal still hasn’t happened, and every passing day makes it harder for the Pistons to get a clean outcome. I still think Duren will come to his senses and take the money, or that the Pistons will come up slightly from their reported best offer, as it’s too risky for Duren and too late in the offseason for Detroit to be looking for a new center.
Detroit wants Duren back, but the money and the delay make you wonder whether the front office moved on from the wrong big man.
I should first say that I like Duren, think he’ll continue to improve and hope he does it with the Pistons. I also think that $190 million is more than fair, so I can see why Detroit is wary of anything more.
Still, the hypothetical is hard to ignore: what if the Pistons had kept Stewart and moved Duren instead?
If Detroit had jumped straight into a sign-and-trade for Duren, the market would have been there. The Lakers gave up two unprotected first-round picks and two swaps for Walker Kessler, so that would be the floor for what the Pistons could have gotten for Duren.
That path would have left Detroit with two centers at roughly half the cost of what Duren is going to get, plus enough cap space and flexibility to add another player to that group and then go after a second scorer.
It’s impossible to know exactly who that scorer would have been, but the league saw plenty of high-profile names move. Duren could have brought back Jaylen Brown, for one example.
In that version of the roster, the Pistons would have been more flexible financially and more versatile on the floor, and they wouldn’t be stuck dealing with the Ausar Thompson/Jalen Duren issue.
And, just as important, they would have kept Stewart - a player who helped pull the franchise out of the trenches and wanted to stay and see it through.
Right now, the best-case scenario is that Duren signs before training camp on a deal the Pistons can fit onto the cap sheet. But if this goes sideways, Detroit could wind up looking back at the Stewart move and regretting that it moved on from him before the Duren situation was settled.
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