The Detroit Pistons spent much of the summer circling trade chatter that never turned into much, and one of the loudest rumors never really got off the ground. Tyler Herro wound up in Milwaukee in the deal with Miami for Giannis, and the Bucks decided they didn’t want to move Herro. But Detroit may have been looking at the wrong Bucks guard all along.
A different name has surfaced as a possible fit: Ryan Rollins.
On a recent episode of the Game Theory podcast, Rollins came up as a player who could make sense for the Pistons. Last season, he put together a breakout run for Milwaukee, averaging over 17 points and 5.6 assists per game while shooting 40 percent from 3-point range.
That kind of production is exactly why he pops as a target for Detroit. Even if the Pistons manage to work out new deals with Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson, they still need someone who can create offense and score when Cade Cunningham isn’t doing all the heavy lifting. Rollins checks those boxes.
He also fits the roster build. Rollins is a strong defender, can knock down the 3-ball and offers secondary creation, which makes him a clean fit next to Cunningham. At 24, he lines up with the Pistons’ timeline, and his team-friendly deal would give Detroit room to keep Cunningham, Thompson and Duren together.
That’s the appeal here: a young guard who already fills a need and still has room to grow, especially if he’s playing with a better supporting cast.
The harder part is getting him out of Milwaukee.
Sam Vecenie and Bryce Simon floated the idea that Detroit could send Ron Holland II and a first-round pick to land Rollins. If that’s the price, it’s at least a conversation the Pistons would have to take seriously.
Holland is a player worth believing in, but Rollins is only a little older and is already the kind of scorer Detroit needs right now. And with all of its own first-round picks still intact, the Pistons can afford to part with one if the return is a 24-year-old guard with this kind of upside.
Still, the obstacle is obvious. Milwaukee has little reason to move him. Rollins is young, inexpensive and looks like a player on the rise, which makes it hard to see why the Bucks would shop him instead of Herro, who is older and on a far pricier contract.
So the fit makes sense, and the idea is intriguing. The problem is whether Milwaukee has any interest in making it happen at all.
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At the heart of the concept is the kind of player Detroit has been linked to in theory for a while, a stretch five who can open the floor, plus another creator who can ease some pressure on the ball-handlers. Even so, the discussion also underscored how dramatic a move like this would be for the Pistons, because it would ask them to rethink both their identity and the role Duren has played in it. For now, it reads as a thought exercise more than a realistic transaction, but it is the sort of idea that tends to linger because it touches on so many of Detroits biggest questions. [Read more 🡒]