The Detroit Pistons swap Guard Delon Wright to the Sacramento Kings for Guard Cory Joseph and two second round picks, ESPN sources told Adrian Wojnarowski.
What does this mean for the Kings’ potential post-season play-in push and rebuild of the Pistons?
Kevin Pelton hands out trade figures for both teams.
The agreement
Get Kings: Delon Wright
Pistons get: Cory Joseph, second round pick 2021 (via LAL) and second round pick 2024
Get more trading qualities from Pelton here
Sacramento Kings: B +
My ESPN colleague Zach Lowe reported earlier this week that the Kings were unlikely to be in seller mode at the trade deadline because they don’t feel that they are that far from making it to the playoffs. Instead, Sacramento looks like a buyer of sorts with this deal.
Despite their dismal min-4.5 point difference, we can’t write off the Kings as a contender to make it to the play-in tournament, which would be an achievement for an organization that last made the playoffs when rookie guard Tyrese Haliburton was 6 years old. . After Wednesday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Kings are three games back from the Golden State Warriors for 10th place in the West, having gained some ground in the past 10 games. (Sacramento is 6-4 in that period, and Golden State is 3-7, with Stephen Curry missing the last three.)
There are other teams in the mix – the Kings are also behind the New Orleans Pelicans, who were expected to win two more games than Sacramento ahead of the FiveThirtyEight swap – but hopes are still flickering. FiveThirtyEight’s model gave Sacramento a 7% chance of getting through the play-in, while projections using ESPN’s Basketball Power Index had Kings do 4% of the time before Wednesday night’s results.
Adding Wright should help the Sacramento playoffs. While Joseph is a solid defender on the ball, his lack of out-of-bounds (33% at 3 seconds this season, right on his career mark) has limited the threat he can offensively pose. This season’s actual shoot rate of .536 is Joseph’s best since 2014-15, but still falls below the Wright average of .565. Wright is a slightly stronger 3-point shooter (36% this season, 34% career) who defensively offers many of the same plus points as Joseph with more scope.
It will be interesting to see how Kings coach Luke Walton Joseph mixes and matches with sitting guards Haliburton, De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield. Above all, Haliburton and Wright should be interchangeable, as both have the ability to defend multiple positions at the perimeter and play on or off the ball depending on the matchups.
The bigger benefit of swapping Joseph for Wright should come in 2021-22. I would have expected Sacramento to part with Joseph on the eve of free agency before his full $ 12.6 million salary guarantees, leaving them on the hook for $ 2.4 million. Wright is under contract for $ 8.5 million, along with an additional $ 1.05 million in incentives as reported by my colleague Bobby Marks which he is unlikely to achieve. (Wright’s All-Star incentive is one of the most optimistic in the league.)
In essence, then, the Kings are only adding $ 6 million to the 2021-22 salary to have Wright under contract, making him a bargain for next season well worth picking the late second round Sacramento this season. gives up (from the Los Angeles Lakers) and their own second round pick in 2024.
The Pistons are unlikely to ever see Wright as a long-term part of their future after taking him over in a three-team exchange off-season in exchange for Trevor Ariza. He was on hand to serve as a veteran caddy for rookie point guard Killian Hayes, who started the season as a starter before sustaining a hip injury that leaves him still on the sidelines. Joseph can certainly fill that role for the rest of the season for a team headed for the lottery.
So from Detroit’s perspective, the real trade is that Wright is under contract for next season versus having the choice between paying Joseph $ 12.6 million or simply eating his $ 2.4 million guarantee. I prefer Wright, but I can understand if the Pistons preferred second round picks. There’s an upside to the Lakers’ second round pick with both Anthony Davis and LeBron James on the sidelines and having a second round from the Kings has worked out pretty well historically.