The Pistons may trade Andre Drummond or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Here’s why

UPDATE: No deal ultimately got done.

The Detroit Pistons are willing to move Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at this year’s trade deadline, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein, something that they previously hadn’t been considering. The Pistons aren’t sure they will move either player, but are listening to offers before Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET cutoff.

Detroit has also expressed interest in dealing starting point guard Reggie Jackson, although Stein reported talks with Orlando have likely fallen through.

This might be a little surprising, because Drummond and Caldwell-Pope are both young and talented. The Pistons are 27-30 this season and clinging onto the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, having won six of their last nine games headed into the break.

The Pistons have a problem: their payroll is already $107 million this season, almost $14 million over the cap, and Caldwell-Pope is likely in for a significant raise this summer when his rookie deal expires.

Many owners will pay the luxury tax, but not repeatedly, and not for a team that isn’t headed anywhere fast. Detroit has room to improve with a roster that’s mostly still young, but its current ceiling isn’t dramatically higher than where it is right now. As constructed, the Pistons certainly aren’t going to by vying for the top spot in the East anytime in the next few seasons. Thus, paying $110 million or more to keep this team together is both foolish and costly.

Caldwell-Pope will have a nice sum of money headed his way this summer, especially since the salary cap is expected to rise again. They could let him walk this summer, but losing him in free agency for nothing is Detroit’s worst-case scenario. Anyway, he’ll be a restricted free agent, so that wouldn’t happen. Instead, to afford him and the rest of their roster, the Pistons are likely to move Caldwell-Pope, Jackson, or Drummond through trade.

If you wonder why they’d consider trading Drummond, who has been their “franchise player,” it’s because he’s not really that. Drummond is a hellacious rebounder and dunks as hard as anyone in the league, but between his finishing problems and lack of offensive skills, he’s more a player you can build a defense around, rather than an entire team. Granted, Drummond is still only 23 years old — but as absurdly skilled big men swarm into the league like Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Jokic, it’s clear Drummond will never be a top-five center, and it’s possible he could even fall out of the top-10.

All that said, the worst thing Detroit could do is make a trade just to make a trade.

The players they’re trying to trade are all young, and their contracts aren’t getting worse. Their value isn’t going to depreciate, unless something goes terribly wrong. If they can’t get a deal done at the deadline, Detroit’s best option is to wait until the offseason, sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for the time being, and then continue attempting to trade one of the three.

The Pistons clearly need a refresh to their roster before we can take them seriously. Something has to give. But no trade at this deadline is going to immediately make them contenders, so the only good option is to stay patient and play the long game here.

I’ll say there’s a 50 percent chance Reggie Jackson gets moved at the deadline, and a 25 percent chance either Drummond or Caldwell-Pope gets swapped. In all likelihood, it would only be one of the three. This is all calculated guesswork, mind you, and it really just depends on what type of offers the Pistons might get.