Two of the NBA’s bottom feeders pulled off a trade ahead of the February 8 deadline coming around the corner.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Pistons sent Marvin Bagley III, Isaiah Livers, and two second-round draft picks to the Wizards in exchange for Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala.
Again, despite both teams being absolute shit and two of four teams who are single-digits in wins through January 14 (the others being Charlotte and San Antonio), the deal fulfills some areas of need for both squads.
For the Pistons, Danilo Gallinari adds some veteran leadership to a team in desperate need of such while Mike Muscala brings a shooting presence off the bench something that the Pistons rank in the bottom half of the NBA in. More importantly though, Bagley’s departure unloads $12.5 million of cap space off the books for Detroit heading into the 2024-25 season also considering Gallinari ($6.8 million), and Muscala ($3.5 million) are both on expiring deals.
The bigger question may be whether Pistons’ GM Troy Weaver should get the opportunity to use all that cap space Detroit is projected to have this offseason. As it stands, the Pistons who have just three wins this season with Weaver at the helm of the front office will have roughly $64M in money to play around with this offseason. Not only is it incredible that changes haven’t been made within the basketball operations department for the Pistons, but it’s unfathomable to think that Weaver would get the opportunity to all that money this offseason further putting his mark on this team which could have massive ramifications for several seasons to come.
Bagley on the other hand adds an offensive presence for the Wizards with the veteran netting 10.2 points and 4.5 rebounds on 59.1% shooting in 18.4 minutes per game this season. Bagley should have an opportunity to gain more minutes with Washington after seeing his minutes reduced under Monty Williams with Detroit opting to go with a younger core thus essentially making Bagely the odd man out.