Detroit Pistons trade with Wizards 'first step' in charting franchise back on track

The Detroit Pistons, 3-36 overall and on pace for the worst record in NBA history, are in need of a reset.

Sunday officially kicked off the latest phase of their languishing rebuild — a phase the team hopes will not only save the team from further infamous notoriety this season, but put it on pace to be competitive beyond this season.

The Pistons traded Marvin Bagley III, Isaiah Livers and 2025 and 2026 second-round picks to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala, multiple sources confirmed to the Free Press. The Pistons also created a $5.7 million trade exception, meaning they can now take in that number in salary without having to send matching salary back.

A high-ranking team official described the trade as a “first step,” as it clears additional cap space that will help them absorb salary in a more substantial signing or trade down the road.

The organization is setting the table for a bigger move, or moves, for veterans that will lift the team’s floor. Bagley is owed $12.5 million this season and next, while Livers, Gallinari and Muscala are all on expiring contracts.

Clearing Bagley’s salary off the books — a player whom the Pistons traded two seconds for two years ago, then signed to a three-year, $37.5 million contract — adds to the Pistons' already large amount of cap space, and the team will now have around $60 million available this summer depending on where the final cap number and first-round draft pick falls.

With that money — along with several expiring veterans already on the roster who can be flipped ahead of the Feb. 8 trade deadline — the Pistons are aiming to add two “significant” pieces to the rebuild, according to sources.

Whether those additions happen this season or over the offseason remains to be seen, but the franchise is working the phones and has its eyes set firmly on turning the page on the worst chapters it has ever had to endure. The Pistons are 5-59 overall since Feb. 10 last year, and are approaching a full year of unprecedented futility. (The Lions won more games than the Pistons did in the 2023 calendar year despite playing dozens fewer games.)

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The big question now is whether or not they will make the right moves and successfully chart a brighter course forward. Until this season, their in-season trades have largely been focused on sacrificing assets to take swings on unproven young players such as Bagley and James Wiseman. They no longer have that luxury now that the fourth year of the “restoring,” expected to be a leap forward, has instead revealed a severely flawed team-building process.

Beyond aiding the team’s future flexibility, Sunday’s trade is another direct acknowledgment that the roster, as currently constructed, isn’t functional. The front office is also working to balance out a roster it put together with too many bigs and not enough wings that can shoot, and adding experience to a locker room with eight players 23 years old or younger.

The trade picture around the NBA will evolve over the next few weeks as teams decide whether to double-down on contending for a championship, or sell off assets to reposition. With Joe Harris, Alec Burks, Monte Morris, Bojan Bogdanovic ($2 million guaranteed in 2024-25), Wiseman and Killian Hayes all on expiring contracts, the Pistons can trade for an expensive salary beyond this season while still preserving enough money to make another swing this summer.

More importantly, the Pistons won’t have to match salary in any offseason trade thanks to their financial cushion. They will be able to absorb contracts into their cap space, as they did last summer with Harris and Morris. Expect them to shoot much higher this summer.

That puts the Pistons in a position of strength over the next few weeks, as teams outside of the contending picture (such as the Atlanta Hawks or Chicago Bulls) evaluate if it’s time to sell off assets and save money, or double-down on competing. Hawks one-time All-Star guard Dejounte Murray is among several players who are widely expected to be moved ahead of the deadline.

[ MUST WATCH: The "The Pistons Pulse" podcast with Omari Sankofa II and Bryce Simon reacted live to the trade Sunday morning with Spotrac cap expert Keith Smith. Watch the broadcast replay below. ] 

Even with their rosy financial picture, the Pistons are facing an uphill climb back to relevance. Spending money doesn’t guarantee future success, though the franchise currently has nowhere to go but up. General manager Troy Weaver has a short amount of time to figure out how to swing their trajectory back upward in the midst of a disastrous season.

In the short term, the front office is hopeful Gallinari, 35, and Muscala, 32, will not only provide needed experience, but also some shooting to a roster that lacks it. Neither player has shot the ball well this season — 31.3% and 27.5% from 3, respectively — but Gallinari, 6 feet 10, is a career 38.1% shooter and Muscala, also 6-10 and can play either frontcourt position, has hit 37.5% of his career 3s.

Bagley had been productive for the Pistons, averaging 10.2 points on 59.1% shooting over 26 games this season, including 10 starts. But he had been benched in favor of Wiseman in recent weeks, and had only appeared in two of the Pistons' past 10 games.

Livers, a Michigan alumnus who Detroit selected in the second round of the 2021 draft, was viewed as a core piece entering the season but has struggled, hitting 28.6% of his 3-point attempts.

MORE: Pistons have made ugly history. It can still get worse — much worse.

The Pistons traded two second-round picks, in addition to Josh Jackson and Trey Lyles, to acquire Bagley in 2022. Parting ways with two more second-round picks two years later to move Bagley illustrates the poor asset management under Weaver in recent seasons. Both Bagley and Wiseman’s skillsets overlapped with starting center Jalen Duren, and coach Monty Williams’ rotation could only accommodate two of the three players. Plus, the team handed big man Isaiah Stewart a four-year, $64 million extension this offseason.

The deal could allow the Pistons to get an even longer look at Wiseman, 22, who will enter restricted free agency this summer.

Ultimately, Sunday’s deal won’t move the needle on the Pistons' long-term success. But it kicked off the most pivotal phase of the Weaver era yet — one that will ultimately determine if he will achieve his fading goal of delivering glory back to a once-proud and winning franchise.

“I am expecting change,” owner Tom Gores said in December. “I do expect Troy to come up with change. Because staying exactly the same, I don’t think anyone can be here and say that in any genuine way that change is not required. I expect Troy to find ways to get the makeup of our team and getting us more successful. I do expect him to find ways, and he knows that. And if we did nothing to improve ourselves, I’m going to be disappointed. I’m going to be disappointed. And I think Troy knows. He knows that."

Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him @omarisankofa.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons trade with Wizards 'first step' ahead of big deadline