There are initial reports that the Detroit Pistons have agreed to send Saddiq Bey to the Golden State Warriors for James Wiseman, with the Warriors rerouting Bey to the Atlanta Hawks for five second-round picks, per Adrian Wojnarowksi. Detroit is also sending Kevin Knox to make the money work, per Woj. There are no indications at the moment of additional assets coming from either the Warriors or the Hawks.
We will have more once the details are fully known, but on first glance, if the shape of the deal is taking on Wiseman as an asset in exchange for Bey, well, that’s a bad basketball move.
Wiseman hasn’t shown anything at the pro level, he’s a worse player than Saddiq, he plays Detroit’s deepest position at center alongside Jalen Duren, Marvin Bagley and Isaiah Stewart. He’s not cheap, and he’s extension-eligible along the same timeline as Bey so it’s not like you’re buying yourself additional time to make an investment decision in a young player.
Even as someone who saw Bey as a decidedly low-ceiling bench rotation player long term, this feels like selling the young forward short. That is mostly because there is no evidence that Wiseman is capable of doing anything at the NBA level, and there doesn’t appear to be much time or opportunity to show he can do more in Detroit.
He’s a worse defender than Saddiq Bey. That is not what the Pistons needed. He is minus-20.9 per 100 possessions this season in limited action for the Warriors this season. He can’t guard on the perimeter (or interior) and does nothing to fix the giant wing defense deficiency in Detroit.
If this is the entire trade, it’s a big loss for the Pistons unless they are going to feed him a ton of reserve center minutes to get his development back on track. But that is presuming there is development potential in the first place, which many have been skeptical about going back to pre-draft evaluations.
Those developmental minutes would also need to come at the expense of someone — Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart or Marvin Bagley. Right now, I hate it. We will see how the dust settles around 3 p.m. ET.