NFL Tickets
The Detroit Pistons opened the excitement of NBA trade deadline week by trading Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova to the Orlando Magic for forward Tobias Harris. While the deal was certainly huge, it didn’t exactly take care of the Pistons’ biggest weakness which is depth. In fact, it made their bench even shorter.
Just when you thought Stan Van Gundy had completely missed the boat on improving their depth, he pulled off a trade this afternoon that not only solved it, but greatly improved the roster. He traded Joel Anthony and a protected pick to the Houston Rockets in exchange for guard Marcus Thornton and forward Donatas Motiejunas.
Pistons acquire Donatas Motiejunas & Marcus Thornton from the Rockets in exchange for Joel Anthony. https://t.co/2r5w4ldyR6
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 18, 2016
With the deal, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Marcus Morris will no longer have to play among the most minutes in the league at their positions. Motiejunas will be able to fill in at power forward which will create a nice rotation with Morris and Harris. Then Thornton will be able to back up Pope, once he’s healthy, while also getting minutes from rookie Stanley Johnson.
For the Rockets, this deal is quite puzzling. It’s true that neither Thornton nor Motiejunas were able to carve out a consistent role in J.B. Bickerstaff‘s rotation, but they’re both capable players in this league. Anthony isn’t going to contribute and a protected draft pick may not even make it to Houston unless all the conditions are met.
Although the Pistons currently sit at 27-27 and in the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference, this trade will put them in position to finish not only in a playoff spot, but in one of the top four seeds and host a playoff game. The rest of the conference better watch out, because this Pistons team is coming hard.
Share 
