Today’s Pistons/Celtics trade allows the Celtics to create a rather diminutive $884,092 trade exception equal to the difference between the salaries for Joel Anthony and Will Bynum, but the Pistons can’t reap an exception, since Anthony has the larger salary of the two. It was difficult to immediately see just why the Pistons pulled off the deal, since it doesn’t alleviate their dilemma of 16 fully guaranteed contracts against a maximum 15 regular season roster spots, but reports in the hours since the swap help explain, as we detail:
- The heart ailment that’s keeping Aaron Gray out indefinitely was a major catalyst for the trade, which gives the team an additional backup center, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. “The decision that we needed to beef up our front line was the driving force behind it,” Pistons GM Jeff Bower said, as Langlois relays. “Joel is a player that we have familiarity with that we feel can and will be able to do what he does best. Those are needs for us.”
- Bower said Spencer Dinwiddie, who’s almost fully recovered from tearing his ACL in January, was a factor in the trade, too, as Langlois observes in the same piece. Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy views Dinwiddie, whom the team selected 38th overall in this year’s draft, as a “pass-first point guard who can shoot,” Langlois notes, even though the 6’6″ 21-year-old is often listed as a shooting guard.
- The Pistons plan to keep Anthony around for a while, sources indicate to Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News, suggesting that Anthony’s guaranteed contract won’t be one that the Pistons let go when they set their regular season roster (Twitter link).