MARCH 25: The Kings have announced that their trade to acquire Wright is now official.
MARCH 24: The Pistons will send guard Delon Wright to the Kings in exchange for guard Cory Joseph and a pair of second-round picks, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports. The second-rounders in the deal are this year’s selection from the Lakers and Sacramento’s choice in 2024.
Wright, 28, was traded to Detroit in November. He took over as the Pistons’ starting point guard after an early-season injury to Killian Hayes and is averaging 10.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists in 35 games. Wright is under contract for one more year at $8.5MM before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2022. The Kings will be his fifth team in the last three seasons.
In Sacramento, Wright will join a backcourt rotation headed by De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton. As Bobby Marks of ESPN explains (via Twitter), the Kings had hoped to improve their depth during the coming offseason, so the acquisition of Wright gives them a jump-start on that process. They’ll also create a modest $3.6MM trade exception in the deal.
Joseph, 29, was in his second season with Sacramento. He’s averaging 6.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 43 games, mostly as a reserve. Joseph is set to earn $12.6MM in 2021/22, but the contract is only partially guaranteed ($2.4MM) until August 1, so the Pistons may opt to waive him before next season to save some money.
“All I’ll say is that I really, really enjoy coaching Cory, and his spirit, his professionalism has been great to coach and great for this group,” Sacramento coach Luke Walton said. “He is a pleasure to coach and I’ll leave it at that” (Twitter link from Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee).
The pair of second-round picks headed the Pistons’ way look like the prime motivator for the club to complete the deal. Detroit had traded away several of its own second-rounders, including three of them in last November’s deal for Saddiq Bey, so this helps restock the team’s stash of picks to some extent. The Pistons now own three second-rounders in 2021 — while they’ve traded away their own pick, they’ll control the Lakers’ selection, as well as Charlotte’s and Toronto’s.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Noooo!!! CoJo
The Pistons save some cap ig. Weird trade
I’m guessing the Kings are feeling they’re still in a battle to make the play-in games.
Then why give up a guy with PO experience ? Kings are going rebuild
Kings taking a small upgrade at the cost of two second round picks. Detroit wins this trade hands down.
A small move?? You obviously have not seen cojo play. He is terrible.
And the Lakers pick will be final 5 picks (which is almost nothing) kings pick in 2024 could be mid to late 2nd
My grade
Kings C
Pistons C
Wright is an average player
Joseph is a bad player
You stop talking smack about mu fellow canadians.
Also hoopsrumors…how did my name for from the dude to thed-5?
In fairness, “thed-5” made you seem much more interesting than the generic “the dude” moniker.
Dude IDK.
Sweet! Whats mine say!?
Way I see it Cory Joseph was a good back up point guard before he went to the kings and now he looks bad and they are moving off him. They get Delon Wright who is currently a good back up/poor starter but just wait, Jthe kings will kill Delon Wright value a little. Not many role players go to Sacramento and do well. Only really winner is the pistons getting two second round picks.
Just compare numbers:
Joseph is apparently playing terrible but puts up 6.6/2.3/2.5 in 21 minutes averaging 6 shot attempts per game.
Wright who you guys think is an upgrade is averaging 10.4/4.6/5 in 29 minutes off 8 shot attempts.
Percentage wise Wright shoots 2% better in ever area. To me not a hell of a lot different.
Just wait until his minutes drop a little behind DeAaron Fox to about 24 minutes per game and he averages more like 8-3.5-4. Two picks for the Pistons in a rebuild, Kings trying to make their roster better like they think they will do something in the post season.
Nah pistons win this
that’s the problem with looking at numbers o ly. if you watched them play you would know wright is a much better defender and Joseph can’t guard anybody
Why? I watching CoJo every night and this is a struggle situation for me. We have so much second round picks, that’s Okey.
Wright is a nice upgrade. Kings have a solid number two point gard with him
Nah sactown won this
We’re talking Sacramento and Detroit here. There are no winners.
Just like Houston in the last month.
A 2nd rounder that will fall between 52-60 most likely and a 2024 2nd that we have no idea on. I would rather have Wright, who is the better defender. Kings side looks better to me, but time will tell.
Any 2nd round pick is better than no 2nd rd pick.
I would love to see the Pistons make some noise at the trade deadline, like they have on draft night last November and this season as well.
K
I dont get this from Detroit’s side. Obviously they grab a couple of assets, but I thought Wright had more value than that, and I’m surprised at certain other teams not grabbing him, if he was available. I actually think Detroit should have kept him too. That being said, they grabbed Diallo previously,
and he replaces a lot of what Wright does, so as I said at the time, I guess it’s not that surprising to see them move on from him. I just think they could have done better.
Should really help Sacramento defensively, and once Woodard and Kabengele get minutes, that should make them much stronger on that side of the ball, which has been an issue for a long time for them, obviously being last in defense this year
…actually, I feel like the last time I looked at Cory Joseph’s numbers a while back, they were way worse. Most metrics would agree with what I said about Wright over him, but there are some metrics that think it’s much closer. His deal being non guaranteed opens up room for Detroit to use on some shooting, so that’s something to at least consider in this
CJoseph is trending down. IMO, he has to play bigger than 6-3 to succeed and might be losing that. He is tougher-minded than Wright so Weaver won’t mind his contract if kept, to 2022 at $12mil. Buyout possible next year.
I think both teams win.
Last time I looked at Joseph’s numbers, they were way worse, and he was shooting much lower percentages too. He must have gone on a recent streak where he played really well b/c even though his numbers are bad, they’re significantly better than they were when I looked. I dont care enough to look at his splits though
Wright can defend arguably 3 positions. Cory Joseph has always been inconsistent with his defense, in my opinion…Buyout isn’t necessary. He is on a non guaranteed deal. Someone else mentioned the idea he could be flipped, which could make sense b/c its a pseudo expiring deal, but I’m pretty sure his salary cant be aggregated in a trade now. I could be wrong on that
Right… his March net of +1 is well higher than the minus10 for the year. 41%3pt vs about 30%. Usage rate went down though… he might be playing the 2G nowadays… split between the 1&2 this year.
Maybe he will be a 2G in DET. It’s a crowded field. I’m not sold on Killian Hayes or Sekou or Smith.
$6 of 12mil guaranteed.
Salary dump possibly. Saves 6.1 m next year if they waive him. Not a bad move. The twos can be used for trades.
Kings are clearing way for another move or getting a head start on the offseason. It looks like they are preparing to trade Buddy Hield, taking on long term salary and trading 2 picks to do it is strange. Not sure what the guarantee is for Joseph next season, but it isn’t very much. Good trade for the Pistons.
This trade tells me
Nobody in the west is selling anything
I think DET made this trade to have Joseph’s bigger salary (He makes $12.6M – Wright $9m) to spin off in a trade tomorrow. My guess will be a deal with New Orleans involving Lonzo Ball and Eric Bledsoe coming to DET and Joseph, Rodney McGruder and Dennis Smith Jr heading to the Pelicans. Some draft picks & other players may be involved but the players i listed should be the core of the trade.
The Pelicans want to attach Bledsoe to Ball to shed his $18M salary for next season and open up playing time in the backcourt for their younger players.
CuJo cannot be traded with other players so this doesn’t work.
It theoretically COULD work if Joseph was the only one affected by that aggregation restriction — you could break the trade down so he’s traded straight up for Bledsoe, with McGruder/DSJ for Ball. Only problem is that DSJ is still affected by the same restriction, so he can’t be aggregated either.
Think Luke Adams is on to something here… Only instead of Mcgruder/DSJ it will be other players with #’s that work or a multi-team trade. Pretty easy to trade DSJ, Mcgruder, Jackson, or Ellington for enough extra $ to get something done
It can also work if the trade hasn’t been submitted to the league office yet and the Pistons (or Kings) are working on getting a 3rd team involved…
This is ridiculous to read even a day later. Weaver trading for Lonzo this season is bananaland
So this is the grand trade that I woke up to on my day off??? Wow. Two former raptor players? No stars??? Hmm. Then owners and GM’s cry about players teaming up, but what has these management groups done to keep their star players happy???
I hope things have improved by the time I wake up!
Those saying Wright is better defender , player etc
Do you really see him making much of a difference if the Kings don’t address their log jam at guard? Kings need to move Heild for some front court depth
It’s the kings though. They had Cousins,Gay,Caron Butler,Rondo,Collison & couldn’t make the playoffs!
Kings Front Office are just garbage. Should have given only 1 2nd rounder
Delon Wright for Deron Guy, basically.