The Pistons will acquire shooting guard Wendell Moore Jr. and the 37th pick in today’s draft from the Timberwolves, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Minnesota will receive the 53rd selection in return.
The trade serves as a slight salary dump for the Wolves, who unload Moore’s $2.5MM contract for next season and will likely fill that roster spot with a minimum-salary player. Minnesota picked up the third-year option on Moore last October.
Moore, 22, was drafted by Dallas with the 26th pick in the 2022 draft and was shipped to Houston and then Minnesota in a pair of draft-day trades. He has seen limited playing time at the NBA level, appearing in 54 total games, including 25 this past season when he averaged just 3.0 minutes per night.
The Pistons will move up 16 spots in the second round, putting them in position to grab a player ranked higher on their board without sacrificing much of their projected cap room. They’re still on track to create over $60MM in room once the new league year begins.
Detroit will have until the end of October to decide whether or not to exercise the $4.57MM option on Moore’s contract for the 2025/26 season. Turning down that option would put him on track for unrestricted free agency next summer, while picking it up would set him up for possible restricted free agency in 2026.
This is the first reported deal on what is expected to be an active day of trading as the NBA draft has expanded to two days for the first time.
He can’t possibly shoot worse then any other guy on our team
Pistons doing a smart move in getting a draft pick and the cost is just a few million.
I liked him in Minne in short stints. He was composed and mature, and has a good attitude. Good luck Dell.
Short stints? He averaged 3min so you liked him every game :)?
Any player from Duke should be given a chance & long look.
Wow I had just said I could see him getting moved after drafted shannon…wasn’t used
I think he’s a smart player, and I personally like him. It’s weird b/c they drafted Holland, and their lack of spacing all around, but maybe this means they’ll stop using all their bigs together, and put some balance on the floor. They should have more high IQ players now, and more playmaking, so there’s that…
…i just realized I forgot Ausar thompson existed, which is a pretty big omission. That means I messed something up when I wrote about the pick last night lol
They don’t want Moore. He might get a look since they’re so bad, but they just took his salary to move up in the draft. The #37 pick is all they really wanted.
I figure that, but a roster like their’s can always use more help, and spacing and redundancies has been a significant issue there few years
Good move for both teams.
Wolves gonna take Bronny at 53 just to create drama in LA