5. Detroit Pistons (via Kings) – Jayson Tatum, F, Duke
GM: Brady Rippon; Twitter: @bradyrippon
After treading water for much of the Van Gundy era, The Pistons shake things up by packaging Tobias Harris and Stanley Johnson to the Kings for an early lottery pick. A coveted prospect coming out of Arizona, Johnson has struggled in the pros, shooting a scintillating 36 percent from the field over the last two years career.
This past season, Stanley changed his jersey number to 7, presumably in honor of how many games he’s managed to start in his entire NBA career.
At times, Tobias Harris has been Detroit’s most productive player, but Harris has also far too often underperformed expectations. In some sense, Harris fits a Rudy Gay/Jeff Green mold – if you never looked at the box score, you’d think they were the best player on the floor based solely on play style and physical build. He is not as productive as the reputation that follows him suggests.
The move for Jayson Tatum is a no-brainer. In the worst-case scenario, Tatum replicates Harris’ production at a fourth of the cost. Best-case scenario, Tatum develops a Danny Granger-esque inside/outside game and becomes a cornerstone of the Pistons future. As far as shake-ups go, this one is of the low risk variety.