Shortly after the Detroit Pistons were bounced out of the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers in round two, the team’s President of Basketball Operations, Trajan Langdon, spoke openly about his game plan to pursue all possible avenues for improvement in the offseason. The Pistons were widely chided for their decision not to add a secondary scorer at the Trade Deadline last season, so Langdon has clearly heard the rumblings around the Motor City about Cade Cunningham’s supporting cast.

In terms of bringing some more star power to Detroit, several top-shelf NBA stars changed residencies during the summer with Giannis Antetokounmpo joining the Miami Heat and LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers, but there was another high-profile deal that occupied a larger share of the headlines that involved Kawhi Leonard. While the league investigated the star player for potential involvement with cap circumvention, Leonard was in the process of being traded back to the Toronto Raptors for most of the summer. 

But before that deal came to fruition earlier this week, the Pistons were reportedly one of several franchises that could have been easily persuaded to deal for the seven-time All-Star. According to Shams Charania, Detroit had legitimate interest in pairing Leonard next to Cunningham to open up the Pistons’ championship window, but that deal never progressed to the negotiating table as the Los Angeles Clippers were content with their return from the Raptors. 

In order to procure Leonard from the Clippers via sign-and-trade, the Pistons would have likely had to part ways with Duren in order to make the deal complete. It’s possible that some draft capital would have even needed to be exchanged, but the Pistons are flush in that department with all of their own first-rounders over the next several years. In the end, Detroit felt that it was a better idea to work out a long-term deal with Duren to keep the 22-year old All-Star in the Motor City for years to come, but they haven’t had much success on that front either. 

With the new league year about to start, the NBPA officially announced their new Executive Committee, and there was a familiar name for Pistons fans among the group. After spending 13 years in the league, Miles Plumlee is transitioning to a new role as part of the E-Board for the NBPA, and he’ll be serving as the group’s Secretary-Treasurer for the upcoming season. 

As a player, Plumlee was picked in the back half of the first-round in the 2013 NBA Draft out of Duke and began his career as a member of the Brooklyn Nets. Plumlee surpassed the double-digit scoring threshold five different times during his career, which spanned a total of eight teams from beginning to end. 

As it pertains to the Pistons, Plumlee had a brief mid-career stopover in Motown for the 2020-21 campaign after playing for three other franchises prior to that point. During his lone year in Detroit, Plumlee started all 56 games that he played in while posting 10.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game for one of the most productive stretches of his career. Although Plumlee did not stick around in Detroit after that season, he was a quality contributor nonetheless who is about to begin a new role where he can contribute on a league-wide basis for the first time.