Detroit Pistons-Sacramento Kings trade grades

The Detroit Pistons are trading guard Delon Wright to the Sacramento Kings for guard Cory Joseph and two second-round picks, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

What does this mean for the Kings’ potential postseason play-in push and the Pistons’ rebuild?

Kevin Pelton hands out trade grades for both teams.

The deal

Kings get: Delon Wright

Pistons get: Cory Joseph, 2021 second-round pick (via LAL) and 2024 second-round pick

Get more trade grades from Pelton here

Sacramento Kings: B+

My ESPN colleague Zach Lowe reported earlier this week that the Kings were unlikely to be in seller mode at the trade deadline because they don’t feel they’re that far away from making the playoffs. Instead, with this deal, Sacramento looks like something of a buyer.

Despite their dismal minus-4.5 point differential, we can’t write the Kings off as a contender to reach the play-in tournament, which would be an accomplishment for an organization that last made the playoffs when rookie guard Tyrese Haliburton was 6 years old. After Wednesday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks, the Kings are three games back of the Golden State Warriors for 10th in the West, having gained some ground over the past 10 games. (Sacramento is 6-4 in that span, and Golden State is 3-7, with Stephen Curry missing the last three.)

There are other teams in the mix — the Kings also are behind the New Orleans Pelicans, who were projected to win two more games than Sacramento prior to the trade by FiveThirtyEight — but hope is still flickering. FiveThirtyEight’s model gave Sacramento a 7% chance of a making it through the play-in, while projections using ESPN’s Basketball Power Index had the Kings doing so 4% of the time before Wednesday night’s results.

Adding Wright should help Sacramento’s playoff push. Although Joseph is a solid on-ball defender, his lack of outside shooting (33% on 3s this season, right on his career mark) has limited the threat he can pose offensively. This season’s .536 true shooting percentage is Joseph’s best since 2014-15 yet still comes up short of Wright’s average .565 mark. Wright is a slightly stronger 3-point shooter (36% this season, 34% career) who provides many of the same pluses defensively as Joseph with more size.

It will be interesting to see how Kings coach Luke Walton mixes and matches Joseph with incumbent guards Haliburton, De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield. Haliburton and Wright should be especially interchangeable since both have the ability to defend multiple positions on the perimeter and play on or off the ball depending on matchups.

The bigger benefit to swapping Joseph for Wright should come in 2021-22. I would’ve expected Sacramento to waive Joseph before his full $12.6 million salary guarantees on the eve of free agency, leaving them on the hook for $2.4 million. Wright is under contract for $8.5 million, along with an additional $1.05 million in incentives as reported by my colleague Bobby Marks that he’s unlikely to achieve. (Wright’s All-Star incentive is among the most optimistic in the league.)

Essentially, then, the Kings add just $6 million in 2021-22 salary to have Wright under contract, making him a bargain for next season well worth the…