First round picks are extremely valuable because they result in cheap players on fixed contracts.
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Just a few minutes after reports surfaced that the Pistons were making the offer to Houston for Motiejunas, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical and Yahoo! Motiejunas is capable of playing both forward spots and, once healthy, figures to slot in behind Harris and Anthony Tolliver on the depth chart at power forward. The more Thornton and Motiejunas contribute, the lower the draft pick the Pistons end up sending to the Rockets.
The Pistons are one of the most active teams before the trade deadline this week after acquiring Tobias Harris in an earlier deal with the Orlando Magic, who got Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings from Detroit.
Thornton, in particular, will help provide some serious scoring punch to that second unit.
Stan Van Gundy’s incredibly impressive overhaul of the Detroit Pistons continues.
Motiejunas has played in just 14 games this season with averages of 5.6 points and 1.6 rebounds.
Thornton, 28, is averaging 10.0 points and 2.4 rebounds per game off the bench in Houston, his fifth team in three seasons. In essence, if Van Gundy intended on pursuing Motiejunas in free agency, trading for him now gives him even greater control over the big man’s future.
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That the Rockets were willing to dump Motiejunas for so little should raise red flags about his health, but should he ever return to the court in full form, he would be a potentially dynamic fit next to Andre Drummond.
