The Pistons move forward. The NBA market is heating up in the face of the always explosive closing of the transfer period and between them and the Nuggets there has been a minor movement but that does not go unnoticed. The two have made a trade that will take Bol Bol to Detroit, with Rodney McGruder and a second round of the 2022 Draft heading to Denver. It’s a barter advanced by Adrian Wojnarowski (ESPN), which is going well for both parties.
The Nuggets beat a guard point guard who can defend with skill, McGruder, who will come in handy in the return of Jamal Murray and set the course in the Western Conference facing the playoffs. The Pistons are left with a young player, Bol, who has a lot of potential and who did not have enough opportunities in the other mentioned team.
The Nuggets are also awarded with a pick for the next choice of young talents who can use it there or put it in another exchange later if they want to improve the squad even more, something that cannot be ruled out with the irregular role of this year.
Bol is, without a doubt, the proper name. A player who measures 2.18 meters, with a wingspan of 2.34 meters, and who plays outside. He’s between the guard and the forward. His specialty is three-point shooting, not with the little assiduity with which his father threw. He is the son of Manute Bol, the charismatic center of the Bullets, the Warriors or the 76ers, among other teams. A stress fracture to his foot while playing for the Ducks in the NCAA brought him down many spots in the 2019 Draft and, as they already did with another long-time injured Michael Porter, it was Denver who risked picking him. Has minimally stood out in a preseason game or having minutes of little relevance, averaging 2.4 points and 1.4 rebounds (although with a good 37% accuracy in the triples), but he is only 22 years old and the potential is still latent.
The Pistons are a container of young players to play with to see which ones come out better and who to stick with for the next. They have returned to throw another year in terms of fighting to enter the top eight places in the East, since they have only 8 victories in 38 games, and the priority is to develop the most inexperienced to make them good players. Cade Cunningham is the jewel in the crown, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart, Saben Lee, Frank Jackson or Hamidou Diallo are working, it remains to be seen where Josh Jackson and Luka Garza are left and if Killan Hayes is given one last chance. The train passes fast (Sekou Doumbouya, who went from being a promise to a strike) and may not wait for Jerami Grant, Olympic champion last year and a good bargaining chip in the market to get other tools for the future . Bol will have to come out of all this mess with his quality as a flag.
