The moves surrounding the NBA trade deadline just keep getting juicier.
After trading Reggie Bullock to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, the Detroit Pistons continued to get in on the trade deadline action Wednesday. The Pistons have traded Stanley Johnson to the Milwaukee Bucks for Thon Maker, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The NBA’s trade deadline is set for Thursday at 3 pm EST.
Pistons are finalizing a trade to send Stanley Johnson to Milwaukee for Thon Maker, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 6, 2019
With the Pistons acquiring Maker, they’re getting a player who reportedly wants to have more playing time, per an ESPN report from late January. While playing for the Bucks, the top team in the East, Maker was averaging 11.7 minutes per game. He did not play in the Bucks’ past six games.
With the Pistons (24-29) at ninth place in the East, they’ll be battling for a playoff seed. Maker has shown that he can be a viable rotation player at times this season, but he’s still only 21 years old. The Pistons have an opportunity to continue to develop him and mold him into potentially being a stretch big. Maker has shot 33.3 percent from the 3-point line this season.
As for Johnson, the Bucks are getting a player who has gotten minutes in the league who can contribute defensively. Johnson, 22, has a career-best 102.4 defensive rating this season. Johnson isn’t a good shooter and hasn’t shot at least 40 percent from the field during any of his four years in the league. But his abilities on defense should help the Bucks maintain their standing in the East.
