Reason against: The Los Angeles Lakers would be one of many teams in on Wayne Ellington
If you took Economics 101 in high school then you know the number one determinant of market price is supply and demand. If you have a lot of supply and no demand then prices are cheap. If you have no supply but a lot of demand then prices are steep.
The supply of cheap three-point shooters at the deadline is not prominent. The demand to add three-point shooting to the bench is prominent for any contending team. Realistically, there should be 10 teams or so checking in on Ellington at the deadline.
That is a lot of demand for one player that is going to raise his price. The Los Angeles Lakers already don’t have the best offer in the world and the last thing the team can really afford to do is get in a bidding war with young talent and future picks.
Don’t get me wrong: Ellington is not going to be worth that much and every team will have a line that they are not willing to cross. But with so many teams potentially being interested there are so many other young players that could excite Detroit.
If you are the Pistons would you rather have a late first-round or second-round pick that has some NBA experience already or would you rather have a G League guy with very limited NBA experience? Exactly.
The Lakers are definitely not giving up Kyle Kuzma or Talen Horton-Tucker (I feel gross for even writing that), so the chances of them getting outbid are fairly high.