This is not the trade news that Pistons fans wanted to wake up to on a nice Sunday morning! In the wee hours of Saturday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroder from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for De'Andre Hunter. The breakout of second-year wing Jaylon Tyson made Hunter somewhat expendable, and the Cavs strengthened their backcourt by adding Ellis, a high-level point of attack defender.
Pistons fans shouldn't be mad because the Pistons [missed out on a deal](https://pistonpowered.com/detroit-pistons-could-target-bulls-dennis-schroder-trade) — De'Andre Hunter would have been a solid pickup, but there was no chance the Cavs would give a player to the Pistons when each has a chance to win the East. Ellis also would have been nice, but he's the kind of guy who would make any team better, so it's not like the Pistons specifically should have been targeting.
Instead, Pistons fans should be a little miffed that the Kings allowed the Cavs to acquire Ellis, one of the deadline's hottest names, without giving up any serious draft compensation. Watching a division rival get better like this never feels great. The Cavs have been playing great ball recently and just addressed their point-of-attack defense problem.
Multiple reports said the Kings were demanding a first-round pick for Ellis — that obviously didn't happen, so now the Cavs have improved and Cavs fans don't have to worry about any outgoing future assets, either. For an inter-division team that the Pistons will likely be competing against for years, that's somewhat irritating.
Pistons need to just focus on themselves the rest of the way
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With all that being said — the Pistons shouldn't overly concern themselves with moves that other teams make. As it stands, the Pistons have a considerable stronghold on every other team in the East, and guard depth for the Cavaliers might not be enough for them to challenge the first-place Pistons in a real way.
In fact, any East team that feels like it has to make a trade is doing so because the Pistons are the clear best team in the conference right now. Basically, the Cavs are making this move to compete with the Pistons.
But no matter how encouraging that may sound, it's somewhat worry-inducing that the first big trade of the season was a win-now move by the Pistons' direct competition. Smart of them to target the Sacramento Kings, too, knowing the Kings have a tough time doing much of anything right.