Trade Scenarios For Chase Budinger

Chase Budinger is being shopped by Minnesota, and Detroit is reportedly interested. If the Pistons were to acquire him, his career would have gone full circle, because Budinger was, of course, drafted in 2009 by Detroit with the 44th pick, and later traded to the Houston Rockets (who are also interested), for a future second-round pick (which turned out to be superstar Kim English).  All that being said, I've played with the trade machine (as you do when something like this arises), and come up with some trades involving the Pistons and the Timberwolves for the athletic Budinger.

Untradeable Players

Some of the players from both squads are untradeable for various reasons.

Pistons: Meeks (FA, Dec. 15), Monroe (FA, Dec. 15...Bird Rights, 1. July '15), Butler (FA, Dec. 15), Augustin (FA, Dec. 15), Gray (FA, Dec. 14), Martin (FA, Dec. 14)

Timberwolves: Williams (FA, Dec. 14), Fesenko (FA, Dec. 14), Hummel (FA, Dec. 14), Heslip (FA, Dec. 14)

Trades (Hollinger's Win Analysis)

Pistons receive: Chase Budinger (-2)
Wolves receive: Luigi Datome, Will Bynum (0)

This trade is probably the most obvious one.  The Pistons solve two problems in one here, one being the reduction of guaranteed contracts from 16 to 15, and the other being figuring out the problem with Will Bynum. Whether the Wolves want another point guard to add to Rubio, LaVine, Williams and Barea however, is another story.

Pistons receive: Chase Budinger (-2)
Wolves receive: Jonas Jerebko (0)

Jerebko is the only player the Pistons can exchange in a one-for-one trade with Minnesota.  But, given Jerebko's preseason showing, there is a reason our win projection goes down here.

Pistons receive: Chase Budinger, Gorgui Dieng (-2)
Wolves receive: Brandon Jennings (-2)

This trade will never happen, I just wanted to see how we could throw Dieng in this package.

Pistons receive: Chase Budinger, Gorgui Dieng (-6)
Wolves receive: Will Bynum, Luigi Datome, Tony Mitchell (-4)

Solves the roster crisis, and gives the Pistons a backup center who is miles better than Thabeet, and who has no health issues.  Again, the roadblock is Will Bynum, and the fact that Minny have stockpiled PGs like they're going out of fashion.

Pistons receive: Chase Budinger, Kevin Martin (+2)
Wolves receive: Josh Smith (-2)

This is the only trade that increases the Pistons' projected wins, which is a shame because it's the least probable.  Minnesota just acquired Thaddeus Young from Philadelphia for bench bums Alexey Shved and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, and neither Smith nor Young is good enough to play center, especially with Pekovic there.  Plus, this gives the Pistons 17 guaranteed contracts, which is a mess.

From what I've discovered here, most of the potential trades for Budinger result in a decrease in Hollinger's projected win total for the Pistons.  Also, with Budinger locked in for potentially two years (player option for 2015-16) at $5 million a season, he's a bad contract.  We would have to give up too much to get him, he has been on the decline statistically and cannot stay healthy.  I will go on the record and say that the Pistons should not pursue this trade avenue.