2014 NBA Draft: Pistons tried to make deal with Hornets to retain pick, according to report

Make a deal with the Bobcats, get stung by the Hornets. That was the story of the Detroit's draft night as the Pistons slid to the ninth slot and were forced to surrender their draft pick to the Charlotte Hornets to finalize the ill-fated Ben Gordon trade.

It was a dumb decision at the time and it was apparently a decision the team attempted to mitigate. Pistons beat writer Vince Ellis revealed on Twitter that the team attempted to work with Charlotte to retain this year's pick.

All we have to go on right now is a series of Ellis tweets:

I gather the #Pistons had talks with #Hornets to try to retain the pick this year. Talks never got serious. Not sure what carrot was dangled

— Vincent Ellis (@Vincent_Ellis56) May 21, 2014

#Pistons reluctant to lose assets or future first-rounders so hard to see such talks going far.

— Vincent Ellis (@Vincent_Ellis56) May 21, 2014

I suppose it's unsurprising that the Pistons would at least ask for a partial takesie-backsie, and it's equally unsurprising that the Hornets said, "nah, we're good."

Because to keep this year's pick the Pistons would have had to give up yet another attractive asset, and that just isn't the direction the team should be going in. Who knows, maybe Stan Van Gundy outlined his plan for this season and it included a promise to double-down on the Josh Smith-Brandon Jennings experiment as a way to tempt the Hornets into waiting for next year's pick, which would have been only top-1 protected.

Oh well. Ben Gordon is officially history. So there's that.