Nets get: Landry Shamet, Bruce Brown and the draft rights to Reggie Perry
Clippers get: Luke Kennard, Justin Patton, the draft rights to Jayden Scrubb and four second-round draft picks
Pistons get: Rodney McGruder, Dzanan Musa, the draft rights to Saddiq Bey, the draft rights to Jaylen Hands and a 2021 second-round draft pick
LA Clippers: B+
One of my favorite Bill James-isms is the term "challenge trade," when two teams exchange similar players and hope they've got a better read on the talent evaluation than their trade partner. As my ESPN colleague Zach Lowe noted on Twitter, this qualifies from the Clippers, who went from one young, shoot-first shooting guard to another. Remarkably, Kennard and Shamet even have the same career 3-point percentage to three significant digits (40.2%).
I suspect the Clippers preferred Kennard in part because he's a tad bit bigger than Shamet at a listed 6-foot-5, 206 as compared to 6-foot-4, 190 for Shamet. Shamet's size might have been an issue in the playoffs, when he hasn't been the same kind of knockdown shooter in the limited sample of his first two seasons. He hit 32% of his 3s in 2019, when he started all six games in the Clippers' first-round loss to the Golden State Warriors, and 36% in 13 games (four starts) last season.
Because the Pistons made the playoffs just once in his three seasons (and were promptly swept by the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks), the postseason sample is even smaller for Kennard. He went 9-of-15 (60%), starting two games for Detroit.
Besides that distinction, Kennard is probably a tad more capable as a scorer off pick-and-rolls. Detroit averaged 0.92 points per chance on Kennard pick-and-rolls last season, per Second Spectrum tracking, as compared to 0.83 points per chance on Shamet's more limited opportunities with the Clippers.
Overall, I rate Kennard a win or two more valuable per season than Shamet. The downside is that he's got just one year remaining on his rookie contract at $5.7 million, while Shamet has two left at about the same amount combined ($5.9 million). That difference probably isn't as meaningful for the Clippers, who can comfortably go deep into the luxury tax to either extend Kennard's contract by Dec. 29 or re-sign him as a restricted free agent next summer.
For the upcoming season, the Clippers actually save a bit of money by including McGruder and his $5.2 million salary in the trade. As Nate Duncan pointed out on Twitter, that could be meaningful for the Clippers if they lose either Montrezl Harrell or Marcus Morris in unrestricted free agency and have the opportunity to use the larger non-taxpayer midlevel exception to replace them.
Given all that, I'm surprised the Clippers were able to demand a haul of second-round picks out of the deal, adding four future ones: Portland's in 2023 and Detroit's own from 2024 through 2026. This far away, it's impossible to know how valuable those might be. At a minimum, though, they should be useful to thrown in trades down the road.
Brooklyn Nets: B
Shamet is a nice fit for the Nets because his modest rookie contract as the No. 26 pick in the 2018 draft almost perfectly matches up with what this year's No. 19 pick was due this season. That means Brooklyn won't add to its own luxury-tax bill while getting a player more likely to contribute immediately.
Between this trade and another one with the Pistons for Bruce Brown earlier in the week, the Nets have added two players with different skill sets to their backcourt rotation. Shamet obviously brings shooting while Brown is more of a defensive presence in the backcourt.
To some extent, I suppose that offers insurance if Brooklyn is unable to re-sign Joe Harris. More realistically, given Harris' size and importance to the Nets, Brown and Shamet are replacements for Garrett Temple, assuming Brooklyn declines Temple's team option.
Detroit Pistons: B-
Trading Kennard for the No. 19 pick continues new Pistons general manager Troy Weaver's reshaping the roster to his liking. Even before Weaver's arrival, Kennard's name appeared in trade rumors ahead of the trade deadline, an indication Detroit might not have been sold on the idea of paying up for him via extension or restricted free agency. In that case, getting a pick in the teens is decent value.
I'm surprised the Pistons were willing to include so many of their future second-round picks. Certainly, Detroit hopes to be more competitive by then, putting those picks in the late 40s or 50s. Even if so, that might mean a year without any draft pick at all because of the conditional first-round pick the Pistons sent to Houston in a trade made earlier Wednesday.