Marcus Sasser has seemingly spent his entire career as the odd man out in the Detroit Pistons rotation. As a scoring guard with a good floater game and a reliable three-point shot, he’s always been useful and performed well. However, because he’s a 6-foot-1 off-guard without the ability to orchestrate an offense, it’s always been tough to find him minutes on the floor.
Now, it looks like he might get a fresh start within a context where he more naturally fits, and he could be sent closer to home to boot.
“The Mavericks have emerged a leading suitor to acquire Detroit’s Marcus Sasser via trade, league sources tell @TheSteinLine,” Marc Stein wrote on social media.
Sasser averaged 5.2 points and 12 minutes per game across 38 games for the Pistons last season. He was often a healthy scratch as Detroit relied primarily on Cade Cunningham and Daniss Jenkins at point guard, and a mix of Duncan Robinson, Javonte Green, Jaden Ivey, and Caris LeVert at shooting guard last season.
When Sasser did get minutes, he shot reliably from three, hitting 41%. He also helped unstick a wobbly offense in the playoffs in the Cleveland Cavaliers series.
Any deal would be a pure financial play for the Pistons, freeing up his $5.2 million salary obligation. The Mavericks would be taking a low-cost flier on a player in the final season before restricted free agency with an eye toward having his rights in case he is worth investing in further.
Sasser is also a native of Red Oak, Texas, where he grew up and played high school ball. Red Oak is roughly 30 minutes south of Dallas. He also went on to be a four-year star player at the University of Houston.
Whether this deal remains small — you take my surplus player, you give me salary relief via a second-round pick — or a large deal — Dallas is thought to be willing to shop big men such as Daniel Gafford or PJ Washington, and Detroit is staring down big potential holes if one or both of Jalen Duren or Tobias Harris were to play elsewhere — remains to be seen.
Free agency begins today at 6 p.m., and I expect we’ll see some resolution on what the future of the Detroit Pistons looks like.
But it does look Sasser has likely played his final game for the team he’s play for his entire NBA career thus far.
