The Thunder and Pistons have agreed to a trade that will send shooting guard Isaiah Joe to Detroit in exchange for two future second-round picks, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Joe, who will turn 27 next Thursday, has spent the past four seasons in Oklahoma City following two years with the 76ers. He has been a reliable rotation player during his time with the Thunder, appearing in at least 71 regular season games and making at least 40.9% of his three-point tries in each of the past four years.
In 2025/26, Joe averaged 11.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 21.2 minutes per game across 71 outings (nine starts). He registered a .455/.423/.894 shooting line, with 428 of his 543 total field goal attempts coming from beyond the arc.
While Joe is one of the NBA’s best shooters, he’s not an elite defender, which has resulted in his playing time falling off in the postseason. This spring, he saw action in 13 of OKC’s 15 playoff games but averaged just 11.0 MPG.
However, adding more shooting to complement star point guard Cade Cunningham was one of the top offseason priorities for the Pistons, who had been repeatedly linked to Joe within the past week or so. Besides the fact that he’ll improve their floor spacing, the Pistons like the fact that the veteran guard has championship experience, tweets Charania.
Joe has a guaranteed $11.3MM salary for 2026/27, with a matching $11.3MM team option for ’27/28. How the Pistons absorb his salary will depend on other offseason moves, but if they operate as an over-the-cap team, they should have multiple options for taking him in. Those options would include using the $15MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception or the $15MM trade exception they’ll generate by sending Isaiah Stewart to Memphis. Going under the cap and using space to acquire Joe could also be a viable route.
The Thunder, meanwhile, have now agreed to near-identical trades involving a pair of reserve wings. They also reached an agreement over the weekend to trade swingman Aaron Wiggins to Atlanta for two future second-round picks. Both Wiggins and Joe had been viewed as trade candidates coming into the offseason due to the fact that they weren’t regular contributors in the playoffs and Oklahoma City is facing a cap crunch.
Clearing out roughly $20.4MM in 2026/27 salary by parting with Joe and Wiggins will help ease the financial pressure on the Thunder. As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, the team still projects to be over the second tax apron, but its $234MM in estimated salary includes team options for Isaiah Hartenstein ($28.5MM), Luguentz Dort ($17.7MM), and Kenrich Williams ($7.2MM). If one or more of those options is declined, perhaps to re-sign those players to lower starting salaries, OKC has a path to avoiding the second apron.
