Kings trade Cory Joseph to the Pistons

Cory Joseph (Reuben Pol, Wikimedia Commons)

The National Basketball Association trade deadline is on Thursday. However, on Wednesday, a Canadian was traded. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Sacramento Kings traded guard Cory Joseph of Toronto, Ontario to the Detroit Pistons with two second-round draft picks for guard Delon Wright. The draft picks will be in the 2021 and 2024 NBA Drafts.

Joseph will now reunite with former Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey in Detroit. Casey coached Joseph with the Raptors from 2015 to 2017. During the 2016-17 season, Joseph enjoyed a career-high 9.3 points per game.

For the majority of his career, Joseph has been coming off the bench. He only has 123 career starts in 644 games. So far in 2020-21 with the Kings, he has 6.6 points per game, 2.5 assists per game, and 2.3 rebounds per game. He has a field goal percentage of .444, a free-throw percentage of .766, and a three-point percentage of .330.

The Pistons become Joseph’s fifth NBA team. In addition to the Raptors and Kings, he has also played with the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers. While with the Spurs in 2014, Joseph won the NBA Finals. San Antonio defeated the Miami Heat in five games.

Wright meanwhile also has a connection to Canada. That is because he was with the Raptors from 2015 to 2019. In 2020-21 with the Pistons, Wright was averaging career-highs in points per game (10.4), assists per game (five), and rebounds per game (4.6). He also had a field goal percentage of .464, a three-point percentage of .348, and a free-throw percentage of .789. In addition to the Raptors and Pistons, Wright has played for the Memphis Grizzlies and Dallas Mavericks.

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