I wonder if Thon Maker actually thought he would get traded when he started agitating, through his agent, for more playing time on the Bucks. I also wonder if he actually thought that he would get more playing time. That seemed like a lose-lose situation for him since he had no leverage. Either he would get traded away from a good situation on a fringe-contender team, or he would get benched extra hard for having the audacity to complain about playing time on an extremely successful team.
No matter what he thought the outcome was going to be there, Maker got traded to the Pistons, and now he’s not the Bucks’ problem. He’s also not really the Pistons’ problem either, since they have no vested interest in him. They didn’t draft him, so it’s not like the fans are breathing down the front-office’s necks to make Thon into a good player.
I would say that, so far, the Maker experiment in Detroit has been a success, simply because he hit that game winner. He’s also been logging about fifteen minutes per game as part of the Pistons’ recent streak of success. So, all that complaining about minutes worked out for him, because he went to a playoff team where he gets minutes. Way to go, I guess. I’ll always be thankful for that one time he destroyed the Raptors for half a playoff series.