How the Pelicans’ win affects the Pistons and Jerami Grant

One of the biggest decisions the Detroit Pistons have to make this offseason is what to do with Jerami Grant, who is entering the final year of his contract.

Detroit was never really that close to moving Grant at the deadline and may end up extending him, especially if they don’t get the right offer in a potential trade.

One the teams widely rumored to covet Grant is the Portland Trail Blazers, which makes sense, as they want to quickly reload around Damian Lillard, the two of them are friends, Portland carved out a Grant-sized trade exception and was supposed to have the draft assets to tempt the Pistons.

When Portland traded CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans, it looked as though a 2022 NBA Draft pick would be part of the deal, but Blazers’ fans had to watch in horror last night as that dream vanished and may have taken the chance to trade for Grant with it.

How the Pelicans’ win affects the Detroit Pistons and Jerami Grant

The 2022 NBA Draft pick the Pelicans owed the Trail Blazers was protected 5-14, which looked like a pretty good bet for Portland at the time, as the Pels were well out of playoff contention.

But things started changing in New Orleans, McCollum helped take them to another level, they got healthy and suddenly found themselves as the 9th seed in the Western Conference play-in.

No worries, as Portland would still get their pick as long as it didn’t go into the top-4 and surely the Pelicans would lose to the Clippers on the road, right?

The Pelicans had other plans, and took care of business in LA last night, beating the Clippers and claiming the 8th seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

And when they did, the pick they owed Portland immediately turned into Milwaukee’s 2025 1st-rounder, which had to be gutting to Trail Blazer’s fans, as they not only didn’t get a second lottery pick, but gave away one of the faces of their franchise for nothing but Josh Hart (who I love) and what will likely be a very late 1st-round pick. Ouch.

That was the pick that most had earmarked for the Jerami Grant trade, as the Trail Blazers now only have their own pick, which currently has the 6th-best odds.

It’s hard to imagine Portland wanting to give up a top-6 or 7 pick for Grant, so with the Pelicans’ win, the chances of trading Grant to the Trail Blazers plummeted.

This doesn’t mean the Detroit Pistons won’t find another suitor for Grant, or that Portland won’t get desperate enough to trade a top-10 pick for him, but the likelihood definitely decreased.