Detroit Pistons: 1 NBA Draft trade with every team in the Northwest
Detroit Pistons: 2022 NBA Draft trades with the Northwest Division
Portland Trail Blazers
The Trail Blazers are the team most rumored to be future trade partners with the Detroit Pistons, though I am still skeptical that they are going to go all in around Damian Lillard.
The Trail Blazers front office should probably be jailed for some of the moves they made this season, as they traded away CJ McCollum, Norman Powell and Larry Nance Jr. and got back….well, nothing.
What is going on in Portland? I don’t know if there has been a worse recent trade than the McCollum deal with New Orleans, as the Blazers traded away a star and didn’t even get a first-round pick for him in this draft.
But if they decide that Jerami Grant (and maybe Zach Lavine) are enough to make them competitive again, I supposed that Portland might do this.
Why the Trail Blazers would do it: Portland was so desperate to keep Damian Lillard that they blew up their team for nothing. If I were a Blazers’ fan I’d be nauseous at the idea of this trade, as they get just one guaranteed year of Jerami Grant, a guy who has had injury issues the last two seasons and is not good enough to make them a contender. But if they were to land another guy (LaVine) then it makes more sense and they might be able to compete, but if not, they are sacrificing what little future they have for a pipe dream. Portland is now in the running for worst-run organization in the league after their disastrous year.
Why the Pistons would do it: Detroit gets a chance to add two top-10 picks in the 2022 NBA Draft with both the 5th and 7th picks.
Related Story. 3 options for the 5th and 7th picks. light
This would make Detroit extremely young and it would be risky, unless they 100 percent don’t see Grant as part of their long-term plans. They’d also have to take on the awful Eric Bledsoe, who is washed and might end up on the buyout heap.
If the Detroit Pistons are going to trade Grant and take on more dead money, then they had better hit on both of these picks or they are going to be awful.