It finally happened. After nearly a year of rampant speculation, the Detroit Pistons have traded Jerami Grant to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Fans of the Pistons were hoping to get the 7th pick in return (which was never close to happening) but instead get a 2025 1st round pick via Milwaukee, a pick swap this year to move up from 46th to 36th and a second-round pick in 2025. The first-round pick in 2025 is protected 1-4, but that probably won’t matter seeing that Giannis Antetokounmpo will still be just 30-years-old and the Bucks aren’t likely to be a lottery team as long as he is there in his prime.
In the end, the Pistons got a similar return to what Houston got in the Christian Wood trade, and it doesn’t appear there were any better deals out there for Grant.
It’s a disappointing return for now but we should withhold judgement until we see the final product. Troy Weaver clearly valued cap space more than any of the players he could get in return for Grant, and the Pistons now have nearly double the amount of any other team.
As of right now, the Pistons have $43 million in cap space that can balloon up to $56 million if they do not pick up any of their team options, which means guys like Frank Jackson and Hamidou Diallo may have played their last games in Detroit.
So what are the Detroit Pistons going to do with all of that cap space?
Detroit Pistons: The most likely scenario
I’d say the most likely scenario is that the Detroit Pistons sign one max free agent with their cap space and then use the rest to retain their own guys.
The Deandre Ayton rumors are really heating up, so if the Pistons were to land him on a max deal, that would leave enough money to re-sign Marvin Bagley III but not much for anything else, depending on the final numbers and what they do with Jackson, Diallo and Garza.
With Grant gone, the Pistons are now most likely to draft Keegan Murray as his replacement, so in the scenario they’d go into next season with this starting five:
- Cade Cunningham
- ?
- Saddiq Bey
- Keegan Murray
- Deandre Ayton
If the Pistons choose to retain Bagley III, it will be difficult for them to get a big-time free agent guard and Ayton even if they were to decline their options.