Detroit Pistons: Re-grading the Jerami Grant trade 6 months later

In four days, it will be six months since the Detroit Pistons traded Jerami Grant to the Portland Trail Blazers.

We spent most of last year dealing with Jerami Grant trade rumors, but Troy Weaver finally pulled the trigger in July in a deal that didn’t look great at the time.

The Trail Blazers received Jerami Grant and the 46th pick 2022 NBA Draft for a 2025 1st round pick (via MIL),  the 36th pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, a 2025 2nd-round pick and 2026 2nd-round pick.

Fans were disappointed to get nothing more than a distant first-round pick from a good team, but then Troy Weaver was able to work his magic and flip that pick for the rights to draft Jalen Duren.

Suddenly the payoff for Jerami Grant was Jalen Duren, Gabriele Procida, 2025/2026 2nd-round picks, Kemba Walker and a $21 million trade exception, so the deal looked at lot better, which is why I gave Weaver an A+ in my original grade of the trade.

They were able to trade a guy who wasn’t an All-Star and is on an expiring contract for a lottery pick and some assets, so it looked like a fair deal for both teams.

But since Grant has left Detroit, he’s been even better, averaging 22 points per game while shooting just under 44 percent from long range. He’s one of several ex-Pistons who have taken off as 3-point shooters since leaving Detroit, which has been hard to watch considering Detroit’s need in that area.

The Pistons also have a Grant-sized hole at the wing, where their defense has been terrible and where they aren’t getting enough shooting from anyone not named Bojan Bogdanovic or Alec Burks.

It would be easy to look back and say that it’s possible the Detroit Pistons should have just kept Grant since he’s the exact type of player they now need, but the trade was still a big win for Detroit.

The Detroit Pistons are still winners in the Jerami Grant trade

This was one of the rare trades that really worked out for both teams, as Grant has been great for Portland and is a big reason they are out-performing expectations this season. They are in the playoff picture in the super-competitive Western Conference and that probably wouldn’t be true had they not swung the deal for Grant. They are trying to make the most of Damian Lillard’s window as a superstar and Grant has given them a chance to compete.

As for the Detroit Pistons, they certainly need a wing player in Grant’s mold, especially since he’s shown he can be very effective off the ball as a spot-up shooter. But the Pistons were able to get one of the steals of the draft in Jalen Duren, who looks like a future All-Star already and is the youngest player in the NBA.

He’s been one of the top rebounders in the league since joining the starting five, is a much-better than advertised passer and looks like the best big man from his class. Duren fits the timeline of the other young players and now looks like a part of the core moving forward. If the Pistons were going to trade Grant, they needed to nail the pick their received for him and they did.

There’s also the matter of Grant’s contract, which expires after this season, making him an unrestricted free agent. If the Pistons really want him back, they can bid for him in free agency, as they will have as more cap space than just about any other team in the league.

I have no idea if the Pistons or Grant would be interested in a reunion, but if they are, they can get him back in the year they are really trying to compete and will still have Jalen Duren on a rookie deal.

Even though trading Grant made the Pistons worse in the short term, it wasn’t like they were good with him anyway, and now they could potentially get him back while still reaping all of the assets from trading him.

I would still give this trade a high grade six months later, as it still looks like one of the most mutually-beneficial deals in recent memory. The Detroit Pistons got their big of the future and will have the money to fill the hole that Grant left behind.