Detroit Pistons’ game tonight a possible trade deadline showcase

Detroit Pistons: Trading Bojan Bogdanovic to the Dallas Mavericks

Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Dallas Mavericks may be after both Bojan Bogdanovic and Nerlens Noel, but a trade like that would almost certainly require a third team.

The Mavericks would love to land Bogdanovic, who would be a nice pairing with Luka Doncic and allow the Mavs to go small and surround Luka with shooters.

But trading for Bogdanovic gets even trickier than Burks, as the Detroit Pistons have said they will not come off their demands of an unprotected first-round pick. There is also the same issue of Bertans, who would almost certainly have to be part of it unless a third team was involved.

To take back Bertans and give up Bogdanovic, the Pistons may want more than just one first-round pick, and the Mavericks have a dearth of young players that would interest the Pistons. Josh Green has some upside and Jaden Hardy is averaging nearly 30 a game in the G-League on incredible shooting splits, but both play guard (Green could be a tweener) and the Pistons don’t really need additional guards.

Here’s a trade that works financially, though I’m not sure either team would be interested:

In this trade, the Detroit Pistons get their unprotected first-round pick plus Josh Green in exchange for giving up Bogdanovic and taking on Bertans’ awful contract. Nerlens Noel is a sweetener for Dallas and Powell is just to make the money work.

This deal would likely make the Pistons worse next season, and they have shown no interest in those types of deals, but it would net them three picks (including one first rounder) and a young player with upside, so it’s something they may consider.

This is one of those cases where a third or fourth team would likely need to get involved for both teams to walk away happy, so as much as Dallas would love to get their hands on one of these two players, it won’t be easy.