How the Kyrie Irving trade affects the Detroit Pistons’ trade market

Detroit Pistons: The Lakers and the Western Conference

The Western Conference just got a whole lot more interesting with the addition of Kyrie Irving, which may cause the rest of the contenders in the conference to be more desperate and active.

The LA Lakers would be at the top of that list, as it was reported that they went hard after Irving and came up short. They still have their two future first-round picks as assets, so may be more desperate to do something now that their top target has gone somewhere else.

But the whole conference has been put on notice that Luka finally has a running mate, so teams like Memphis, New Orleans, Golden State and the LA Clippers may be more desperate to make some kind of move to add talent, especially those teams that may be looking at a first-round matchup with the Mavericks.

This could set off a Western Conference arms race in which Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks would be two of the top potential targets for playoff teams.

Even though the Detroit Pistons were not directly involved, this deal could make teams hold onto their assets, or it could prompt some of them to try and add talent to keep up with Dallas.

While the Pistons continue to hold their ground and say they are not going to trade Bogdanovic, other teams around the NBA are likely to keep making offers, so it will be interesting to see if any of them are enough to get the Pistons to make a move.