Detroit Pistons: Mystery team in East pursuing Damian Lillard trade

Why the Detroit Pistons aren’t getting Damian Lillard

I’ll repeat for those in the back, I DO NOT THINK THE DETROIT PISTONS ARE GOING TO TRADE FOR DAMIAN LILLARD.

The “mystery” team is probably Boston or one of the other contenders who would benefit most from adding a future Hall of Famer on the back side of his prime.

Lillard has made it clear that he only wants to be traded to Miami, at one point even saying that he might sit out if traded elsewhere. He has since walked those statements back, but any team outside of South Beach that trades for Lillard will likely be getting an unhappy player who doesn’t want to be there.

Detroit is not exactly high atop people’s lists of teams they want to play for, so I am fairly certain Dame would not be satisfied being shipped to the Motor City and the team that was the worst in the NBA last season.

The whole reason Lillard has asked out of Portland is that he wants to win now and not waste years with a young roster, so why in the world would he want to come to Detroit, which is a rebuilding team that was even worse than Portland last season?

If he were willing to run with a young team, he may as well stay with the Trail Blazers, whose young core is arguably as good as Detroit’s.

I find it hard to believe that Troy Weaver would give up signficant assets for an unhappy player who wanted no part of Detroit and will be making $45, 48, 58 and 63 million per season over the next four years.

Lillard is also 33-years-old, so only has a few seasons of prime Dame left, which does not align with the Pistons’ timeline.

Even if they wanted to get him, would the Detroit Pistons even have enough to trade for him?