Over the last two seasons, few players have been mentioned as possible trade target for the Detroit Pistons more than Michael Porter Jr.
He’s a sharp shooting power forward who had a breakout season on a bad team, so it’s not surprising his name is in all of the trade rumors.
Those were stirred up again when Nets reporter Erick Slater speculated that Porter Jr. wouldn't be with the Nets past the trade deadline. Given his expiring contract and the timeline of the Nets rebuild, it’s not at all surprising, but it didn’t stop the MPJ to the Pistons talk to start up again.
On paper, MPJ is a great fit, as few guys his size can shoot the 3-ball as well as he does, but there are more reasons why the Pistons should stay away.
The Pistons already have John Collins
The Pistons already have Temu MPJ in John Collins, who is nearly the same size and provides much of the same value.
The Pistons just need their power forward to stand in the corner and knock down 3-pointers to create space, something Collins does exceedingly well. There is no sense in paying a guy 2.5 times as much to essentially do the same thing.
Collins will be making $17 million next season, and MPJ will make nearly $41 million. Yes, Porter Jr. is the better player, but he’s not that much better. You can also cut his numbers from last season way down, as he was doing that on the Nets, where he was the only good player and had the ball in his hands a ton.
The Pistons would be paying 40 mil for a third banana, who also happens to be a complete moron, no offense to morons.
Collins will give you at least half of what MPJ does at less than half the cost and with none of the headaches. If MPJ were a creator, things might be different, but on Detroit, he’d just be a spot-up shooter like he was in Denver, and that’s not worth max money.
Porter Jr. would be an expensive rental
MPJ will enter the season on an expiring contract, so whatever team eventually trades for him will be getting a rental for less than half the season unless they can come to wink-wink agreement on an extension.
It’s not so much the money, but what it represents, as you have to match it in a trade, so the Pistons would have to send several players to the Nets to make the money work.
If you have to send 2-3 players (some in the rotation) for MPJ, then the tradeoff isn’t even worth it. Just as an example, Collins, Duncan Robinson and Kevin Huerter would get you to $40 million, but does MPJ offer more than those three combined? Debatable.
It’s a slow time of the year, so I don’t blame fans for jumping on any rumor, but the MPJ one just doesn’t make as much sense as it used to when you factor in Collins and what it would take to get Porter Jr. in Detroit.
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