All signs are pointing to the Detroit Pistons not making a splashy move at the trade deadline, but if they are going to pursue one of the top targets, the only one that makes sense is Michael Porter Jr.
The Pistons have consistently been attached to MPJ in speculation, but that has ratcheted up of late, as insider Jake Fischer reported that the Pistons have indeed had internal discussions about trading for the Nets’ sharpshooter.
Those talks haven’t progressed outside of the building yet, but the Pistons are at least kicking around the idea of MPJ.
We’ve discussed him quite a lot, so I’m not going to beat a dead horse here, but he’s an elite, volume 3-point shooter whose contract doesn’t extend past next season, and he’d be relatively inexpensive to acquire compared to some of the other top options.
And when you look at those options, MPJ is the only one that makes any sense.
Most of the top trade targets will not interest the Detroit Pistons
Fischer laid out the top names that could be moved, starting with Trey Murphy III, another guy who makes a lot of sense for the Pistons. But the Pelicans aren’t showing any interest in trading him, and why would they? They actually have a nice little foundation now that Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears have popped, and TMIII is young enough to be part of it.
I’m ruling him out, though that hasn’t stopped the dreamers from coming up with wildly ambitious trade ideas.
The other players Fischer mentioned are Domantas Sabonis DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic and James Harden, all of whom you can safely rule out in Detroit.
None of them are fits and Detroit isn’t about to blow their trade assets on an old rental, so of the top reported targets, MPJ is clearly the best fit.
The Pistons have the financial flexibility and trade assets to get a deal done, so it will really come down to whether Trajan Langdon feels MPJ moves the needle enough to sacrifice any of that for relatively short-term gains.
If not, we’ll likely see the Pistons pass on all of these targets and go for a trade more similar to the one they made last season to acquire Dennis Schroder, and there are some interesting names that could fit.
If you are going to come up short anyway, you may as well go for the most cost-effective and impactful option, which may not include trading for a guy making $40 million next season who is putting up empty stats on a bad team.
As of right now it looks like there is a lack of sellers, at least when it comes to splashy names, but we know that can change quickly.
The trade deadline is February 5th, and I expect Langdon to use every minute of it to evaluate his team before making a decision.