Detroit Pistons would jump at this lopsided trade proposal

Detroit Pistons trade for Brandon Ingram in lopsided proposal 

Bleacher Report loves cranking out the fake trades, some of which are better than others for the Detroit Pistons. 

In a recent article with trades for every lottery team, the Pistons land Brandon Ingram from the Pelicans without giving up any of their core guys. 

In this trade, the Pistons give up the corpse of Evan Fournier, Beef Stew, Quentin Grimes and a 2027 1st for forward Brandon Ingram. 

My first thought was “why would New Orleans do this?” It’s a problematic trade from the start. 

The Pistons would have to opt into the final year of Fournier’s contract at $19 million, which would be completely unnecessary. The Pistons don’t have to match salaries in this deal and the trade works without him, so why would the Pelicans want to pay $19 million for a washed player who would never step on the floor for them? New Orleans wants to cut payroll, which is part of the reason an Ingram trade is being mentioned in the first place and this trade actually adds money to it. Including Fournier would be an immediate nonstarter for New Orleans.

They’d also be taking back two role players, one of whom has played 96 games total in the last two years combined (Stewart), and the other (Grimes) who had to be shut down with a knee injury after playing just 51 games this season and has had a history of knee troubles.

Ingram has had injury concerns of his own, so I am not sure why New Orleans would want two more guys who have been injured recently. 

I think it would take more than this to get Ingram even though he will be on an expiring contract, but let’s break it down for the Pistons.