The Detroit Pistons will take on the Brooklyn Nets tonight, who are led by Michael Porter Jr., a player who has long been in trade speculation.
He's a big forward who is one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA, he's on a bad team, and his contract expires after this season, so it makes sense that MPJ will be included in a million trade rumors, especially as we get closer to the February deadline.
I'm sure the Pistons will be mentioned as a possibility, as MPJ would be a clear upgrade over John Collins and give the Pistons another floor spreader to put around Cade Cunningham.
I don't particularly like the guy, but there is no denying he'd be a fit, as a 6-foot-10 power forward who shoots over nine 3-pointers per game and makes 40 percent of them. He's basically the idealized version of what the Pistons want Collins to be, which is a stretch four.
All of that is great, and makes perfect sense, until you actually get to the trade, which is where things get complicated for the Pistons.
The Pistons would have to give up serious depth for a rental
While MPJ makes sense as a basketball fit, adding him to the payroll would be challenging for the Pistons.
Porter Jr.'s $40 million salary would not be easy for the Pistons to match without sending at least three players back to Brooklyn. One of them would almost have to be John Collins, who MPJ would be replacing, but he can't be traded until December 15th and his salary doesn't even get you halfway there.
The Pistons would likely have to throw in Ron Holland II and either Isaiah Joe or Kevin Huerter, which would be a serious blow to their depth.
Also, why in the world would Brooklyn want this deal unless there were a couple of draft picks attached to it? MPJ is a very good player, but he's a tough sell if he costs you three rotation players and a couple of picks when he's going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
If it didn't work out for whatever reason, the Pistons would be losing a lot of ammo for a guy who could just go to another team. Even if they were able to convince him to stay, does Detroit really want to be the team to pay his next contract? He's going to want a fortune and his next deal will likely carry him to the wrong side of 30.
The Pistons do have some financial wiggle room, so it's not impossible to trade for MPJ, but it will be impossible to do without cutting into their depth and this is for a player who doesn't solve their secondary creation issues.
Add us as a preferred source on Google