The Detroit Pistons trash could be the Portland Trail Blazers treasure
The Detroit Pistons traded for Jerami Grant last season in efforts to accelerate their rebuild.
Grant had a breakout season last year, featuring as the Pistons number one option by process of elimination.
In 2020-2021, he put up career highs in points per game at 22.3, field goal attempts at 17.3, and 3-point takes at 6.1. He also vastly expanded his arsenal, showing off new found abilities to create for himself off the dribble and hit pull-up jays. This all came while he continued to provide his usual lockdown, versatile defense.
Despite Grant’s growth, the Pistons finished last in the East with a meager 20 wins.
While it didn’t go exactly as planned, Detroit is still further along in their rebuild than they might have expected, by way of landing the number one overall pick in the 2021 draft and selecting projected superstar, Cade Cunningham.
It’s clear now that Grant isn’t the future cornerstone for Detroit, and he’s likely too old at 27 to be Cunningham’s running mate moving forward.
The obvious course of action now is to flip Grant for future draft assets and try to surround Cunningham, Saddiq Bey, and Isaiah Stewart with as much young talent as they can.
Detroit hasn’t won many games so far, but they do have a handful of players that could help more competitive teams — such as Grant, Cory Joseph, and Kelly Olynyk. The Blazers won’t have much to offer the Pistons directly, similar to the Kings, but a three-way trade could bring some of the useful veterans on Detroit’s roster to Portland.