Will acquiring Jerami Grant in a trade with the Detroit Pistons help get the Portland Trail Blazers back into the playoffs?
The Blazers began the 2021-22 season with the NBA's longest active playoff streak, having reached the playoffs every season since Damian Lillard's second year in the league. They finished it with Lillard on the sidelines, longtime backcourt-mate CJ McCollum in New Orleans and a group of young players and journeymen getting beat by historic margins in the season's final month.
Before Portland's season finale, Lillard took the microphone and told the home crowd, "this does not continue." Adding Grant is the first step in newly extended Blazers general manager Joe Cronin's plan to rebuild the roster he stripped down prior to the trade deadline. Is adding Grant a significant enough step to get Portland back on the right side of .500?
On the other side, Detroit took advantage of Grant's value heading into the final season of a three-year contract that saw him blossom as a scorer. Dealing Grant and taking back no salary in return gives the Pistons one of the NBA's biggest war chests entering next week's free agency. How might the Pistons utilize that spending power? Let's break it down.
The deal:
Trail Blazers get:
Jerami Grant
No. 46 pick in 2022
Pistons get:
2025 first-round pick (via Milwaukee Bucks)
No. 36 pick in 2022
2025 second-round pick
2026 second-round pick