A person with knowledge of the situation said the Detroit Pistons have agreed to trade Olympic gold medalist Jerami Grant to the Portland Trail Blazers, with the biggest part of the return being a first-round pick in 2025.
The move would appear to shoot down one of the potential top options for a sign-and-trade with the Phoenix Suns for center Deandre Ayton.
Detroit gets the No. 36 pick in the draft Thursday and what would have been Milwaukee’s first-round pick in 2025, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither team had announced the agreement publicly.
ESPN first reported the trade agreement, along with the detail that the 2025 first-round pick is top-four protected.
Grant’s salary — nearly $21 million for next season — is virtually the exact amount as the trade exception that Portland created in February when it traded C.J. McCollum to New Orleans.
It also gives Portland a big boost after a disappointing season, one where perennial All-Star Damian Lillard missed much of the year while injured. He and Grant were teammates on the U.S. Olympic team that won gold at the Tokyo Games last summer.
The most significant payoff for Detroit by making the move is cap space. The Pistons now have somewhere around $44 million in space available this summer, with free agency set to start in about a week.
Grant — who played his college basketball at Syracuse — averaged 19.2 points in 47 games with the Pistons this past season and has seen his numbers greatly improve over the last two years. In his first six seasons, he averaged 9.3 points while playing for Philadelphia, Oklahoma City and Denver.
But in his two seasons with the Pistons, Grant averaged 20.9 points.
And the trade serves as a homecoming of sorts. Grant was born in 1994 when his father, Harvey Grant, was in the first of his three seasons as a member of the Trail Blazers.
Leave a Reply