The Portland Trail Blazers and the Detroit Pistons have reportedly agreed to a deal that will send forward Jerami Grant to the Trail Blazers in exchange for draft picks.
The Pistons are receiving a 2025 first-round draft pick from the Trail Blazers that originated from the Milwaukee Bucks and a few other picks, ESPN’s senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported Wednesday. Through the trade deal, the Pistons also freed up $43 million in cap space while sending Grant into a $21 million trade exception, Wojnarowski also reported.
Reports of the trade came the day before the 2022 NBA Draft is set to kick off Thursday.
Detroit has traded Jerami Grant to Portland for 2025 first-round pick via Milwaukee, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 22, 2022
The 2025 first-round pick via Milwaukee is protected Nos. 1-4, sources said. Detroit sends Grant into a $21M trade exception, and Pistons now have $43 million in salary cap space for free agency.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 22, 2022
Portland finished the 2021-2022 campaign 28 games under .500 and missed the post-season by seven games, according to ESPN. During the past season, the Blazers decided to break up their once-successful duo of CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard. In February, McCollum was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, reimagining what it will take to win Portland a championship, according to the NBA.com News Service.
Pairing Grant alongside Lillard is a good move that fans of Portland should be happy about because it appears that Grant is scoring more points in games now more than ever. In the 2021-2022 season with the Pistons, Grant averaged 19.2 points per game. In the year prior, he amassed the largest average points per game in his entire career with 22.3 per game, according to ESPN.
McCollum and Lillard were a duo who shot the ball a lot, and now with McCollum gone it appears that the Trail Blazers are making moves with their roster to try something new. (RELATED: Tyreek Hill Says He’s Getting Death Threats After Comparing Tua Tagovailoa And Patrick Mahomes)
It will be interesting to see how much better the Trail Blazers will be in the next NBA season after an uncharacteristically bad year in 2022.