This season has not gone at all how the Los Angeles Lakers were expecting and as a result, the team is going to be scrambling around the trade deadline to make any sort of improvements that it can. While smaller trades are the most likely moves to make, it is not stopping the team from swinging from the fences.
The Los Angeles Lakers are interested in trading for Detroit’s Jerami Grant, who is one of the biggest names on the trade market. The problem for the Lakers is that they are not alone in the Grant trade market.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the New York Knicks, Washington Wizards and Portland Trail Blazers are all also in the market for Jerami Grant.
This makes it much harder for the Los Angeles Lakers to pull off a trade for Jerami Grant.
The absolute best package that the Los Angeles Lakers would be able to trade for Jerami Grant would be Talen Horton-Tucker, Kendrick Nunn, a minimum contract and a 2026 first-round pick. While Laker fans love THT and his potential, that is not that explosive of a trade package.
Made worse is the fact that each of these three teams can offer trade packages that are much more intriguing to the Detroit Pistons. Let’s dive into the packages that would ultimately beat out the Lakers’ best offer.
A New York Knicks trade for Jerami Grant:
This first trade is better than the Los Angeles Lakers’ best offer for multiple reasons. The reason that stands out the most right away is the inclusion of the Charlotte Hornets’ 2022 first-round pick. While the Hornets are no longer the bottom-feeding lottery team that they were for quite some time it still gives the Pistons an instant pick to work with for Grant.
The Pistons are going to value a pick that they can use as soon as possible over a pick that they can use five years in the future even if there is the potential of the Lakers being bad by then. That is going to become a trend with these trades.
The Pistons are also getting a lottery pick from 2020 in Obi Toppin. While Toppin has not burst into the scene yet as a pro he is still someone who has a lot of potential and gives Detroit more assets to build around. As much as we like THT, Toppin’s trade value is higher at this point in time.
Toppin makes more sense for the Pistons’ roster as well. The two sides would be flipping forwards in this trade whereas THT might not work as well with the backcourt in Detroit. Toppin can take most of Grant’s minutes and will finally get a situation in which he will get a chance to show his potential.
A Washington Wizards trade for Jerami Grant:
Kyle Kuzma gets traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Washington Wizards in the Russell Westbrook trade and we still cannot talk about Kyle Kuzma trades here at Lake Show Life! The man follows us around like he is our shadow!
In all honesty, this might seem like a crazy idea for the Pistons if you have seen what Kuzma has done recently. Kuzma is on a bit of a heater for the Pistons right now and that has some NBA pundits talking about how the Lakers should regret moving on from him.
Yes, the Lakers should regret the Russell Westbrook trade, but the team is not missing all that much in Kuzma. Sure, he is hot right now, but his overall season has been more of the same that we were used to seeing in LA.
Kuzma is averaging 15.3 points per game on 44.3% shooting (32.4% from three) with 8.7 rebounds per game. His Box Plus/Minus is -0.7, which is actually worse than it was last season.
The Wizards would be smart to capitalize on Kuzma’s current trade value as it is probably at an all-time high. Grant is simply a better version of Kyle Kuzma and Washington would be improving, although they would have to trade one of their young forwards to make it happen in sharpshooter Corey Kispert (who does not have a big role in the rotation anyway).
This is absolutely better than the Lakers trade as the Pistons would get two young assets and a top-10 protected pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Yes, when you dig a bit deeper in Kyle Kuzma you see numbers that are not that impressive, but his trade value is going up and he would give the Pistons a younger version of Grant that they would hope to mold as well a recent first-round pick in Kispert.
A Portland Trail Blazers trade for Jerami Grant:
Okay so the only way that this trade makes any sort of sense money-wise is if Robert Covington is involved. The Blazers would be flipping half a season of Covington while replacing his minutes with Jerami Grant for another season. Even though the Blazers are bad, this is a good way for them to retain the asset rather than letting it go (although it would come at a price).
The problem is that the Pistons have no reason to want Covington. He is a dream for a contending team but does nothing for Detroit. Thus, that is why Detroit could loop in a third team that would really want Covington and would be willing to pay assets for it.
That is how we get to this three-team deal that makes sense for all three sides.
We already touched on why this makes sense from the Blazers’ standpoint. As far as the Warriors are concerned, Covington is the perfect type of player to put on that roster. He can be a lethal shooter as a catch and shoot option, especially in that offense, and is someone who plays really good defense at can be the small-ball center.
While Grant has a higher ceiling, Covington is much more valuable to the Warriors and their scheme than Grant would be. Grant would not be a great fit while Covington is the perfect fit. The Warriors would love to pull off a trade like this for Covington but the Blazers probably aren’t going to trade him for Moses Moody and a pick in the 20s but Detroit will.
All in all Detroit would get a recent lottery pick in Moody, some other assets that they can flip to contenders for second-round picks and two first-round picks all for Jerami Grant.
The Blazers get to retain the asset and the Warriors get a really scaring closing five of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole/Andrew Wiggins, Robert Covington and Draymond Green.