The Detroit Pistons are reportedly interested in offering Austin Reaves a contract that's "competitive" with the four-year, $178.5 million deal the Brooklyn Nets are preparing to present. That's made Detroit a direct offseason rival for the Los Angeles Lakers, which are known to want to re-sign Reaves.
Thankfully, an unlikely ally has emerged: The New Orleans Pelicans. In addition to eyeing Reaves, the Pistons would like to trade for Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III—and they conceivably only have the room for one.
In a vacuum, Detroit could renounce cap holds, create space to sign Reaves, and still trade for Murphy. An expensive offseason is by no means an impossibility, but completing even just the trade for Murphy would require the Pistons to lose considerable resources.
According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, the Pelicans are willing to field offers for Murphy, but "want a lot" in exchange for him. That hasn't stopped Detroit from expressing interest.
"League sources say that the Pelicans have not offered Murphy anywhere and that this is the first time their new front office regime headed by Joe Dumars has been truly willing to field offers for Murphy. As one team interested in Murphy put it to me this week: "They want a lot." Two teams known to have expressed interest in the 25-year-old sharpshooter, I'm told, are Detroit and Indiana."
The Pelicans may ultimately rebuff the offers they receive, much as the Pistons could choose to prioritize Reaves. If a trade goes through, however, the Lakers would have one less team to compete with for their rising star at shooting guard.
Pistons may not have spot for Austin Reaves if they trade for Trey Murphy
There's certainly a world in which Detroit builds a tremendous perimeter with Cade Cunningham, Murphy, and Reaves. Doing so would call Ausar Thompson's spot in the rotation into question, however, which seems unlikely given that he was a Defensive Player of the Year finalist in 2025-26.
Perhaps the Pistons would be willing to trade Thompson for Murphy, but it still must be noted that they'd lack ideal wiggle room from a financial perspective.
For one, Murphy is owed $27 million for the 2026-27 season. Detroit must also figure out if it wants to re-sign Jalen Duren, who received All-NBA recognition in 2025-26. Hunter Patterson of The Athletic reported on Jun. 3 that the expectation is that Duren will ultimately re-sign at a rate of five years and somewhere between $200 and $220 million.
In that scenario, three different players would be making more than $40 million per season: Cunningham, Duren, and Reaves. That'd make Murphy's $27 million salary and the assets Detroit would lose in the trade for him tough to factor in without becoming a painfully thin team.
If the NBA's recent trade history is a sign of things to come, then Detroit would likely be forced to give up multiple first-round draft picks in a trade for Murphy. Considering they'd also need to make the financial element of the trade work with quality players shipping out, creating and replenishing depth will be a tremendous challenge, particularly with limited cap flexibility—if any at all.
This is all admittedly speculative at this point, but the Lakers have been thrown a lifeline that could help keep Reaves in Los Angeles.
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