Boston Celtics trade partner No. 2) Detroit Pistons
Like the Magic, the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics have been linked as being possible trade partners for the better part of the past year.
Perhaps this coming offseason, they can finally manage to string together a package worthwhile for both parties.
On opposite ends of the spectrum, Boston is in a win-now situation as they look to try and build around franchise cornerstones, Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown, and attain banner No. 18 while Detroit is in an all-out rebuild mode as they attempt to string together a unit they can develop and, hopefully, turn into a competitive ball club at some point down the road.
Interestingly enough, however, the Celtics and the Pistons each have a polarizing player that seemingly does not fit their own timeline but, instead, could be viewed as a player that could fit the others.
Of course, we’re talking about veteran forward, Jerami Grant, and second-year wing, Aaron Nesmith, for the former is a high-end producer who plays a position the C’s should seriously consider bolstering while the latter, despite his struggles, is still just 22-years-old who came into the league viewed as a tremendous shooting threat–something the team could use surrounding building block, Cade Cunningham–who, in his final year at Vanderbilt, hit 52 percent of his 3-pointers.
Now yes, we understand that a simple swap of these two talents isn’t a realistic scenario, as the money alone wouldn’t allow such a move to happen.
That said, with a bit of maneuvering here and there (perhaps shipping out Al Horford’s contract with future capital and, say, the willingness to take on Kelly Olynyk’s deal in exchange) there is a way to make a deal work if Boston and Detroit really wanted to.
The only question is: would they be interested?