The Detroit Pistons traded 28-year-old winger Jerami Grant to the Portland Trail Blazers for one of the Milwaukee Bucks’ top four protected 2025 draft picks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Grant averaged 19.2 points (on 43/36/84 separate shooting), 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 31.9 minutes in 47 games for the Pistons last season. He played a vital role for the Denver Nuggets in their run to the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals before seeking more playmaker responsibilities in free agency. The Pistons gave him a three-year, $60 million contract and higher usage in 2020, and he became a fringe All-Star candidate. With him as the primary option, however, Detroit has won 43 games over the past two seasons.
Grant is another wing in a long list of options the Blazers have tried to fit around six-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard, and he could be the best of a group that has included Norman Powell, Robert Covington , Gary Trent Jr. , Trevor Ariza, Rodney Hood, Mo Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu, among others.
The upgrade is needed to improve a roster that won 27 games without Lillard for the majority of last season. The Blazers traded Covington, Powell, Larry Nance Jr. and longtime Lillard partner CJ McCollum before the February TAUT, hoping to speed up the rebuilding around their franchise player.
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