{"id":492449,"date":"2025-12-24T03:50:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T03:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/492449\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T03:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T03:50:16","slug":"pistons-to-battle-spurs-grizzlies-for-trade-for-27-ppg-star-from-western-conference-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/492449\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons to battle Spurs, Grizzlies for trade for 27 PPG star from Western Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pistons to battle Spurs, Grizzlies for trade for 27 PPG star from Western Conference<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Detroit Pistons<\/a> find themselves believing they can win the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

After a 30-win improvement a year ago, the Pistons aren’t done getting better. And with the league quite wide open this season, it’s there for the taking.<\/p>\n

The Pistons could also make a trade to improve their chances.<\/p>\n

A guy they’ve been linked to by Stephen Noh of The Sporting News<\/a> is Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Noh writes that Markkanen could also go to the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> or Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Markkanen is having an obviously incredible season for Utah at more than 27 points per game. But can the Jazz afford to keep him and not prioritize their future?<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

“Markkanen has done a ton of losing,” Noh writes. “He’s been a good soldier, but at age 28 he’s entering his prime and could be the missing piece on a number of contending teams. The best fit for him is the Pistons, who could use more 3-point shooting and an upgrade from Tobias Harris. Detroit has up to four picks that they could move, along with a flurry of young promising players.”<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Ben Simmons is going pro in a sport you’d never expect<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pistons could likely maintain most of their core while landing Markkanen, which may not be as true if they go after Anthony Davis or Giannis Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Markkanen has clearly kept getting better, but he’s also not quite on the same level as those superstars.<\/p>\n

For the trade to be worth it, Markkanen has to help the acquiring team make a potential deep postseason run. Otherwise, the cost will look like too much in retrospect.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pistons to battle Spurs, Grizzlies for trade for 27 PPG star from Western Conference originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[495,7,2643,296,188,3860,1409,123,976,177,6,297,474,69828,1015,16580,933,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-492449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-ben-simmons","11":"tag-detroit","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-detroitpistons","14":"tag-eastern-conference","15":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","16":"tag-lauri-markkanen","17":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-pistons","20":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","21":"tag-stephen-noh","22":"tag-the-pistons","23":"tag-the-sporting-news","24":"tag-tobias-harris","25":"tag-utah-jazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115772511408374691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}