I hadn't looked at thePistonsas a potential trade partner because they've been basement dwellers and have been simply flying under my radar. After seeing the trade that took place last night/this morning, and then playing around a little bit on the Trade Machine, I found a great deal that I think the Blazers and Pistons both would be wise to pursue. The trade can be found here:

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=bxolk5q

SUMMARY:

Blazers get:

-Greg Monroe

- Jonas Jerebko

- 2nd Rnd Draft Pick

Pistons get:

- JJ Hickson

- Luke Babbit

MOTIVATION:

Pistons: The reasons that the Pistons pursue this deal are simple - 2 expiring contracts to put towards their rebuilding efforts. I think they're going to want to keep Calderon next season and so would need to find some cap space somewhere else. They have a young big in Drummond (who is doing exceptionally well) and therefore could afford to sacrifice Monroe for the cap space moving forward. They're a team of average role-playing pieces and the more cap space they can navigate, the more of a chance they'll have landing someone who can come in and actually do something for them. The potential of keeping Hickson would also be motivation. I think they can offer a larger contract (5 years instead of 4) if he were to resign with them instead of going somewhere else. This affords them options that would be very valuable to the franchise without sacrificing too much. A fair deal IMO.

Blazers: The reason that the Blazers do this trade is simple - Hickson is gone after this year anyways and it would be nice if we could turn his stellar season into something other than good memories - by pulling something like this off. We turn a good, expiring piece (Hickson) and an average, under-performing piece (Babbit) into 1 extremely huge position need - a starting C (natural to the position) and the potential for a backup PF - going into next year. We would then be able to use our cap space (8 mil, I believe, if we do this trade) into a couple decent bench pieces next year. Our roster would look something like this:

Lillard / ____

Matthews / ____

Batum / Claver

Aldridge / (Freeland, Jerebko)

Monroe / Leonard

That's a pretty decent starting 5, right? We would still have the flexibility we need this offseason to shore up the bench for next season, as well. Would the Pistons do something like this? Would we?