Let the Devin Booker to Detroit Pistons trade rumors begin.
Booker and the 8-seed Phoenix Suns were eliminated from the 2026 NBA playoffs on Monday night by the 1-seed Oklahoma City Thunder in a 4-0 sweep.
About an hour earlier, the 1-seed Pistons lost Game 4 to the 8-seed Orlando Magic, to fall down 3-1 in the series and step to the brink of becoming the third 60-win No. 1 seed to lose in a best-of-seven first-round series.
The culprit? In large part, it’s the Pistons’ complete lack of ability to score in the halfcourt, and, more specifically, knock down jump shots. (The Orlando Magic haven’t done that either, but they have won the turnover battle, the rebounding battle and the free throw battle, in part due to having more offensive options.)
Enter Booker, a Grand Rapids native who grew up a giant Detroit sports fan.
Despite the 29-year-old Booker being loved in Phoenix and never indicating he’d want to leave, the Suns have lost 10 playoff games in a row and face a difficult future in a stacked Western Conference.
Take it away, Stephen A. Smith.
“The Detroit Pistons, my god, could they use Devin Booker,” Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Tuesday, April 28, during a segment about who needs a split more, Booker or the Suns.
“I need to see the dude where, ‘Yo man, I want a damn championship.’ I need to see that draped all over his persona, I don’t see that right now, and that’s why I think he’s the one that needs to be looking to leave and find himself in a winning situation,” Smith said.
Former NBA center Kendrick Perkins said he thinks a mutually agreed upon parting would serve both parties.
“At some point, your [owner] Mat Ishbia, you gotta ask yourself is Devin Booker a No. 1 option, a Batman who that could get me to the promised land and bring a championship to Phoenix, and I’m gonna answer that that for you: The answer is, ‘Hell no.’
“And that’s not taking away from how good of a basketball player he is, but when you think about the West and the Batmans in the West, he just got swept by one of them who’s the best player in the league in SGA, and then you look on down, you still got Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic, Victor Wembanyama.
“I believe Devin Booker is a certified No. 2, a Robin to a Batman, that a guy like Cade Cunningham that you brought up is missing. Cade Cunningham, Devin Booker in the backcourt, now you got smoke.”
Booker has been one of the best scorers in the game since being drafted No. 13 overall out of Kentucky in the 2015 NBA Draft, when the Pistons passed on him and took Arizona’s Stanley Johnson with the eighth pick.
Devin Booker fit with Pistons
The Pistons are desperate for a scoring option next to Cunningham. The team did not make a shot outside the paint in an atrocious Game 4 offensive performance, all while shooting 6-for-30 from 3-point range (20%). That followed a theme all season, when they were a bottom-five threat, with only Duncan Robinson as their knockdown shooter.
Booker is a five-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist for Team USA Basketball, including starting all six games on the 2024 squad and shooting a team-best 56.5% (13-for-23) from behind the slightly shorter FIBA 3-point line.
Booker helped the Suns to a surprising 45-37 record in 2025-26, scoring 26.1 points with six assists, though his efficiency has dropped the past two seasons, mostly due to below-average 3-point shooting. He’s a career 35.2% 3-point shooter on six attempts per game, much of that being self-created looks off the dribble.
He has played in 51 career playoff games, including a run to the 2021 NBA Finals, where the Suns lost in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks after being up 2-0.
Devin Booker contract
He signed a two-year, $132.4 million contract extension in July 2025 that tied him to the franchise through 2030. His current contract has him with a cap hit of $57.1 million in 2026-27 and $61 million in 2027-28 − both around 35% of the NBA cap − before his next contract begins.
What could a Devin Booker trade to Pistons look like?
The Pistons have all their future first-round picks, including the No. 21 overall pick in a well-regarded 2026 draft.
The Magic gave up four firsts and a pick swap for a 27-year-old Desmond Bane last summer, a player who has never made an All-Star Game. They also sent role players Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony to the Memphis Grizzlies in the deal.
The Pistons would almost certainly have to give up either Jalen Duren or Ausar Thompson − Duren is up for a new contract this summer, while Thompson will be extension eligible − and possibly Ron Holland.
The Pistons would need to salary match with someone such as Caris LeVert ($14.9 million) and Isaiah Stewart ($15 million) and/or possibly sign-and-trade Tobias Harris (unrestricted free agent). Duncan Robinson has $16 million nonguaranteed, but the Suns have shooting and the Pistons would have use for Robinson off the bench.
Devin Booker’s love for Detroit sports
Booker, who spent his freshman year at Grandville High School before he moved to Mississippi, loves repping his home-state sports teams. We’ve seen him in Detroit Lions gear − including on the sideline at Ford Field in 2023 for his first Lions home game − Detroit Tigers gear and Detroit Red Wings gear.
“Something I always wanted to do as a kid,” Booker told ESPN in 2023. “Detroit sports is my life. I’ve been a fan of all of them, Detroit Red Wings, Pistons, Tigers − and obviously the Lions. Just touching back into my roots, how I grew up. Every Sunday has always been family time, watching Lions games.”
Calvin Johnson is his “favorite player of all time.”
Suns and Pistons relationship
The organizations seemingly know each other well.
Suns third-year owner Mat Ishbia is from Michigan, winning the 2000 national championship as a walk-on under coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State, and founded United Wholesale Mortgage, the biggest mortgage lender in the country by total originations.
One of Ishbia’s first moves as Suns owner was to hire Josh Bartelstein for CEO, after Bartelstein spent eight years with the Pistons.
Pistons owner Tom Gores is from Flint.
What about Kevin Durant?
Former NBA guard Jeff Teague thinks the 37-year-old Durant, currently on the Houston Rockets, would be a fit on the Pistons.
“They desperate for another scorer,” Teague said Tuesday on the Club 520 podcast (warning, language). “And Kevin Durant is still playing at a high level. That takes so much pressure off Cade and so much pressure off Kevin Durant to do everything.”
The Rockets are down 3-1 in their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, with Durant only playing in Game 2 due to injuries. That’s after he played in 78 games during the regular season.
Teague suggests the Pistons should trade Defensive Player of the Year finalist Ausar Thompson, 23, for Durant. His twin brother, Amen, is on the Rockets.
“Houston … they gotta rebuild,” Teague said. “They gotta start all over there … I know they like that Thompson twin. They want to link the brothers together. Oh yeah, put the brothers together.”
Free Press sports writer Christian Romo contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Let the Devin Booker to Detroit Pistons trade rumors begin
Reporting by Marlowe Alter, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
