NBA Trade Rumors 2015: Detroit Pistons to make move for Trey Burke

Around lunchtime Matt Watson, who is amazing at everything he does, messaged me on Slack about a rumor he heard. We both knew nothing about it, but we both had to touch on it. It involves the Utah Jazz point guard / developing NBA player Trey Burke, and my formerly hometown Detroit Pistons. The source of this trade rumor is none other than one of the guys from 97.1 FM in Detroit -- a station I used to listen to all the time. It's a nice station that has non-white people, and non-males on it to talk sports every day. (I see you KFAN / ESPN 700 / 1280 The Zone!) That said, the only person on the internet who has heard anything about this is the author of the article, Terry Foster.

This guy.

Anyway, don't shoot the messenger. Terry is entertaining to listen to, but I am not familiar with his news breaking ability. I do know that a lot of the people at 97.1 LOVE Trey Burke though, why wouldn't they? They covered him for two years when he was in college and did no wrong. Anyway, enough about Terry, and more about this trade rumor. Straight from Detroit Bad Boys:

Not all trade rumors are created equal. Terry Foster of the Detroit News reminded everyone of this fact when he wrote this strange, unsourced article linking the Pistons with former University of Michigan point guard Trey Burke:

"The Jazz are entertaining offers for Burke, and are reported to be interested in Pistons forward Greg Monroe. Utah is also willing to part with center Enes Kanter.

The deal, however, is unlikely because of John Lucas III."

Foster's entire article is 228 words long, but that's the gist of it. Not one of those words explained the fact that Monroe, who signed a qualifying offer last summer, has veto power over any potential trade, since any move would negate his Bird Rights and likely take money out of his pocket when he seeks a long-term deal this summer.

Neither do any of the words explain that the Jazz already have a crowded frontcourt featuring Kanter, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert, or that they're 19-34 with zero playoff aspirations. Even if they've given up on Burke -- which is a stretch itself -- why trade a cheap young player on a rookie contract for a player seeking a max contract in a matter of months?

Yes. Trade deadline season means "make stuff up for page views" season. I spent a few years of my adult life listening to Foster. He's not crazy, but this entire piece seems like bunk. The Jazz are super shaky at PG too, destabilizing that to get a bigman back is great -- for tanking. We're not doing that anymore. Of course, a move for Monroe makes some sense if the Jazz are indeed moving Enes Kanter for guard line help.

You never know. What you do know is that this rumor doesn't have a lot of support for it from other sources.