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Would Jimmy Butler Be Open to Joining Detroit Pistons?

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Would Jimmy Butler Be Open to Joining Detroit Pistons?


In a scenario where the Detroit Pistons decide to roll the dice on a win-now acquisition through the trade market, the Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler could be an option.

When Butler’s name initially reached the trade rumor mill, it was suggested there were only a handful of teams he was open to playing for. To no surprise, the Pistons were not on that list.

After a Heat loss to the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night, Butler was straightforward about where he’s at mentally while playing for the Heat. The All-Star wants out.

“I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball,” Butler told reporters. “Wherever that may be, we’ll find out here pretty soon, but I want to get my joy back. I’m happy here off the court, but I want to be back to someone dominant, I want to hoop, and I want to help this team win. Right now, I’m not doing that.”

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Where is he willing to go? Apparently, anywhere else.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Butler officially requested a trade this week. Unlike most stars today, Butler does not have a list of preferred destinations to put in front of Miami’s decision-makers.

“He is open to playing anywhere other than Miami and believes he can make any team a contender, no matter where he is moved,” Charania reports.

It appears that Butler would be open to joining the Pistons—along with 28 other teams.

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Acquiring a star player while hovering around the Play-In would be a gamble for Detroit.

Landing a star player, who is likely a half-season rental at this point, would be like playing the lottery.

Butler’s experience and skillset would undoubtedly help the young team’s potential postseason push, especially with Cade Cunningham’s co-star Jaden Ivey suffering a long-term injury earlier this week.

But the Pistons have to keep reality in check. They might be ready for the playoffs, but they aren’t a Butler away from landing in championship contention.

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Weeks ago, it was made clear that Butler has intentions of declining his looming player option for next season this summer so he can become a free agent and reset his own market.

According to Charania, the situation remains the same.

“Teams have been informed that Butler intends to decline his 2025-26 player option and become a free agent in July, sources said.”

If the Pistons want Butler bad enough, they can pursue him next summer without giving up any assets now. Seeing as though Trajan Langdon isn’t in a championship-or-bust position with his job, the Pistons will continue operating like a team more on the rebuilding side.

With that said Butler is still a name to keep an eye on. While the Pistons might not join his current trade market, his recent request could shake up the Eastern Conference.

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Why a Detroit family’s $300 brick repair job turned into a fraud investigation

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Why a Detroit family’s 0 brick repair job turned into a fraud investigation


DETROIT – What started as a seemingly routine home repair quickly unraveled into something far more troubling for one Detroit family.

A man appeared to be posing as a contractor — arriving in construction gear and accompanied by two teens — showed up April 7 at a west side Detroit home, offering to do brick work for about $300. But according to the homeowner’s daughter, the situation started to seem fishy — and expensive — fast.

Tameka Kelly said the trio told her 76-year-old mother they were with “State Line Construction” and began working almost immediately.

“I just felt used and taken advantage of,” Kelly said, looking back at the situation.

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“They kept working — kept putting cement down, I said, ‘you might want to tell them to stop.’ He said, ‘well right now it’s $1129.’ I said, ‘my mother‘s not paying you $1000,’” Kelly said.

At one point, the man even offered to repair the bottom of the home’s wheelchair ramp — something Kelly said her sister, who lives with her mother, relies on daily. But she refused because something just didn’t sit right.

“I gave him the $300,” Kelly said, hoping they would just leave. “I thought, well, he knows where my mom lives. I don’t want him coming back trying to do something to my mom‘s house or something to our vehicles.”

Kelly later tried to confront the man, who identified himself as Brian Lopez, and called the number on the invoice.

“When I called he was like, ‘no no no brickwork no brickwork’ I said, ‘yes you did. You were just here. I said I don’t forget a voice,’” she said.

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But the biggest red flag came when she looked closer at the address listed on the invoice.

The address — 70 West Maple in Troy — turned out to be a McDonald’s.

“I really got upset when I found out that address was to a McDonald’s,” Kelly said.

Initially, Kelly said when she tried to file a report with Detroit police, she said they told her the situation was a civil matter and she could not file one. She then filed a complaint with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.

Now, Detroit police tell Local 4 they will be taking Kelly’s fraud report, and once that is completed, an investigation will follow.

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State Line initially told Local 4 they were not familiar with a Brian Lopez, then an attorney for State Line construction told Local 4 that, after checking the company’s records, there is no Brian Lopez that works for the company. As a matter of fact, the attorney said, State Line Construction does not do cement or residential construction. He said they focus on electrical work.

Attempts by Local 4 to reach the man going by the name Brian Lopez with the number given were unsuccessful.

Kelly said she felt compelled to speak up to prevent others from falling victim.

“I’m really upset about it, and I don’t want it to happen to anybody else,” she said.

Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.

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Detroit Pistons already facing must-win Game 2 vs Orlando Magic

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Detroit Pistons already facing must-win Game 2 vs Orlando Magic


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How in the world did things get so bad so fast for the Detroit Pistons?

In just one outing in the 2026 NBA playoffs, they went from top-seeded darlings of the Eastern Conference to punching bags punked by an 8-seed short on rest but long on resilience and toughness.

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“I would say they ‘outphysical-ed’ us today,” Pistons wing Ausar Thompson said after the Orlando Magic stole Game 1 of the first-round NBA playoff series, 112-101, at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, April 19. “One, because they got more rebounds than us. They forced more turnovers.”

Yes, this was always going to be a physical series. Though you would think the Pistons, owners of the NBA’s second-best defense and playing at home, would have a sizable advantage.

It also should have helped them that they were coming off six days’ rest, as opposed to the Magic coming off winning a play-in game just 47 hours earlier.

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It didn’t help that Pistons star Cade Cunnigham was playing in just his fourth game since suffering a collapsed lung and missing 11 games. He scored a game-high 39 points, but he didn’t operate as smoothly as usual, with just four assists (far off his 9.9-assist season average) while committing three turnovers.

Another indictment of the Pistons’ worrisome play: Tobias Harris (19 points) was Cunningham’s only teammate who scored in double digits. Meanwhile, all five Magic staters did so, led by Paolo Banchero’s 23 points on 8-for-15 shooting.

And just like that, the Magic came out firing, scoring 35 points in the first quarter and never trailing.

“Yeah, just that we came out a little too tight, lax, whatever the word is, maybe both for some of us, but just didn’t come out with the right energy,” Cunningham said. “Gave them life further on. And then, you know, we had to deal with that for the rest of the game. We were better in stints, but can’t dig a hole like that.”

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He’s right. The Pistons can’t dig a hole like that in Game 2 on Wednesday night. Because if they do, and they lose, the Magic would not only have homecourt advantage – they got that with Sunday’s victory – but could close out the series without another win in Detroit, with three of the next four games coming in Orlando.

That’s precisely what makes Game 2 a must-win game for the Pistons. It’s bad enough they lost the opener at LCA, where they were 31-9. But now they’ve let the Magic set a hard-edged tone in the kind of the game that could lead them to steal the series.

“I know that they feel great about this game,” Cunningham said. “This was a big win for them. They came in, they handled their business and stole one on the road. That’s what you want to do in the playoff series.

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“So I’m sure that they feel great about that. Obviously, we’re sick about losing this one. It’s a long series, though. There’s no confidence dropped from us. We know that team. They know us. So it’ll be a long, fun series.”

Cunningham might be right, because the Pistons are arguably the better team. They have enough talent and more depth.

What the Pistons don’t have is the advantage of desperation. They had an excellent season from start to finish, closed with a 60-22 record, and wrapped up the East’s top seed on April 4.

The Magic, meanwhile, have been playing with fire (and not always the good kind) down the stretch, while their fifth-year coach, Jamahl Mosley, entered the postseason on the hottest of hot seats after his squad went 0-7 in road playoff games over the past two seasons.

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To make things even worse, the Magic lost the regular-season finale to the Boston Celtics – well, their reserves, at least – to blow their chance at the 7-seed and homecourt in the play-in tournament. Then Orlando lost to the Philadelphia 76ers (on the road, of course) in the first play-in game before beating the Charlotte Hornets (in Orlando) to advance to a best-of-seven series – featuring four road games – vs. the Pistons.

Now, it looks like the Magic have found their form, as they routed the Hornets, 121-90, and stunned the Pistons. And just like that, Mosley went from hot seat to just plain hot.

Banchero wouldn’t go so far as to say the victory set up his team to steal the series, but he didn’t deny it was exactly the kind of start Orlando needed.

“It’s just a good win for us as a team getting it on the road against a great team and 1-seed,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we got to come back Wednesday, you know, reciprocate it, you know?

“They’re not going to lay down. They’re going to turn it up. So we’ve got to be ready for that. And it’s just one-game-at-a-time mentality, you know? That’s what it’s got to be. It’s the first of four.”

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Yes, it’s just the first of four wins the Magic needs to advance. If the Pistons don’t find an answer quickly, the math – and hardly anyone else – won’t be on their side when they head to Central Florida this weekend.

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.



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Game 21: Tigers at Red Sox, Garrett Crochet battles both Detroit and the weather

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Game 21: Tigers at Red Sox, Garrett Crochet battles both Detroit and the weather


After getting absolutely annihilated in his previous start on Monday in Minnesota to the tune of 11 runs in just 1.2 innings, Garrett Crochet is set to retake the mound today and convince us all that everything will be fine as far as he and his health are concerned.

Unfortunately, he won’t just be battling the Tigers. Mother Nature is once again destined to play a roll in today’s match up, and here’s how the radar looks inside of an hour from first pitch:

The good news is the initial batch of heavier precipitation has moved out and east of Boston, but more unsettled weather still lurks to the west ahead of a slow moving front. That mess will push through eastern Massachusetts over the next several hours, filling in the current dry slot. While this incoming precipitation won’t be as heavy as what fell at times earlier today, it will come attached with colder and windier conditions, so a miserable weather game lies ahead (if they even try and play through it at all — The Yankees did not and waited around for three hours before starting their game against the Royals at 4:20pm). The other option will be to just wait until after sunset when it will be dryer, but still very cold and windy.

When they do get started, today’s lineup includes Roman Anthony leading off in leftfield, Andruw Monasterio at first base, and Jarren Duran, Masataka Yoshida, and Marcelo Mayer all starting on the bench with an opposing left-handed starter on the mound in Framber Valdez for Detroit.

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OTM’s own pitching guru Jacob Roy will be around later to handle the postgame wrap and tell us if we should should be freaking out or breathing a sigh a relief when it comes to Crochet.



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