As the 2022 NBA trade deadline rapidly approaches, the competition for the hottest names on the NBA trade market is heating up. One of those names is Detroit Pistons sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic. Rumors are that the Los Angeles Lakers are in hot pursuit, but other suitors have emerged as well. One team in on a potential Bojan Bogdanovic trade is the Dallas Mavericks. A Bojan Bogdanovic-Mavs deal would be huge for Luka Doncic and his ninth-place squad. Here is the perfect deal that gets it done for Dallas.

Bojan Bogdanovic for Davis Bertans and a 2025 first-round pick and 2024 pick swap

With the news that star guard Cade Cunningham is now done for the season, the Pistons 2022 campaign is officially over, if it wasn’t already at 7-22. That means it’s time for Tank-o-Rama for Wembanyama (working title), and step one is getting the best player off the team.

That’s why a Bojan Bogdanovic trade could go down any day.

The perfect Bojan Bogdanovic-Mavs trade offer for the Pistons star is Davis Bertans, a 2025 first-round pick and 2024 pick swap. Is this a lot to give up for a player who will turn 34 in April and averages 15.3 points, 1.6 assists, and 3.6 rebounds? It is. However, there are two reasons the Mavs will have to pay this high price.

One is that Bogdanovic is having a career year and is in high demand. The Lakers, Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, and maybe others will be trying to get Bogdanovic and his 21 points, 2.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds per game, and (most importantly) his 43.7% 3-point shooting in their buildings.

The other reason is that Bogdanovic is the type of player that the Mavs need right now to save their season before it slips away. He is a sharpshooter, yes, but he can also create his own shot and put the ball on the deck when need be. The pure shooters with no other skills just aren’t getting it done in Dallas in 2022.

So, with that in mind, the Mavs have to walk a tightrope where they beat out the offers from teams like the Lakers and Heat while also not giving up much (if any) of their core that is already in place.

Davis Bertans hasn’t contributed all that much this season. He’s only played 10 games, averaging 7.6 minutes with 3.4 points, 0.8 rebounds, and 0.4 assists. Bertans is shooting 39.1% from 3-point range, but that’s on a small sample size of 32 attempts.

Bertans matches salary in a Bojan Bogdanovic trade, but he isn’t all that valuable to the Pistons on his own at 30 years old and with three years left on his contract. The one thing to note, though, is that the third year (2024-25) isn’t guaranteed. His team could terminate the deal early, as long as he doesn’t play 75% of his team’s games in 2023-24.

Even though the Bertans contract isn’t quite as bad as it seems, it’s still not an expiring deal. That’s why the Mavs have to add some sweetener. The Lakers can also send a 2025 pick while the Heat and Hawks could do a 2023 first-rounder and a 2024 swap. With Bogdanovic in the fold, those 2023 picks will likely be late, so gambling on the Mavs 2025 pick would give the Pistons more upside and flexibility.

And for those reasons, a Bojan Bogdanovic trade from the Pistons to the Mavs makes a lot of sense. It helps the Pistons tank and gives them picks that could be high in two years, or they could trade in the meantime. It also gives them a contract that essentially becomes an expiring deal next season.

As for the Mavs, it helps Luka Doncic by giving him a running mate who can shoot, dribble, create on his own at times, and lead an offense — like he is now in Detroit — when Doncic is not on the floor. That gives the Mavs exactly what they need right now to pull themselves out of their ninth-place hole.

And the time to make this Bojan Bogdanovic trade is now.

The NBA trade deadline on February 9, 2023, is now less than 60 days away. That means the price tag for Bojan Bogdanovic can only go up in the next few weeks. The best move the Mavs can make is to blow the Pistons away with this deal ASAP. And that behooves the Pistons as well. The sooner they get Bogdanovic off their roster, the worse off they will be, and that will help their odds of getting Victor Wembanyama this summer.