It looked like there were no suitors for Brandon Jennings — nobody made him a big free agent offer he expected (he wanted a Stephen Curry or larger deal) and now the only teams left on the market were not going to offer him one (Philadelphia, for example).
But Pistons GM Joe Dumars and the Pistons is riding the rescue.
The Bucks and Pistons have agreed to a sign-and-trade that would send Jennings to Detroit with a three-year, $24 million deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. (Marc Stein of ESPN had the same report.) That’s $8 million per year, which is well below what Jennings wanted but at the top end of what teams interested in him were thinking, when you asked around the league.
The Pistons reportedly will send Brandon Knight, Slava Kravtsov and Khris Middleton to the Bucks, Woj reports.
If this goes through as expected, the Pistons will have added Josh Smith and Jennings in the same season. I pity the rims in Detroit, that is a lot of clanked jump shots.
We’ve broken down Jennings before on the site. He will get you points and put up numbers — he averaged 17.5 points and 6.5 assists a game last season. He is quick and can get into the lane. But his shot selection is terrible and because of it he hit just 39.9 percent last season (but 35.7 percent from three). He takes too many step backs and fadeaways, he struggles to finish in the paint. Plus, he’s not a good defender.
In a league going more and more toward efficiency, the Pistons twice have gone the opposite direction this summer, with interesting free agent pickups. This Jennings to the Pistons rumor had been around before but Pistons GM Dumars shot it down.
Knight has been solid if not spectacular, but the Bucks were ready to move on, plus they are in the “woeful for Wiggins” camp fully now. Jennings kind of got what he wanted — out of Milwaukee to a team in a bigger market and with playoff potential. Not sure how Mo Cheeks fits that squad together, but the Pistons will be interesting.