Brandon Jennings is fully back now after he missed the first couple months of the season recovering from a torn Achilles. The issue for Jennings is that his role is not very big as he is the backup point guard behind Reggie Jackson. Jennings has said all of the right things about wanting to stay with Detroit, but it would likely make more sense for him and the team to be traded elsewhere. Jennings has been linked to a lot of teams in trade talks but the most recent team is the Brooklyn Nets, according to Chris Sheridan of Sheridan Hoops.
The report states that the two teams have been discussing a deal that would send Jennings to the Nets and Thaddeus Young to the Pistons. Young makes more money than Jennings, so there would be other pieces involved, but those would be the two main pieces in this reported scenario. This would seem to make a lot of sense for both sides, as the Nets desperately need a point guard and the Pistons could use an upgrade at power forward. But this isn't a perfect trade scenario.
The Nets signed Young to a four-year, $50 million deal last offseason, and it is unclear if they are really willing to move him. It is also unclear whether the Pistons would be willing to take on that kind of money right now even with the cap set to rise. Another issue with the Pistons potentially acquiring Young would be his fit with center Andre Drummond. The Pistons are intent on surrounding Drummond with shooters and are in the market for a stretch four, which is why they intend to go after Ryan Anderson in free agency. Young is an undersized power forward, but he isn't a stretch four, as he has only attempted 23 threes this season and has made just five of them.
There are issues from the Nets side of this reported deal as well. Yes, Jennings would represent a huge upgrade over their current point guard situation, but he will be an unrestricted free agent after this season and the Nets may not want to give up pieces for a guy who may walk after less than half of a season. Another issue is that the Nets don't currently have a full-time general manager in place, so making any kind of deal would be difficult to do.
The idea of trading Jennings makes a lot of sense for the Pistons. Jennings is good enough to start in the NBA, and the Pistons have Steve Blake as a backup should he be dealt, but Stan Van Gundy has been adamant that he is not going anywhere as recently as Thursday, according to Aaron McMann of MLive Media. Of course Van Gundy is going to say that to the media just in case Jennings does not get traded, but this reported deal between the Pistons and Nets has a lot of holes, and because of that it is likely unrealistic.
