The Detroit Pistons made the biggest trade of the year so far on Wednesday when they acquired Tobias Harris from the Orlando Magic. In that trade the Pistons gave up Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings, who was serving as the team's backup point guard. With Jennings gone, the Pistons now have a need for a backup point guard, and they have shown interest in Jameer Nelson of the Denver Nuggets, according to Rick Reeves of NBA.com.
Reeves reports that the Pistons have only inquired about Nelson so far, but the fit seems to make a lot of sense. Nelson is serving as the backup to Emmanuel Mudiay in Denver, but the Nuggets don't appear to be a playoff team so they would seemingly be willing to deal him. The downside to possibly trading for Nelson is he is only in the first year of a three-year, $13.6 million contract with the Nuggets which will take him through his age 35 season.
Nelson was traded twice last year, from Dallas to Boston then from Boston to Denver, and it looks like he could be on the move again. It is unclear how serious the talks are, but Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy clearly isn't happy with the point guards he currently has on his roster behind Reggie Jackson.
Jennings missed the first few months of the season while recovering from an Achilles tear so the Pistons went with Steve Blake during that time as the backup. Blake did not perform well at all, and he is the best option on their roster to take the backup minutes. Spencer Dinwiddie did get a brief chance at the spot but couldn't take it, so it has left the Pistons with a hole.
You might ask why the Pistons would trade their backup point guard when they don't have another viable option, and the answer would be because this trade was too good to pass up. Harris helps in the future and the present while Jennings was set to become a free agent after this year. They made the move for that reason, and they likely also figured they could acquire a backup point guard, like Nelson, on the trade market fairly simply.
Nelson is dealing with a wrist injury that cost him the Nuggets' last seven games before the All-Star break. Nelson feared that the wrist might be fractured, but an MRI came back clean, according to Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Nelson is without a timetable, but he isn't expected to miss too much more time. On the season the 34-year-old point guard is averaging 7.9 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds in 27.1 minutes per game. Nelson's shooting numbers are down so far this year, but he would certainly represent an improvement over Blake's play this season.
