Brandon Jennings and Rajon Rondo will not be joining the Detroit Pistons. Apparently.
Team president Joe Dumars denied that the Pistons were engaged in trade talks with the Milwaukee Bucks for Jennings, a restricted free agent, and the Boston Celtics for Rondo, who is still recovering from an ACL injury.
“Bogus, bogus. No conversations.” Dumars told Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. “I haven’t had any conversations with (Celtics GM) Danny Ainge about Brandon (Knight).”
Excuse me while I commend Dumars for his restraint. That’s not something we get to do very often. Something shiny meandered past him in Josh Smith, and he grabbed it for $56 million, a questionable move.
Acquiring Jennings, who wants somewhere in the ball park of $12 million annually, wouldn’t be questionable. It would be ridiculous. There’s no way a shoot-first point guard is what the Pistons need, when they already house two deft scorers in Greg Monroe and J-Smoove, and a budding young big man in Andre Drummond who needs to be exposed to more pick-and-rolls.
Jennings, then, isn’t the answer to Detroit’s problems. Really, he’s not the answer to anyone’s problems. Not at that price. I’d hazard he’s worth a little more than half that, and I’m even wary of saying that.
There’s a reason no one, including the Bucks, has signed him. He’s not worth the headaches he causes, especially at that mammoth-sized asking price of his.
Although Dumars could be lying about Jennings, we’re going to assume he isn’t. Rondo is the one he’s lying about. Because he has to.
The NBA prohibits teams from discussing OPPs (Other People’s Players). They’ll fine Dumars and the Pistons six ways toward the weekend if they start talking about players they don’t own the rights to. Just ask Mark Cuban. He’ll tell you.
Don’t believe that the Pistons have no interest in Rondo. He can actually help them. In spite of his reputation for having a bad attitude and over dribbling, he’s the pass-first floor general the Pistons so desperately need after the offseason they’ve had.
Had Dumars been allowed to, I’m convinced he would have screamed how much he wanted Rondo at the top of his lungs. But again, he can’t. So he didn’t.
League rules don’t dissuade him from speaking in generalities, though. He made it clear the Pistons were open to making a trade.
“The only thing left is trade possibilities, and that door will continue to be open,” Dumars said. “It’ll continually stay open.”
Cough, Rondo, cough, not Jennings, cough.
Open doors abound in Detroit at the moment. After landing Smith, the Pistons are in as close to win-now mode as they’ve been in the last half-decade. To win now, they’ll need a point man to direct their offense. Chauncey Billups isn’t that point guard—he’s more of a 2 at this stage of his career—and neither is Brandon Knight. And Jennings sure as hell isn’t either.
Rondo could be. The Pistons just have to meet Danny Ainge’s asking price, which is thought to include Drummond. Is trading Drummond worth it to land Rondo? Debatable. If you’re the Pistons, however, you have to at least consider it.
But remember to tell everyone the exact opposite.
Wink, wink.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
