Pistons to acquire Brandon Jennings

But I don't mind the deal. The contract is very reasonable, they gave up nothing, he's an obvious upgrade, ad he at least has a better shot to learn from Chauncey than Knight did. And with the reasonable contract, if you wanted to flip him later you could, even for Rondo which would give you a package where you might not have to give up Monroe (and they'd get a PG in return). Though I'm not sure how soon after trading for him they can trade him. This season at least, the team is going to feel like a jammed together puzzle and not very organic, so it might take awhile to warm to them. But most Piston teams are formed with a mix.

But I will say he builds a winner through FA/ trades rather than the draft. When we won in 04 only 1 starter was a draft pick(Tayshaun). The only key contributors that came off the oak, that were our picks, were Lindsey and Okur. The argument can be made that Mike James and Corliss gave more off the pine. The later acquisitions of Mcdyess and C-Webb were good moves.

Bottom line if Joe D could draft better he would be fine.

I am Nuggets fan, actually.  When I saw the terms of this deal, I thought the Pistons got a steal-- of course, I like Jennings alot, so that might color my impression. Also, Brandon Knight is a guy who has never once done anything to distinguish himself from "average gaurd-type substance". In fact, I realized today that the picture that my mind has associated with Brandon Knight was actually Patrick Beverly, for whatever reason.

 

In other words, I can actually say wouldn't have believed Brandon Knight telling me he was Brandon Knight before tonight. Brandon Jennings could be a top 10 PG (doubful, especially in this golden age of point gaurd play, but he has that type of potential)-- Knight will be lucky to be a top 10 combo bench guy. 

Deron Williams (5 years, $100 Million, often mentioned in the same breath as Chris Paul.)

18.7 PPG, 7.7 APG, 3.0 RPG
1.0 SPG, 2.8 TOPG

44%/85.6%/37.8%

Brandon Jennings (3 Years, $24 Million)

17.5 PPG, 6.5 APG, 3.1 RPG
1.6 SPG, 2.5 TOPG

39.9%/81.9%/37.5%.

Not much difference in production. $12 million less per year and for 2 less years. Also, Jennings hasn't played with the quality of teammates, nor coaches that Williams has been afforded.

Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings make a poor man's Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Get a 3-point specialist, defensive minded 2 like the second coming of Rip and see what Sheed can do with Greg Monroe and maybe Joe D is on to something here.

Jennings definitely seems like an upgrade in talent over Knight and the Pistons really didn't give up anyone that was a sure thing to be in their rotation next season.   Also, 3 yr/$24 million seems reasonable.  

I do share concerns that he doesn't seem to be a great shooter who compounds that by shooting a lot, but look at thost Bucks team, outside of him and Monta Ellis, who else would you want to shoot the ball?  The last two seasons with Monta Ellis, the Bucks' 3rd leading scorer were J.J. Redick and Drew Gooden.   The two seasons before that, without Ellis, the other primary option was John Salmons.  

One can only hope that with a better supporting cast, he won't need to shoot as much and he'll continue to increase his assist rate (which has gone up every season).  Also, as far as shooting, he did have a good year from 3 last season (.375) which is something that this team needs.

Overall, the roster definitely seems like it has more talent and it'll be interesting to see how it all fits together.   

Looking at Jennings' Milwaukee numbers and after watching him play and all the critiques against him, he's a good player, solid point guard with a lot of potential to score and set up teammates. He's a more than willing passer who seems to enjoy setting up teammates. I'm not sure why he's labeled as selfish. Too many tattoo's maybe. Detroit's current roster is vastly different and, in my opinion, more talented than Milwaukee's team last year. With that being said, Jennings will have a different role w/ the Pistons. He'll still be the PG, but there won't be so much pressure on him to score. Cheeks plus growth and maturity will slow Jennings down a bit, remove a few of those poor shots, long twos and learning to play solid, team defense and he could easily turn into a very, very good player.

Most of his weaknesses are fixable (is that a word?). I need to see him improve on his off hand as he's a lefty who doesn't finish very well w/ his right hand. Jennings is still a project, but he's a much more polished, experienced project than Knight and he's better than any other PG that was available. This move improves the Pistons a lot and frees up some roster spots and some of the logjam in the frontcourt. Good job, Joe. Just my opinion.

This is off topic and should be marked as such.

 

Included in the trade are

 

Brandon Knight - Kentucky

Khris Middleton - Texas A&M

Viacheslav Kravtsov - foreign

 

This does not have any play on UofM sports in any such way.

Gordon and Villanueva got 90M+ deals one offseason

Smith, Jennings, Billups and Datome got 86M+ deals this offseason

Joe D did a good job this offseason IMHO...hopefully this Roster gels and the Pistons end up a 4-6 seed and win a playoff series.