4:07pm: The Pistons have confirmed that Jennings will miss the rest of the season via press release.
3:32pm: Jennings has indeed suffered a torn Achilles and will miss the remainder of the season, as Wojnarowski writes in his updated piece. Shams Charania of RealGM passed along this morning that Detroit was considering bring aboard Lorenzo Brown, and a source tells Wojnarowski that the club will indeed look to add a guard, either through a trade or free agent signing.
9:05am: The Pistons have “significant fear” that Brandon Jennings suffered a torn left Achilles tendon during Saturday’s game, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. He’ll undergo an MRI today. Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy acknowledged late Saturday that the injury “doesn’t look good.” A tear would be season-ending.
Detroit doesn’t have the ability to apply for a disabled player exception, both because the team is under the cap and because the deadline to apply for disabled player exceptions passed earlier this month. The Pistons have less than $100K in cap room, but they do have a prorated portion of their room exception, and they have an open roster spot.
The injury would come with unfortunate timing for both Jennings and the team, who’ve enjoyed a mutual renaissance since the Pistons waived Josh Smith last month. The 25-year-old Jennings is averaging 19.8 points and 7.0 assists since Smith’s departure, and the Pistons are 12-4 over the stretch, rising from a 5-23 start to just a half game out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Jennings makes $8MM this season and has one more year worth nearly $8.344MM left on his deal.
A report earlier this month indicated that Detroit was still making Jennings available for a trade after there were conflicting reports about whether the team was shopping the point guard. Van Gundy denied that he was initiating talks with anyone, though the Lakers apparently called the Pistons about Jennings and Greg Monroe. More recently, Van Gundy expressed contentment with his roster as it stands.
They should still be able to use their room exception shouldn’t they? According to Larry Coon that won’t expire until the end of the season, eve if it does take them up over the cap.
Yep, thank you as always rxbrgr! That’s updated in there now.
–Chuck