Pistons president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy needs to add another point guard to the roster in the wake of the injury to Brandon Jennings, but he wants to wait to find the right fit instead of rushing to sign a player, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. “Being honest, preferably we’d like to get somebody with NBA experience. There are some of those guys in the D-League,” Van Gundy said. “But the overriding thing is we want the best player. If we think one of those guys is better, we will do that. There are D-League guys we’ve looked at and talked about.”
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- Van Gundy will also look to the trade market for a point guard, but he isn’t keen on taking on a player whose contract extends past this season, Langlois adds. “That becomes a complicating factor, too, because depending on Brandon’s recovery, you would very well have three point guards under contract and still need another for next year,” Van Gundy said. “So to be tied into another one from this year – unless he’s a guy you know you want to go forward with – you could be at five point guards. That’s not going to work. We may have to carry four early in the year, which is a lot, but you certainly don’t want to be in a situation with five. It’s not like we can just go out and trade for anyone. We can’t.“
- The Pistons not having yet brought in any players on 10-day contracts this season will work to the team’s advantage, Langlois notes. “[Two 10-day contracts] will take us to the trade deadline, which I think is an advantage,” Van Gundy said. “We could do two 10 days, the trade deadline and then if nothing materializes, we’ve got a guy who’s been with us for three weeks, and if it does, then we make a move. That’s part of the timing issue of it, too.“
- Despite having had previous success playing overseas, Pistons forward Jonas Jerebko is adamant that he has no plans to leave the NBA when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer, Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders writes. “No, I’m in the NBA,” Jerebko told Greene. “That’s it. I’m not even considering going overseas right now. The NBA is where I want to be. I want to stay in this league. The summer is the summer and I’ll evaluate [free agency] when it comes, you know.”