Brandon Jennings isn’t sure whether the Pistons will trade him, but he said Monday that he hopes he’ll finish the season in Detroit, MLive’s David Mayo notes. Coach/executive Stan Van Gundy will listen to offers but has consistently attempted to tamp down trade rumors involving the point guard who’s successfully returned from injury, Mayo writes.
“Our plan, right now, is that Brandon can help us make a playoff push, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Van Gundy said. “That’s our plan right now. If something happens in the next five weeks, we’ll look at it. But right now, he’s a very good player who can help us, and that’s the only way we’re looking at him.”
Jennings called his one-game D-League rehab stint critical to his comeback, as Mayo also relays, and Reggie Jackson continued his praise of Jennings, calling him “the ultimate teammate,” as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press details. See more on the Pistons and the rest of the Central Division:
- Soon-to-be free agent Anthony Tolliver wants to re-sign with the Pistons in the offseason, as he wrote recently on his personal blog and as Aaron McCann of MLive points out. “I want to have a good, solid season and help my team win as much as possible,” Tolliver wrote. “And then when I’m a free agent this summer, I hope to sign back with Detroit and try to make this a long-term home for my family and me.”
- Bucks interim coach Joe Prunty got his start in the NBA with the Spurs, and he’s using Gregg Popovich as a model for success, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details. Still, head coach Jason Kidd remains influential, and Prunty said he and the rest of the coaching staff keep in close contact with Kidd, who’s on a leave of absence as he recovers from hip surgery.
- The offseason surgery that uncovered and repaired a torn ligament in Taj Gibson‘s formerly troublesome left ankle has the trade candidate feeling much better, notes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. “I’m completely stronger as far as my lateral movement and being able to switch more to guards,” the Bulls power forward said. “I feel a lot faster.”