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Is This Most Important Season of Brandon Jennings Career?

By Anthony Morgan

Jan 21, 2015; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings (7) dribbles the ball as Orlando Magic guard Elfrid Payton (4) defends in the first half at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 21, 2015; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings (7) dribbles the ball as Orlando Magic guard Elfrid Payton (4) defends in the first half at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Feb 6, 2015; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings (7) leaves the court on his crutches after the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Pistons beat the Nuggets 98-88. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 6, 2015; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings (7) leaves the court on his crutches after the second quarter against the Denver Nuggets at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Pistons beat the Nuggets 98-88. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /

Brandon Jennings, who will turn 26 by the time the new season kicks off, has plenty riding on the final year of his three-year $25 million deal with the Detroit Pistons.

Jennings is returning from a devastating torn Achilles suffered on January 24 and has acknowledged he will unlikely be ready for the start of training camp.

Since the injury, The Pistons have traded for Reggie Jackson as well as veteran Steve Blake while also having young point guard Spencer Dinwiddie available for his second season as a pro. The added depth at the point guard position will allow the Pistons and Jennings to be patient with his recovery.

With an injury like this, it is likely both Jennings and the Pistons will err on the side of caution when it comes to his recovery. It was estimated at the time the injury took place that Jennings would miss 6 to 9 months.

Jennings has recently commented that he doesn’t expect to be back to himself until December, some eleven months after the injury.

Reggie Jackson has to live up to his $80 million contract extension, Andre Drummond needs to show significant improvement to prove he is a franchise player worth the $130 million extension he can command at the end of the season. Brandon Jennings is looking forward to potentially his biggest payday of his career at the end of this season.

He needs to prove he has recovered from the torn Achilles and recapture some of the form he showed during the 2014/15 season, highlighted by the stretch of games that took place after Josh Smith was waived.

If he can bounce back from this setback he projects to be the second best free agent at the Point Guard position behind Mike Conley, other notable free agent point guards include Rajon Rondo and Jordan Clarkson. The only down side of such a projection is that the Point Guard position is the deepest it has been in a very long time making the list of teams looking for starting quality point guards shorter than ever.

Brandon Jennings needs to show the general managers league wide that he is happy to buy into a system, even if that includes coming off the bench as well as sharing time with another star point guard. If he can succeed at this he may prove to be a key for the Pistons push towards the playoffs while doing his own free agency prospects the world of good at the same time.

The Pistons have a number of players who have a lot riding on this upcoming season. It may prove to be the most important season in Brandon Jennings career, whether he remains in Detroit for the long haul remains to be seen. If he can be the spark off the bench when he does return, like I believe he can, he will significantly help the Pistons in the short term while increasing the value of his next contract for the long term.

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