Detroit Pistons: Becoming acquainted with Jaylen Hands

The Detroit Pistons busy offseason continues by acquiring point guard Jaylen Hands.

Last Monday, two days before the draft, the entire Detroit Pistons fanbase was glued to their phones, waiting for potential moves prior to draft day. Finally, there was a Twitter notification from Adrian Wojnarowski that the Pistons had traded Bruce Brown to the Brooklyn Nets for Dzanan Musa and a 2021 second round pick (via Toronto).

Pistons’ fans lost their collective minds, rightfully so in my opinion, but after the initial rage, we settled down and realized that there would likely be more moves in this deal, and there was to be.

This trade was combined with the trade with Brooklyn and the Los Angeles Clippers involving another fan favorite, Luke Kennard, Clippers guard Landry Shamet and the 19th pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Once the dust had settled on draft day, we got the final summary of the crazy three team trade with added pieces in.

One of the many new faces on the Pistons’ roster is guard Jaylen Hands. Hands is a 6’ 3” point guard out of UCLA. He was drafted with the 56th pick in the 2019 draft to the Brooklyn Nets.

While he didn’t play for the Nets in the NBA, he played for the Long Island Nets, their G-League affiliate. He played 41 games, starting 19, and averaged 22.6 minutes per game. Hands’ stat line was 11.3 points, 3.5 assists, 3 rebounds, and a steal per game.

What doesn’t come up on the box score is Hands’ hustle, speed, and his bounce. As a 5-star recruit coming out of high school, he was a member of the 2017 McDonald’s All-American Game, and he won the dunk contest in the Ballislife All-American game.

Hands is only 21 years old and similar to new pick Killian Hayes, has no NBA experience but has professional experience. Hands is a likely candidate of being one of the Pistons’ two-way players this year as he’s behind Hayes, and Derrick Rose at least, and potentially behind rookie Saben Lee out of Vanderbilt.

Hands is a nice buy-low piece that adds to other players of a similar mold including Josh Jackson, Jahlil Okafor, Zhaire Smith (who reportedly might be cut), and Musa.

Hands could easily be the next Piston cut, he could be the next Piston to get a lot of G-League hype, or, hopefully, he could be the next player to blossom under coach Dwane Casey.