Detroit Pistons: What if Brandon Jennings never tore his Achilles?

Detroit Pistons: What could have been for Brandon Jennings

In a game, ironically against his former team, the Milwaukee Bucks, Brandon Jennings went down with a foot injury. Writhing in pain on the ground, fans knew this was something serious. Jennings was diagnosed with a torn Achilles tendon and his season would end right there and then. It would take an entire calendar year for us to see Jennings suit up again, but he would never be his old self.

It’s hard for an injury to be as devastating as this one for a player and a team. Jennings, seemingly a rising star, has his rise put on hold to a freak injury. The Pistons playoff hopes, also now were looking bleak. The Pistons would go on to stay in the fight until the end after trading for Reggie Jackson, who would end up being Jennings’ replacement, but came up well short of a playoff berth.

Recently, on the HoopsHype podcast Jennings stated that if not for his Achilles tear, he believes the Pistons would have gone on to make the playoffs and he would have gotten paid. At the time the East was packed with talented guards, so it would have been difficult for Jennings to make it, but when you’re putting up 20-point, 20-assist games, you’ll definitely garner some attention.

I like to think there’s an alternate universe out there where Brandon Jennings doesn’t get hurt and the Pistons go on to make the playoffs for the next few years to come. As we know, they would end up winning 44 games the year after Jennings went down, led by Reggie Jackson and company, and Jennings would be traded for Tobias Harris. But in this alternate universe, the Pistons never end up trading for Reggie Jackson, as Jennings is the point guard they’ve been waiting for.

They would go into the 2015-2016 season after a playoff berth in the prior year with Jennings the leader of this young team. Instead of Drummond being named an all star in the 15-16 season, it would be Jennings named the Pistons all star as people would see him as the leader and the reason Drummond is so successful on the court. The Pistons would probably never end up making the panic Blake Griffin move, Stan Van Gundy might not have been fired, and things would look completely different right now.

But these are all hypotheticals. Jennings went on to play a few more years in the league as a backup point guard and is now retired and coming off celebrating a championship with his first love of Milwaukee, where many believe he gave a culture to. If not for injuries, him and his flashy playing style could have built a culture and an intriguing team in the motor city. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be, but it’s still interesting to see how much would be different had Brandon never sustained that Achilles tear.