The Detroit Pistons will eventually have to make room on the roster for Daniss Jenkins and they could have to cut someone to do it.
Jenkins has been a surprise rotation player for the Pistons this season, and though he’s seen his minutes decline of late, there is no doubt he’s been a contributor in his 32 appearances.
He’s also been wildly inconsistent, which you would expect from a two-way player who has been in and out of the lineup all season.
I’ve had fans suggest to me that this inconsistency should keep Jenkins off the full-time roster, which ignores the importance of guys like him. Jenkins is a backup, a third point guard of sorts, who is unlikely to be a consistently large of the Pistons’ rotation.
But he’s on a two-way deal, so the Pistons are getting this production for practically nothing, which is important over the course of a long regular season, especially in the tax apron era, when you absolutely need guys like him to balance the payroll.
Winning on the payroll margins is how teams are able to pay out max contracts and still have a deep roster. Jenkins has at least shown that he can hang in the NBA and deserves a full-time deal, which I am sure he will eventually get, but it’s likely to come at the expense of someone else.
The Pistons will have to make a trade or a roster cut to upgrade Daniss Jenkins
The Pistons don’t currently have an open roster spot for Jenkins after the baffling move to fully guarantee the contract of Isaac Jones.
But as I wrote recently, they have time with Jenkins, who still has 18 more games before he reaches the 50-game max for two-way players. If the Pistons don’t sign him before then, he won’t be eligible for the playoffs.
Detroit has a couple of options here. They could make some kind of consolidation trade that sends out more players than they take back, which would open a roster spot for Jenkins.
If not, the Pistons will likely just cut either Issac Jones (and just eat the remainder of his money) or Bobi Klintman, neither of whom have played any kind of role for the Pistons this season yet are taking up roster spots.
Klintman is the younger unknown, and the Pistons are more desperate for a shooting power forward, so the player cut will likely be Jones, which begs the question of why the Pistons didn’t just cut him before his contract became guaranteed and save the money.
They may want to use that money for salary matching purposes in a trade, or maybe just wanted to do a favor for Jones, but if he’s not moved at the deadline as part of a bigger deal, he’s the most likely to get cut.
Even if Jenkins’ minutes are down, teams need guys at the bottom of the payroll who can play in a pinch, and he’s at least shown he can do that, so I do expect him to be fully rostered at some point in February.