Steve Blake was not a Brooklyn Net for very long. He was dealt to Brooklyn by the Trail Blazers on Draft Day in the Mason Plumlee-Rondae Hollis-Jefferson deal. Now, the Nets are trading him, according to RealGM’s Shams Charania.
Brooklyn has traded guard Steve Blake to Detroit for Quincy Miller, with the Nets likely releasing Miller, league sources tell RealGM.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 13, 2015
This trade isn’t a huge deal for either team really. The Pistons get a decent veteran shooter and playmaker off the bench, and the Nets get to save a bit of money. This trade is no blockbuster, but the Pistons have acquired another solid shooter, which seems to be what they’re going for.
Stan Van Gundy seems to be trying to assemble a team similar to the Magic that he used to coach. That Magic team was centered around a huge, shot-blocking big man(Dwight Howard), with shooters surrounding him. The Pistons’ version of Dwight Howard is Andre Drummond, and they have shooters such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jodie Meeks, Brandon Jennings, Ersan Ilyasova, and now Steve Blake.
It won’t be exactly like Van Gundy’s former Orlando team though. The Pistons have two ball dominant guards, Brandon Jennings and Reggie Jackson. Jackson just signed a big contract extension, so he’ll be around for awhile.
Jennings was out with an achilles injury for much of last season, so we have yet to see how Jennings and Jackson will mesh in the backcourt. If they aren’t able to share the ball, similar to how Jennings fared while sharing the backcourt with Monta Ellis in Milwaukee, the Pistons may need to move one of them.
Regardless of how the point guard situation turns out in Detroit though, Steve Blake won’t hurt anything. He’s not going to play a huge amount of minutes or wow anyone, but he’ll give the team solid play off the bench, and that’s valuable.
