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NBA Trade Rumors: Jimmer Fredette on the block; should Pistons take a flyer?

The Pistons are looking at the possibility of having the same ineffective backcourt as last season and options to remedy this are dwindling fast.

By Sean Corp
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The Sacramento Kings are reportedly looking to clear cap space in order to make a run at free agent shooting guard Monta Ellis, according to ESPN's Marc Stein.

Sources say that the Kings, meanwhile, have been shopping the likes of Jimmer Fredette and Chuck Hayes to the Cavaliers to create the requisite salary-cap room to try to sign Ellis comfortably. Hard to see Cleveland wanting Hayes, whose contract runs through 2014-15 and thus potentially cuts into Cleveland's reserves earmarked for a free-agent run at LeBron James next summer. Fredette's $2.4 million salary is a virtual expiring deal.

The same report indicates Jeff Teague might be unavailable to Detroit as the Bucks and Hawks explore the possibility of swapping restricted free agent guards Teague and Brandon Jennings.

That means the Pistons must set their point guard sights a little lower, and at this point should probably focus on anyone with long-range shooting (I have a feeling this is going to be a theme of all my posts until the trade deadline).

Fredette does not have the ability to displace Brandon Knight as the starting point guard but he's young (24 years old), on an expiring contract, and would cost a minimal amount of assets (perhaps just a future second rounder).

Fredette has never been much of a point guard, and even played off the ball quite a bit, but the long-range shooting he tantalized with at BYU did rear its head in his second season with the Kings. Fredette shot nearly 42 percent on 156 attempts from three last season. Bynum, meanwhile, shot 31 percent on half that number.

In this scenario Detroit would be forced to ride the BK7 point guard experiment for the third consecutive year (at least to start the season), but Jimmer would effectively replace Will Bynum and maybe Kim English in the Pistons rotation.

This would put Fredette on the floor with the second unit along with the apparently returning Rodney Stuckey, who would initiate the offense. Stuckey would also help cover up Fredette's defensive shortcomings just as he was asked to do for Bynum.

If Stuckey were traded as seems to be the organizations hope, I imagine at this point it would probably be as part of a point guard upgrade and Fredette just falls one further down the guard rotation. It's a low-risk, low-reward move that the Pistons might be able to take advantage of.

What do you think? Trade for Fredette or just bring back Will Bynum?

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