Van Gundy On Report Pistons Interested In Tim Hardaway Jr.: 'Who Does The Fiction Writing?'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
AUBURN HILLS - Citing league sources, ESPN reported Monday that the Detroit Pistons have interest in trading for guard Tim Hardaway Jr. and have tried to talk with the New York Knicks about a deal for him.
Ian Begley, who wrote the article, also noted the Pistons could be looking to move point guard Brandon Jennings and that perhaps Jennings could be traded for Hardaway Jr.
Pistons head coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy shredded that idea a few hours later when he and general manager Jeff Bower spoke at a pre-draft press conference.
"I said to Jeff today, 'Who makes that up?'" Van Gundy said. "I've always wondered about things that we have never even had one discussion on. Like, does the writer make it up or does somebody else make it up and feed it to the writer? Like, who does the fiction writing and why?
"I've never quite understood that," Van Gundy continued, "because sometimes they might be overblowing just a little bit, there might have been a discussion somewhere in passing. Literally if there's been discussion of that it has not been with Jeff or I, so I have absolutely no idea where that stuff comes from, like if somebody just decides, 'Hey, I think it would be fun to put this rumor out there.'"
Hardaway, formerly a standout at Michigan, averaged 11.5 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists for the Knicks last season, his second in the NBA.
Jennings is recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon that ended his 2014-2015 season. While Van Gundy was adamant that Jennings' injury has not prompted a discussion about acquiring Hardaway, he did say it has forced the organization to consider more options at the position.
"We've settled into where we are with Brandon, but it certainly changed our whole direction," Van Gundy said. "A year ago, if you would have told us at the beginning of the year, or talked to us then, we weren't really putting any thought into the point guard position. We had Brandon for two years, we had D.J. [Augustin] for two years, we had Spencer [Dinwiddie] coming in. Our focus would have been elsewhere.
"The Brandon thing made us turn our focus to point guard position, and it's going to make us commit money to the point guard position," Van Gundy continued, "and so there's no question that that's been a change in direction for us and in some ways - I'm not going to say a setback, but something that we've really had to think about because it's very hard to predict where Brandon will be when he comes back."
