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This trade was originally viewed as the Brandon Jennings for Brandon Knight trade, but it is now remembered for a guy who was thrown in named Chris Middleton. Middleton’s ascent to being a perennial All-Star, one of the league’s most efficient high-volume scorers, and a major contributor to bringing Milwaukee’s first championship in 50 years makes him arguably the sneakiest throw-in ever in a trade.
The Pistons were deep into their rebuild having put together a core of recent draft picks including Knight as well Greg Monroe, Andre Drummondand Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. They had just missed the playoffs for the fourth season in a row and wanted to get back into the playoff mix. Along with acquiring Jennings, they also signed Josh Smithbut the accumulation of talent was not enough to overcome the fit issues.
The Jennings-Knight swap itself got interesting in the 2014-15 season when both players were having years worthy of All-Star consideration. Jennings was having one of his best individual stretches while Knight led the Bucks to a 30-23 start to the season. Unfortunately, both players would later suffer major lower body injuries and would not regain their previous forms.
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