Spencer Dinwiddie's first NBA trade deadline experience ran the gauntlet between drama and trauma.
As the 3 p.m. deadline neared, players sat in the locker room reading their Twitter feeds on cell phones. News that D.J. Augustin was headed to Oklahoma City broke there while he was showering, causing him to wonder why the perpetually boisterous locker room went dead silent when he re-entered.
Dinwiddie, the Colorado rookie who sparkled in his first start Friday as the Pistons beat Chicago 100-91 while they waited for newcomer Reggie Jackson to gain NBA clearance, at one point thought he was traded. It was one thing to see four of the teammates he'd known – more than a quarter of the roster – headed out the door; it was another to think for a moment he was changing addresses, too.
Expecting to head to Grand Rapids of the D-League for two weekend games while Augustin and John Lucas III held down the fort at point guard for the Pistons, Dinwiddie saw Andrew Loomis – executive director of basketball operations, whose duties include oversight of the Grand Rapids Drive, Pistons D-League affiliate – make the universal signal for "change of plans" by waving his fingers across his throat.
"And I was like, 'Oh, Lord.' I thought Stan (Van Gundy) was shipping me off, too," Dinwiddie said after outplaying Derrick Rose and posting career highs with 12 points and 9 assists against just two turnovers in 31 minutes, the latter nearly doubling his previous career best. "And then they were like, nah, just Grand Rapids."
Loomis meant Dinwiddie wasn't headed down because they very likely were going to need him to play against the Bulls. Because all players involved in a trade need NBA clearance before anyone can play with his new team – and because the two players headed to Utah, two hours behind, hadn't yet reported by the time the Pistons needed to have Jackson listed as eligible to play Friday, an hour before their 7:30 p.m. tipoff – Jackson was in street clothes Friday night and leading cheers on the bench.
"Happy to be here and ready to hit the ground running," Jackson said after the game. "I was in a great organization before, great situation, but I'm happy to be here to finally, possibly, be a starting point guard and try to get this team running. You see the way they played tonight – great team. They can get up and down, can bang, got bigs, you got shooters, you've got everybody around you. I'll just be out there to try to play my best, utilize all the weapons and try to rack up as many wins as possible."
There is no "possibly" about it, Van Gundy made clear before Friday's game. Jackson will be Sunday's starter, going head to head against John Wall, as the Pistons take on another Eastern Conference top-four seed, Washington, in a 3:30 Palace tipoff.
"We're in a process of building and we just want to accelerate that," Van Gundy said. "It's not a matter of even thinking about what's necessarily best for that day. It's, let's accelerate the process on him. He'll have a day (of practice). We'll give him some simple stuff and let him play. I'm not real worried about that. We'll use the day to just acclimate him in terms of offensive and defensive concepts. He'll start on Sunday. You can pencil him in."
Because Van Gundy doesn't like to run his team more than four consecutive days – and Sunday's game would mark the fifth day since they reconvened for Wednesday's practice coming out of the All-Star break – Saturday normally would have been a day off. But because Jackson needs indoctrination – as does Quincy Miller, a D-League forward expected to sign a 10-day contract who sat next to Jackson on the bench Friday – they'll practice on Saturday.
"Here's the challenge," Van Gundy said. "We've obviously got to get (Jackson) ready to play and at the same time we've gone two pretty hard practices and then a game tonight and we play at 3:30 on Sunday. So we can't be running Greg (Monroe) and Andre (Drummond), Caron (Butler), (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) up and down forever. So we're going to have to find a way to teach him and get him comfortable while giving some of those guys some rest, but we'll get that accomplished."
Unable to play, Jackson got in some of his own coaching Friday night. He was in Dinwiddie's ear, encouraging him to relax and play to his ability. It was more than just Dinwiddie's impressive numbers, too. When the Bulls began chipping away at an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter and turned up full-court pressure, Dinwiddie handled it with a palpable poise, using his size to pass over traps. He went without a turnover in 17 second-half minutes and the Pistons were plus-19 with him on the floor – every minute spent against Rose, who scored eight points with two assists and six turnovers.
"Reggie got a chance to play with (Russell) Westbrook, who's one of the best guards, and in his own right, he's one of the best guards, as well," Dinwiddie said. "It's just taking it from there and learning from them. I haven't practiced with Reggie yet, but he was very encouraging on the bench and it was fun hearing him say, 'Just be yourself. I watched you at Colorado. You're good. Just go do what you do.' That was cool."
It beat a weekend trip to Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne, at least.
"He was going to play two D-league games this weekend," Van Gundy said before the game. "Now he's going to play Derrick Rose. A little different."