Pistons Notes: Morris, Ilyasova, Baynes, Drummond

Newly acquired forwards Marcus Morris and Ersan Ilyasova will be opening-night starters for the Pistons, tweets Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. He adds that coach/executive Stan Van Gundy has confirmed that Steve Blake will be the backup point guard. Morris came to Detroit from the Suns in a July 9th trade, while Ilyasova was part of a June 11th deal with the Bucks. Blake was acquired in a July 13th trade with the Nets.

There’s more from the Motor City:

  • Van Gundy expects restrictions on Aron Baynes to be lifted Monday after a consultation with his doctor, Langlois tweets. Baynes, who signed with the Pistons in July, is currently limited to 15 minutes of playing time per game and is not permitted to play in back-to-backs.
  • Andre Drummond showed he can be a team leader by agreeing not to hold the Pistons to a Nov. 2 deadline for an extension to his rookie contract, according to David Mayo of MLive. Drummond is expected to get a new deal next summer in the neighborhood of $120MM over five years. The money and terms will be the same for Drummond regardless, but by waiting he gives the Pistons about $12.7MM in additional cap room to chase free agents. His cap hold will be $8.2MM, while his estimated salary would have been nearly $21MM.
  •  Stanley Johnson is getting early mention as a Rookie of the Year candidate, writes Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. But the 19-year-old, who was the No. 8 pick in the draft, isn’t impressed by the hype. “I just think the whole thing is stupid, honestly,” Johnson said. “The best player will get it, period. All this discussion, whoever, voters — there’s no rhyme or reason. It doesn’t make any sense on what’s actually gonna be. It’s actually funny to read some of this stuff. I kind of laugh at it. With some people you can tell they don’t know what they are talking about.”
View Comments (1)