The Pistons will wait until the big free-agent signings are made before trying to fill out their roster, new senior advisor Ed Stefanski told Rod Beard of the Detroit News. Salary constraints will likely prevent Detroit from being active during the early days of free agency. “We’ll see who’s out there in the second wave,” Stefanski said. In general, Stefanski doesn’t foresee much of a roster turnover due to the decisions made by the previous regime, headed by former coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy. “The luxury-tax line is on us,” Stefanski said. “We’ll see what players are available. The team we have now is our team because we don’t have the flexibility at this time.” Re-signing veteran power forward Anthony Tolliver, an unrestricted free agent, will be difficult because of that lack of flexibility unless the Pistons can somehow clear cap space by moving a big salary.
Here’s more from Beard’s interview with Stefanski:
- The Pistons feel they lucked out that Dwane Casey essentially fell into their laps during their coaching search. “We’re very happy to bring Casey on board; it was our first priority,” Stefanski said. “We’re very fortunate that the Coach of the Year was sitting out there without a job. It’s unusual in any sport that that caliber of coach is out there.”
- All of Detroit’s draft preparation is complete, thus there’s no rush to hire a GM. The team doesn’t own a first-round pick in the upcoming draft. Assistant GM Pat Garrity remains in the running for a front-office position.
- Casey met this week with many of his top players this week during summer workouts in California, including Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond, Reggie Jackson, Stanley Johnson and Luke Kennard. “He’s getting an idea of how each guy will play and have them work that into their individual (summer) workouts,” Stefanski said.
Do they even have any money?
Kennard is going to be such a beast next season, can’t wait to see him start next season.
D league?
I believe the Pistons will have home court advantage in a first round playoff series next season. In other words, I think they will be a top 4 seed in the East.
Yeah most teams that miss the playoffs then make no roster changes in the off-season with an aging roster tend to shoot up to the top 4…
You mean the Pistons will be the 4 seed and be bounced in the second round. Nice.
They played half of last season without their starting PG and were in the hunt for the 8 seed despite that, the Pistons will be better coached this year, AND James could end up in the west next season.
Given all that, I’d have to think this is a real possibility assuming a healthy Reggie.
A lot of “ifs” though. You could get a “most improved” season out of Stanley with some Luke Kennard hot-streaks and shock the entire conference…. or Reggie and Blake could both miss 12-15 games and you’d be struggling to finish the season on a high note.
All this time I thought Jackson’s injury ‘helped’ Detroit.
Smart. Let the market come to you!
Are the Pistons really trying to compete next year? If not, and they wish to reset their payroll for 19/20 then would a cost cutting trade like….
G.Hill (1/$19 + $1 mil guaranteed for 19/20) OR
JR Smith (1/$13 mil + $4 mil guaranteed for 19/20) and T. Thompson (2/$35 guaranteed)
+ 2nd round picks or maybe a young asset like Cedi Osman for Drummond and his guaranteed 3/$80 mil (which includes his PO), be attractive?
Detroit wouldn’t be getting back anything great in terms of talent (T.T would probably continue to be a sold starter in the 10pt/8 rebound mold). but they would save about $23 mil in 19/20 and probably another $29 mil in 20/21.
Cavs would save money at all but they re-purpose it to a meaningful player that automatically improves their interior defense and adds another scorer.
No one wants TT or JR without #8. Drummond is likely going to add a 3pter to his repertoire to stay relevant in this league.
That’s a joke right? I mean Drummond can’t even make 50% of his FT and is 5/30 for his career from 3pt land.
Anyway, the deal is more about the $52 mil they can save in 2019 and 2010 to use towards a FA. Oh well.
Maybe follow the player before commenting? He went from 35% to 38% to 60% FT. That’s a player putting work in. He was shown to be a liability and hes improved upon it. He already has come out showcasing his ability to hit 3s in training since the regular season ended. Basically saying its coming. Joel Embiid only shot 30% from 3 this past season. He doesnt have to become Steph Curry, he adds a facet to his game, if they want to give him open looks, that’s like practice. Either way it spaces the floor for Blake and Reggie.
“…going to add a 3 pointer to his repertoire…”
That’s rich. Thank you.
More skillz for Drummond’s repertoire!
Drummond is a beast. Blake too… but Casey ain’t SVG, so don’t think Detroit gonna playoffs, another vacation in early April for the Motown.
SVG > Casey? lol…
Drummond is a defensive revolving door. Outside his double/double machine (points and boards), he doesn’t offer up much else.
So what you’re really trying to say is that Casey is the worst coach in the NBA after comparing him to SVG…correct?
It really sucks that Detroit has essentially turned into a 3rd world city. Their pro sports are microcosm of the city itself. Back in the day, Detroit was a booming city, now it’s more like the aftermath of bomb going boom.
What are you talking about, have you been following anything lately concerning Detroit and the revitalization of the city, particularly it’s downtown. Do not equate the current state of the sports teams to what is actually happening in the city.
SVG is taken a team to the finals, awww Casey is made of loosing & failing an art… man what does people see in this coach. As everybody knows the improvements Toronto did this year, only in the RS by the way, were made by Nurse, which is gonna be a better HC. Wouldn’t it be nicer if new coaches with new ideas were to come to the league instead of recycling ageing failed coaches, just my opinion & I know Z-A won’t agree with me, he never does which is ok with me, love you man.