AUGUST 6: The Pistons have officially signed Olynyk, the team announced today in a press release.
AUGUST 2: The Pistons have agreed to a three-year deal with free agent big man Kelly Olynyk, agent Jeff Schwartz tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). The contract will be worth $37MM, Wojnarowski reports. It features a third-year team option, tweets James Edwards III of The Athletic.
The Pistons agreed to trade veteran big man Mason Plumlee to Charlotte in a salary-dump deal on draft night in order to open up the center position and more salary cap space, and Olynyk will be the beneficiary of the team’s newly-created roster and cap flexibility.
Olynyk, who was traded from the Heat to the Rockets prior to the March trade deadline, finished the 2020/21 season on an incredible roll, averaging 19.0 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 4.1 APG on .545/.392/.844 shooting in 27 games (31.1 MPG) for Houston. That helped boost his stock ahead of free agency and earn him a deal worth more than the mid-level.
Olynyk will be joining an intriguing young Pistons core that includes Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart, Killian Hayes, and this year’s No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham.
Olynyk can play either the four or the five, and his ability to stretch the floor should allow the Pistons to use him in lineups alongside Stewart.
If nothing else, Weaver is never boring.
He’s a solid big. A bit more than he’s worth. But they needed a big so why haggle over a few million, right.
Kelly Olynyk got paid again, god love him.
This genuinely caught me off guard… with guys like Jarrett Allen and THJ getting 20 mill a year.. KO at 12+ is pretty good…. especially in Detroit of all places.
But Wally or whatever he’s going by said “Houston can just bring Olynyk back cheap”. No, they can’t. Because he HAS TO WANT TO PLAY THERE!
Solid player. Rockets will miss him.
After they got Sengun on draft day (to backup Wood) it would have been hard to find minutes for Olynyk with those two at center plus Tate, KJ Martin, and Garuba at PF. Also Olynyk’s defense was subpar.
Dude stop. You were just talking about how great he is legit days ago. Now that he’s gone it “would’ve been hard to find minutes” for him? Gtfoh. Please for the love of god, gtfoh!
I don’t get to watch much basketball, but is Olynyk really better than Plumlee to the point that you would drop 20 slots in the draft to be able to pay Kelly more money than you were paying Mason? Stats wise Kelly scored 3 more points but got two less rebounds per game and fewer assists.
Much better scorer. About the same in rebounding and rim protection.
When Kelly is “on” he’s a 20-10 guy that you will see all-time greatness in… the problem? He’s only “on” about 15% of the time.. if that. He could literally drop 30-15 one night.. then 5-2 the next. That’s him in a nutshell
Pistons aren’t too consumed with winning right now, right, so the other thing might be that Weaver sees Olynyk on this contract as a better future trade asset than Plumlee on his?
@missingmichigan
I sort of agree. As a Canadian I love Kelly, but I sort of see this as a lateral move more than an upgrade which makes the salary dump trade even more curious.
I think the long and short of it is just floor spacing. Plumlee fancies himself a passer too, and with Killian and Cade handling the ball, they probably prefer more of a spot up shooter.
Less about who is better, more about fit.
good for him, and great fit for them as well. As I’ve said, they really needed a floor spacing big, as well as shooting at the 2 and 3/4 spots behind Saddiq Bey, and they’ve addressed those things. Also to echo what I’ve said recently, they have really quickly built a very versatile roster that should be fun to watch. I liked their team going into last year too though, so we’ll see if Dwayne Casey can figure out their rotations this time
Heat need a floor spacing big, and was lowkey hoping he might come back, if not someone else, but he was able to get similar AAV to what he previous had, instead of taking slightly less with the midlevel, and he retained flexibility for himself by only taking the 3 years
Darn! Was hoping to get KO back to the Celtics! (Although I knew they wouldn’t pay him.) As shown over the last 27 games of last season Kelly Olynyk can be a go-to guy, about 19 ppg, 8 boards, 4 assists, 40% from three. But he’s always been a fill-in guy. Never got a good chance. I think he was a steal. Hopefully he starts & becomes one of the top scorers & a double-double guy for the Pistons.
Forgot to mention Kelly O won a 7th game playoff game for my Boston Celtics against Washington! He was the man, scoring big and doing it all in the 4th quarter. So shows he doesn’t freeze up under that unique special do-or-die 7th game pressure.