Pistons Have About $5MM For Next Summer
- The Pistons expect to have about $5MM in cap room next summer, but several decisions could push that number higher or lower, states Aaron McMann of MLive. The $5MM figure assumes that Detroit picks up the options on Stanley Johnson and Darrun Hilliard and that Aron Baynes opts out of the final year of his deal. However, the Pistons still need to find a third point guard and make a decision on whether to re-sign Reggie Bullock, who will be a free agent after next season.
- The fear of losing Baynes next summer prompted the Pistons to target Boban Marjanovic, writes Keith Langlois of NBA.com. Detroit offered Marjanovic an offer sheet worth $21MM over three years, and the Spurs, who didn’t have his Bird rights, declined to match. Marjanovic has limited NBA experience, and coach/executive Stan Van Gundy credits extensive scouting work for enabling the Pistons to identify him as a worthwhile prospect.
Van Gundy Excited By Team's Roster Versatility
- Pistons coach/Executive Stan Van Gundy believes the team’s roster is more versatile than it was a season ago, which he believes will make Detroit a legitimate threat come playoff-time, Keith Langlois of NBA.com relays. “The thing that keeps coming home to me, the more and more you watch the league now but especially in the playoffs, you’ve got to be able to play a lot of different ways,” Van Gundy said. “Everybody thinks about ‘small,’ but then you see Oklahoma City go with Enes Kanter and Steven Adams together. Well, can you play big? Can you play with two point guards together? Can you play with no point guard? And maybe you can’t cover all of those things, but I think you want the flexibility and the versatility on your roster to be able to play as many different ways as you can. And I think we can do that now.”
Pistons Notes: Smith, Baynes, Leuer
Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy is extremely pleased with the offseason the team has had, noting that he includes the mid-season trade to acquire Tobias Harris in his assessment, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. “People forget that over half of the potential cap space was used on Tobias Harris during the year,” Van Gundy said. “So you really have to look, even though we did it at the trade deadline, that was a cap space move that allowed us going forward to do it and still be able to acquire other guys. So I throw Tobias into that. When you look at him in that group, to me it’s definitely an A [grade].”
Van Gundy also noted that signing restricted free agent Boban Marjanovic was an “outside the box move,” especially in a league that is more geared toward small-ball these days, Langlois relays. It is also one that protects the team in the event that Aron Baynes departs as a free agent after this season, the scribe adds. “We’ve probably got more true centers than anybody in a league that’s going away from true centers, but looking at Aron’s situation – and the part that people understand is he’ll opt out, probably, based on the salaries we saw this year – and the part they don’t understand is if he opts out and because he’s only been here two years, we’re limited in how far we can go in our offer,” Van Gundy said. “It wasn’t a matter of you don’t want to pay him or you don’t think he’s worth it. It’s that we’re limited.”
Here’s more out of Motown:
- The addition of Jon Leuer as a reserve power forward is expected to help Detroit match up better against taller, more athletic frontcourts, Van Gundy told Langlois. “We wanted to add more size at that spot but not give up athleticism, not give up shooting, and Jon Leuer was really the only guy out there that we thought fit everything that we wanted in that spot,” said Van Gundy. “Shot 38% from three, 6’11”. He’s a very good athlete with great quickness. He’s a guy we had our eye on for a couple of years and we just thought would be a really good fit to what we wanted.”
- The Pistons inked Ish Smith in part because of his experience as a starter, as well as the intangibles he brings with him to the gym every day, Langlois writes in a separate piece. “It did matter,” Van Gundy said of Smith’s success as a starter with the 76ers last season. “What you want with all of your backups, one of the things you ask is can those guys start. You can’t look at somebody and say he’s OK as a 16-, 18-minute a game guy because it can quickly become more than that. The fact he has that experience and did well, yeah, that’s a big thing. I feel like certainly with what would at least appear to be our first four guys off the bench, all of ’em are capable of starting.”
Pistons Willing To Pay Luxury Tax To Retain Core
- While no formal talks have been held, the Pistons are considering a contract extension for Reggie Bullock prior to the October 31st deadline, Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press relays. One concern regarding any extension with the swingman is the team’s proximity to the luxury tax line, a threshold that owner Tom Gores is willing to cross if it helps the team take the next step forward, Ellis adds. “Look, if we weren’t building a core, there’s really no point in paying the luxury tax,” Gores said. “Because we are building a core, would I do it? Yeah, absolutely. So you say go into the luxury tax for nothing, then that would be silly because then we’re putting the franchise behind. But given that we have such a good core, if that’s what it took, and we feel we’ve made such progress this year, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it because we want to keep getting better.”
Pistons Met With Al Horford Last Month
- Although the Pistons‘ free agent moves the summer – with the exception of Andre Drummond‘s new deal – mostly involved adding complementary players, the team did have its sights set on one of the premier stars available. As Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details, Detroit was one of a handful of clubs to land a meeting with Al Horford. Stan Van Gundy explains that the Pistons could have fit in Horford and still added a backup point guard, but the team was ultimately happy to end up with Jon Leuer and Boban Marjanovic after Horford went to Boston. “It’s like a power hitter being able to take a swing at the home run and let it all go, but end up not striking out,” Van Gundy said.
Pistons Not Likely To Retain Baynes
- The Pistons signed Boban Marjanovic this offseason with the expectation that Aron Baynes would opt out of his deal for 2017/18 in order to land a more lucrative contract elsewhere, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes in response to a reader question asking the likelihood the big man would remain in Detroit beyond this season.
Van Gundy Concerned About Lack Of Veterans
The offseason losses of Anthony Tolliver, Steve Blake and Joel Anthony cost the Pistons a combined 30 years of NBA service on their roster, notes Keith Langlois of NBA.com, and the potential leadership void entering the season concerns coach/executive Stan Van Gundy. “Absolutely. Absolute concern,” Van Gundy admitted. “If you look at what we did (over the off-season) and said, ‘OK, where’s the problem?’ – that would be it. We had three outstanding veteran leaders who were all about the right stuff.”
Six Free Agents Signed Five-Year Contracts
The NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement is designed to give teams certain benefits when it comes to re-signing their own free agents. Many players who reach free agency, for instance, are permitted to get 7.5% annual raises from their own teams, while they can only get 4.5% raises from another team. More notably, Bird rights free agents can sign five-year contracts with their own teams, but can only go up to four years with other clubs.
In some cases, that extra year doesn’t make much of a difference. Al Horford left Atlanta for Boston and signed a four-year contract with the Celtics, even though there were reports suggesting the Hawks were open to going to five years (albeit not quite for the max). Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors on a two-year contract that he’ll likely opt out of after the first year in order to maximize his future earnings.
Still, for at least a handful of players, that five-year contract appears to have played a part in their decisions to return to their own teams. As our Free Agent Tracker shows, six free agents signed five-year deals this year, and all six of those contracts were worth at least $85MM. Three of them were maximum-salary pacts.
Here are those five-year contracts, which will run through the 2020/21 season:
- Mike Conley (Grizzlies): Five years, $152,605,578 (partial guarantee in year five)
- DeMar DeRozan (Raptors): Five years, $137,500,000 (player option in year five)
- Andre Drummond (Pistons): Five years, $127,171,313 (player option in year five)
- Bradley Beal (Wizards): Five years, $127,171,313
- Nicolas Batum (Hornets): Five years, $120,000,000 (player option in year five)
- Evan Fournier (Magic): Five years, $85,000,000 (player option in year five)
Although Conley drew significant interest from the Mavericks, he was always a favorite to return to the Grizzlies, and none of the other five players on this list were seriously linked to another suitor, which is interesting.
Drummond and Beal were restricted free agents who got max deals, so there was never any suspense about their destinations, but plenty of teams would have been interested in prying away DeRozan from the Raptors, Batum from the Hornets, or Fournier from the Magic. The fact that those players’ teams were willing to offer five years likely made negotiations much simpler, since no rival suitor could offer that fifth year.
A five-year contract provides additional long-term security for free agents, and also gives the team the opportunity to give the player some agency as well. In four of the six deals listed above, the contract features a fifth-year player option.
That means DeRozan, Drummond, Batum, and Fournier have a safety net for that 2020/21 season — if they’re still playing at a high level at that point, it might make sense to opt out and sign a new longer-term contract. If their production has slipped, or if they’re battling injuries, they’ll have the option of remaining in their current contract and collecting a big pay check in that fifth year.
The ability to offer an additional year to their own free agents hasn’t always prevented teams from losing top-tier players on the open market, but there are still plenty of instances where that fifth year seems to make a difference. As the CBA opt-out date nears and the NBA and NBPA explore potential changes to their current agreement, it makes sense for this aspect of the CBA to remain unchanged. That extra long-term security may not appeal to every marquee free agent, but it does give a player’s current team a leg up, which is crucial if the league is worried about potential imbalance.
Pistons Willing To Do Whatever It Takes To Keep Core Together
Owner Tom Gores has no problem paying the luxury tax should the Pistons need to cross the apron to keep their young core together, as he tells Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.
- Gores believes executive/coach Stan Van Gundy has done an excellent job for the Pistons‘ front office because of his communication skills, as he tells Ellis in the same piece. “I’ve seen him be a president and a coach, but also a leader and an executive that really understands how to run a business. He’s running the business of basketball,” Gores said. “I’ve heard people say is he better GM than he was a coach.”
Salary Cap Snapshot: Detroit Pistons
With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors will be tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league. These posts will be maintained throughout the season once financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Pistons’ team page accessible here.
Here’s a breakdown of where the Pistons currently stand financially:
Guaranteed Salary
- Andre Drummond — $22,116,750 [Contract has Trade Kicker of 8%]
- Tobias Harris — $17,200,000
- Reggie Jackson — $14,956,522
- Jon Leuer — $10,991,957
- Boban Marjanovic — $7,000,000
- Aron Baynes — $6,500,000
- Ish Smith — $6,000,000
- Josh Smith — $5,331,729 [Waived via Stretch Provision]
- Marcus Morris — $4,625,000
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — $3,678,319
- Stanley Johnson — $2,969,880
- Reggie Bullock — $2,255,644
- Henry Ellenson — $1,704,120
- Beno Udrih — $980,431 [Actual Salary — $1,551,659]
- Darrun Hilliard — $874,636
- Michael Gbinije — $650,000
- Nikola Jovanovic — $30,000 [Waived by team]
- Trey Freeman — $25,000 [Waived by team]
- Ray McCallum — $11,949 [Waived by team]
Total Guaranteed Salary= $107,901,937
Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Payroll Exceptions Available
- Room Exception: $2,898,000
Total Projected Payroll: $107,901,937
Salary Cap: $94,143,000
Estimated Available Cap Space: –$13,758,937
Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000
Amount Below Luxury Tax: $5,385,063
Last Updated: 1/11/17
The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.