Detroit Pistons Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Reaction To Thunder’s Billy Donovan Hiring

May 1st, 2015 at 9:53am CST by Chuck Myron

People around former Thunder coach Scott Brooks believe he never had a chance this year and that GM Sam Presti had long planned to replace him with Billy Donovan or Kevin Ollie, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Ollie’s sizable buyout, which Wojnarowski refers to as $5MM but previous reporting indicated was $4MM, was a “non-starter” for the Thunder, according to Wojnarowski. The Pistons made a run at hiring Donovan last year, Wojnarowski reveals in the same piece. Here’s more in the wake of the Thunder’s hiring of Donovan on Thursday:

Kevin Durant tells Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com that he wants to gather as much information on Donovan as possible and that he isn’t thinking about how the hire could affect his decision as free agency looms in a year (See all six Twitter links here). He also expressed a trust in Presti, who didn’t consult with him during the hiring process. “I know what my job is,” Durant said to Goodman. “I let him do his.”
Durant downplayed Donovan’s lack of NBA experience in an interview with Royce Young of ESPN.com and said he spoke with Mike Miller and Chandler Parsons, both of whom played under Donovan at Florida. “I met him one time out in Vegas. He was there for USA Basketball,” Durant said of Donovan in his chat with Young. “And I’ve heard good things about him. I’m sure we’ll click pretty quickly. But I don’t have a relationship with him. I don’t know him. He didn’t recruit me at Florida, so I don’t really know him too well. I’m just going off of what guys that played for him said. And I’m looking forward to meeting him and getting a feel for him myself.”
The Thunder’s choice of Donovan is a bold but worthwhile gamble, USA Today’s Sam Amick argues. There’s risk in hiring just about any coach, The Oklahoman’s Berry Tramel believes, but Donovan’s success with and without NBA talent made him stand out to Presti, Tramel writes.

Celtics Rumors: Free Agency, Jerebko, Crowder

April 30th, 2015 at 10:30am CST by Chuck Myron

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge seeks a talent upgrade this summer and, to no one’s surprise, pledged today to try for a marquee acquisition, MassLive’s Jay King notes (on Twitter). Still, King hears that that the C’s are prepared to chase second-tier free agents if they miss out on stars, and league sources told King that the Celtics are ready to offer a contract that would make it seem like they were overpaying one of those Plan B free agents. The idea is that Boston would do so with someone who it felt would improve enough to justify the hefty salaries and that those paydays wouldn’t seem as large in the context of the surging cap in the next few years, as King explains. There’s more from King amid the latest from Boston:

Reggie Jackson and Enes Kanter are second-tier free agents the Celtics are unlikely to pursue, King writes in the same piece. They fear that Kanter believes he’s more valuable than he is and that such thinking would disrupt the team concept, according to King.
Soon-to-be free agent Jonas Jerebko drew raves today from Ainge, who jokingly called him “the Swedish Larry Bird,” and Ainge dropped hints that he’d like to re-sign the forward, as King observes (Twitter links). “I think I would sign off on the ‘sign the Swede’ hashtag. … But it all depends,” Ainge said.
Ainge confirmed the team will indeed extend the qualifying offer of little more than $1.181MM necessary to match competing offers for Jae Crowder in free agency this summer, notes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Ainge strongly signaled last week that he’d like to re-sign the swingman acquired in the Rajon Rondo trade.
Ainge again challenged Jared Sullinger to improve his conditioning, as Globe scribe Adam Himmelsbach relays. Sullinger is up for a rookie scale extension this year. “I think he’s hurting the longevity of his career and his play now by not being in as good shape as he can be in,” Ainge said.

Central Notes: Hibbert, Love, Bucks

April 29th, 2015 at 9:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pacers performed their due diligence last summer and shopped center Roy Hibbert, but Indiana predictably found no takers for the big man, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes. This offseason may offer the franchise more luck in dealing the 28-year-old since he’ll be on an expiring contract, provided Hibbert exercises his player option worth $15,514,031, Deveney notes. One NBA assistant coach said Hibbert might be a worthy gamble for another team if the big man could be motivated to stay in shape, Deveney adds. “The last two years, he has dropped off in the second half of the season,” the assistant said. “With big guys like that, the first thing you think of is conditioning. If you can make sure he is in shape for all 82 games, maybe give him time off here and there, he would be worth the risk.”

Here’s more from the Central Division:

LeBron James says that he hasn’t spoken with Kevin Love recently about whether or not the big man intends to opt out of his deal, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes. When asked if Love would return to the Cavs next season, James said, “That’s a question that I can’t answer right now. I think that’s the last thing on his mind right now. What’s on his mind is his shoulder and how disappointed he is, how hurt he is over the fact that he can’t play in this postseason. I don’t think he’s thought about the offseason or what he wants to do. I haven’t had that conversation with him, and I shouldn’t have to have that conversation with him, especially right now when we’re going through this challenge and this battle of trying to win a championship. So I can’t answer that question.“
The mid-season trade for Michael Carter-Williams shows that the Bucks are looking toward their future rather than trying to simply make the playoffs, Deveney writes in a separate piece. “That’s the difference between the past and now,” GM John Hammond told Deveney. “There’s the big difference. We’re not building toward that now. We’re building toward becoming a championship-caliber team.”
The Pistons would like to bring back unrestricted free agent Joel Anthony to fill the role of backup center next season, but the team needs to address more pressing needs prior to making a decision regarding the big man, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes.

2014/15 D-League Usage Report: Pistons

April 29th, 2015 at 8:14pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The relationship between the NBA and the D-League continues to grow, and 17 NBA franchises currently have one-to-one D-League affiliates amongst the 18 D-League teams. The remaining 13 NBA teams shared the Fort Wayne Mad Ants this season. We at Hoops Rumors will be recapping each team’s use of the D-League this season, looking at assignments and recalls as well as the players signed out of the D-League. We’ll continue onward with a look back at how the Pistons utilized the D-League during the 2014/15 campaign…

D-League Team: Grand Rapids Drive

Affiliation Type: One-to-one

D-League Team Record: 23-27

Number of NBA Players Assigned To D-League: 4

Total D-League Assignments: 9

Player Stats While On Assignment

Tony Mitchell: 4 assignments, 6 games, 8.2 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 0.7 APG. .571/.000/.750.
Spencer Dinwiddie: 2 assignments, 7 games, 13.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 5.4 APG. .390/.355/.909.
Gigi Datome: 1 assignment, 3 games, 13.3 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 0.7 APG. .438/.462/.857.
Quincy Miller: 2 assignments, 3 games, 16.3 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 1.3 APG. .390/.375/.846.

D-League Signings

None

Assignment/Recall Log

November 26th: Assigned Tony Mitchell (Recalled November 28th)
November 29th: Assigned Tony Mitchell (Recalled November 30th)
December 5th: Assigned Tony Mitchell (Recalled December 7th)
December 12th: Assigned Tony Mitchell (Traded to the Suns on December 24th)
December 31st: Assigned Spencer Dinwiddie (Recalled January 8th)
January 14th: Assigned Gigi Datome (Recalled January 20th)
January 14th: Assigned Spencer Dinwiddie (Recalled January 20th)
February 27th: Assigned Quincy Miller (Recalled March 2nd)
March 25th: Assigned Quincy Miller (Recalled March 26th)

Central Notes: Love, Butler, Pistons, Hill

April 26th, 2015 at 4:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kevin Love suffered a dislocated left shoulder in Sunday’s game against Boston and will be evaluated further, the Cavaliers announced. The incident happened in a first quarter skirmish between Love and the Celtics’ Kelly Olynyk. Love immediately headed for the locker room and did not return. The Cavaliers said Love will receive “examination, imaging and evaluation at Cleveland Clinic Sports Health over the next 24 hours.” His status for the rest of the playoffs will depend on the results of those tests. Love was wearing a sling after the game, but said his shoulder was feeling better and he hopes to be ready for Game 1 of the next series, tweets Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Love wasn’t forgiving toward Olynyk, tweets Dave McMenamin, saying, “I thought it was a bush-league play … I have no doubt in my mind that he did it on purpose.”

There’s more from the Central Division:

Jimmy Butler has emerged as the ideal complement to Derrick Rose in the Bulls‘ backcourt, according to Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com. Heading into free agency this summer, Butler has left behind his “role player” days and has become a full-fledged star, Friedell writes. “We have a very strong backcourt right now,” said center Joakim Noah. “Both him and Derrick, it’s very good. I’m very happy to have them as teammates.”
After upgrading at point guard with the trade for Reggie Jackson, the Pistons now face the challenge of improving at other positions, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. He praised coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy for being willing to part with depth and three-point shooting to acquire Jackson, who is very much in the team’s future plans despite being a free agent this summer. He also noted that the Pistons seem likely to bring back Anthony Tolliver, who has a $3MM contract, with only $400K guaranteed.
The Pacers‘ Solomon Hill took advantage of the opportunity given to him when Paul George broke his leg, writes Andrew Perna of Real GM. The second-year player was given increased court time and responded by being the only Pacer to appear in all 82 games. He is under Indiana’s control through the 2017/18 season.

And-Ones: Monroe, Rondo, Draft

April 23rd, 2015 at 10:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pistons haven’t given up hope that they can re-sign unrestricted free agent Greg Monroe this summer, Terry Foster of The Detroit News writes. In a letter sent to the team’s season ticket holders, coach/executive Stan Van Gundy indicated that Monroe was one of the players whom the franchise hoped to build around, Foster relays. “We have a nice young nucleus forming with Andre Drummond [22 years old], Reggie Jackson [24 years old], Kentavious Caldwell-Pope [22 years old], Greg Monroe [24 years old] and Spencer Dinwiddie [21 years old],” Van Gundy wrote. “We will continue to build around this young group with quality veterans cut from the same mold as Caron Butler, Tayshaun Prince, Joel Anthony and Anthony Tolliver.”

Here’s more from around the league:

Brad Stevens, Rajon Rondo‘s coach while a member of the Celtics, said he was shocked with all the difficulties Rondo has had with the Mavs, Jimmy Toscano of CSNNE.com writes. “Yeah. I am,” Stevens said when asked if he was surprised by his former point guard’s issues in Dallas. “And I haven’t paid as much attention or read every article or even really watched anything on it. So yeah I was a little bit surprised.”
Coach Rick Carlisle says he was simply being truthful when he said that he didn’t expect to see Rondo in a Mavericks uniform again during an appearance on “The Afternoon Show with Cowlishaw and Mosley” (hat tip to the Dallas Morning News). “Well it’s highly unlikely, to be honest,” Carlisle said. “I think it’s important to be truthful in these situations. But here’s the other fact: this is a guy that’s going to have a lot of free-agent options in the summer. If we wanted to get him back, we were going to be bidding against multiple other teams with a lot of cap space, and there’s going to be a big market for him So that’s where all that stuff is at, but right now our attention and focus has got to be on Game 3.”
Greek power forward Dimitrios Agravanis intends to enter the 2015 NBA draft, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress tweets. The 20-year-old isn’t expected to hear his name called in June’s draft after averaging 4.4 points and 2.7 rebounds for Olympiakos this past season.
Serbian point guards Miroslav Pasajlic (20) and Nikola Radicevic (20) will enter the 2015 NBA draft, Givony reports (Twitter link). Neither player is projected to be drafted come June.

Greg Monroe: Pistons Have ‘Upper Hand’

April 21st, 2015 at 3:52pm CST by Chuck Myron

Greg Monroe gave his strongest indication yet that the Pistons are in the mix to re-sign him when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in July, telling Terry Foster of The Detroit News that the Pistons have the “upper hand.” Monroe said before the season and after that he wouldn’t rule out re-signing with Detroit, and agent David Falk said shortly after the All-Star break that Monroe would “absolutely” consider staying in the Motor City.

“I have ties here; I have been here my whole [adult] life,” Monroe said to Foster. “[The Pistons] drafted me, so of course I am going to listen to them with the same ear as I listen to everybody else. They have the upper hand.”

It’s not at all uncommon for soon-to-be free agents to profess their desire to remain with their incumbent teams, but Monroe went out of his way to avoid a commitment to the Pistons in restricted free agency last summer, signing a qualifying offer that gave him slightly less than $5.48MM. That’s a sharply discounted rate for the productive 24-year-old big man, but Monroe and Falk reportedly discouraged teams from presenting more lucrative offer sheets that would have given the Pistons the chance to match and tie him up long-term.

Falk denied a recent report from Frank Isola of the New York Daily News that Monroe’s departure for the Knicks this summer was “about as close to a done deal as you can get.” Monroe later expressed praise for Knicks president Phil Jackson while cautioning that he could see himself re-signing with the Pistons. The Lakers reportedly asked the Pistons about trading for Monroe before the deadline, and they and the Knicks figure to be among the many teams in pursuit. The Hawks were also reportedly planning to go after him as of early this season.

Monroe, No. 7 in our latest Free Agent Power Rankings, produced at a high rate once the Pistons waived Josh Smith in late December, as I examined when I looked in depth at Monroe’s free agent stock. The Pistons have a financial advantage, since they can offer five years and 7.5% raises instead of the four-year deal with 4.5% raises that other teams are limited to, but Monroe has already shown a willingness to make a financial sacrifice.

Pistons Rumors: Drummond, Green, Dinwiddie

April 20th, 2015 at 9:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Pistons’ most important offseason negotiations may not involve free agents Greg Monroe or Reggie Jackson, according to David Mayo of MLive. Andre Drummond is about to enter the final year of his rookie contract, which is open to extension through October 31st. Owner Tom Gores recently expressed his desire to keep Drummond in Detroit long-term, calling him “a maximum player.” The tough part may be convincing the young center that he can win if he remains a Piston. “It was a tough situation for us,” Drummond said of the just-completed 32-50 season that was marked by frequent roster changes. “We lost Brandon [Jennings], our chemistry was a little messed up. I’m just going to come back ready for next year and have a good summer.”

There’s more from the Motor City:

The first item on Drummond’s wish list is Golden State’s free-agent-to-be Draymond Green, writes Kirkland Crawford of The Detroit Free Press. Early Sunday morning, Drummond put up a post on his Twitter account saying, “I want @Money23Green on my team …….,” referencing Green’s Twitter handle. Drummond later deleted that tweet. Green, a former star at Michigan State, has expressed interest in playing for the Pistons, but it will likely take a maximum or near-max offer to acquire his services.
A knee injury limited him to 34 games, but Spencer Dinwiddie is satisfied with the progress he made in his rookie season, Mayo writes in a separate story. The Pistons used a second-round pick on Dinwiddie, even though he was rehabbing from a major knee injury at Colorado. They signed Dinwiddie to a three-year deal last summer, giving him $700K for the first season and the league minimum for the next two. Coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy said Dinwiddie showed promise as a distributor, but needs to work on his shot. “I don’t think he’s mainly going to be a scorer, but he’s got to make the shots that he gets,” Van Gundy said.

Central Notes: Scola, Stuckey, Jackson, Prince

April 20th, 2015 at 10:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star looks at each of the soon-to-be free agents on the Pacers, pegging Rodney Stuckey and Lavoy Allen as the most likely among them to return, C.J. Watson and Chris Copeland as unlikely to be back, and Luis Scola and Donald Sloan somewhere in between. President of basketball operations Larry Bird said they’d all like to be back, but Scola, while praising the Pacers organization, doesn’t seem quite ready to commit, as Buckner relays.

“We’ll see what happens. We didn’t have our exit meeting yet. I’m hoping to get some type of feedback there and some type of impression of what they want to do in the future and move on from there,” Scola said last week.

Buckner suggests Stuckey, who drew praise from Bird, wants a multiyear deal with his wedding planned for mid-July. While we wait to see if the Pacers have something picked out for him on his registry, here’s more from around the Central:

Greg Monroe isn’t ruling out a return to the Pistons, but Reggie Jackson has spoken of communicating with other Pistons over the summer so everyone stays motivated for next season, notes MLive’s David Mayo, pointing to the dichotomy between Detroit’s two main soon-to-be free agents. As for other free agents on the team, the Pistons are unlikely to offer Tayshaun Prince a chance to return, and John Lucas III probably won’t be back with the team next year, Mayo writes.
Several NBA executives say that they expect Khris Middleton to wind up signing a deal with $8MM annual salaries this summer, reports Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. That figure is somewhat lower than the $10MM estimate that Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops heard from several GMs and other executives recently. Woelfel points to numbers that don’t suggest much improvement from Middleton this season, though he grants that the Bucks combo forward’s value could escalate with a strong playoff performance.
Former Bucks center Larry Sanders still doesn’t have a desire to return to the game, Woelfel notes within the same piece.

Pistons Notes: Monroe, Jackson, Butler

April 19th, 2015 at 5:44pm CST by Will Joseph

How active the Pistons were this season in trying to win under coach/president Stan Van Gundy and a restructured front office should play a big role in unrestricted free agent Greg Monroe’s decision on whether or not to return to Detroit, David Mayo of MLive.com writes in a Q&A mailbag feature. Mayo adds that Monroe is known for his introspection so the Pistons’ moves this season — especially trading for Reggie Jackson a month after Brandon Jennings suffered an injury — signal to the big man that they are willing to do what it takes to compete. Mayo adds, citing his own belief, that the Pistons also seem more interested in keeping Monroe than they did a year ago. Monroe has been heavily linked lately to the Knicks, however.

Here’s more from the Motor City:

In the same piece, Mayo writes that Jackson’s high number of turnovers won’t have much of an impact on the team signing the 25-year-old to a long-term contract. Jackson, a restricted free agent, averaged 3.5 turnovers in 32.2 minutes as a Piston, both highs among the 20 players to appear for the team this season. His passing ability and three-point prowess impressed the Pistons enough, Mayo adds. The Pistons have been adamant about inking Jackson to a longer deal. Mayo writes the Pistons should offer a deal just shy of the maximum.
Mayo, fielding a final question in the Q&A, is unsure if the Pistons will pick up Caron Butler‘s $4.5MM option for next season. “He has another season in him, as long as he isn’t stretched out like this season,” Mayo writes. “Is he worth it at the price? Perhaps.”