Detroit Pistons Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Greg Monroe To Accept Qualifying Offer?

August 13th, 2014 at 10:56am CST by Eddie Scarito

10:56am: Zillgitt suggests in a follow-up story that a sign-and-trade scenario still could surface. Monroe received a pair of max offers this summer from teams other than the Pistons, but neither of those teams could work out a sign-and-trade with the Pistons that would have allowed Monroe to go to one of those clubs without the looming threat that Detroit would match, Zillgitt hears. The Pistons would probably match any offer for Monroe, as Vincent Goodwill surmises via Twitter, and presumably that would include max offers, which would explain why Monroe would be reluctant to ink a max offer sheet.

WEDNESDAY, 8:36am: Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy indicated late Tuesday that neither Monroe nor Falk has informed him of any decision to take the qualifying offer, according to MLive’s David Mayo. Van Gundy also reiterated that he’d prefer Monroe to sign a long-term deal instead, Mayo notes. Other teams don’t appear to have been as concerned that the Pistons would match an offer sheet for Monroe as Monroe himself has been, Mayo writes.

TUESDAY, 7:18pm: The Pistons appear to be holding out hope that Monroe won’t sign his qualifying offer, says Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press (on Twitter), who adds that the team will continue to do so until the 24-year-old actually puts pen to paper.

6:29pm: Greg Monroe has informed the Pistons that he will accept the team’s qualifying offer, reports Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. It was noted earlier that Monroe had been seeking sign-and-trade deals with other teams, rather than looking to sign an offer sheet with another franchise, which the Pistons were likely to match. If Monroe does indeed accept the qualifying offer, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and be free to sign with any team he chooses.

The qualifying offer is for $5.479MM, which is significantly below the amount he would have received if Monroe would have signed a long-term deal with the Pistons. The deadline for Monroe to sign the offer is October 1st, notes Zillgitt, and the player cannot be traded without his consent once he does sign. This decision carries some risk for Monroe if he is to suffer a serious injury this year. But so far in his career Monroe has been extremely durable, missing just one of his last 310 games.

The David Falk client’s decision is historic, since he’ll become just the 18th player since rookie scale contracts were instituted in 1995 to sign his qualifying offer. He’ll be the most high-profile player ever to do so, since the maneuver has usually been the domain of restricted free agents who are without more lucrative offers. Wizards big man Kevin Seraphin is the latest player to sign a qualifying offer, having done so last month.

The 6’11”, 24-year old, has been in the league for four seasons, and his career numbers are 14.0 PPG, 9.0 RPG, and 2.3 APG. His career slash line is .508/.000/.678.

Eastern Notes: Monroe, Harrington, George, C’s

August 12th, 2014 at 1:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The idea that Greg Monroe would take a max offer from the Pistons isn’t necessarily true, as Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said last month, according to Vincent Goodwill (Twitter link). A resolution to Monroe’s restricted free agency still seems a ways off, as we passed along earlier today. Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

Al Harrington hopes to sign with the Wizards after he returns from China, as he tells J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. He’ll make much more on his deal with China’s Fujian Sturgeons than he would have on an NBA minimum-salary contract, the forward also said in his conversation with Michael. The Wizards were unwilling to commit to re-signing Harrington before he inked the Chinese deal, Michael hears, though Washington was open to having him return as an assistant coach. Other NBA teams were interested in him as a player, Harrington said, but none of them were title contenders.
Pacers executive Larry Bird isn’t ruling out a return to action for Paul George at some point this season, even though the team is “sort of expecting him [to be] out all year,” as Bird said today to reporters, including Michael Pointer of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter link). We rounded up more of Bird’s remarks right here.
Celtics draft-and-stash prospect Colton Iverson has signed with Laboral Kuxta of Spain, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). David Pick of Eurobasket.com first reported the agreement (on Twitter). It’s a one-year deal for the 53rd overall pick from 2013, his agent tells Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com (Twitter link).
Celtics summer leaguer Dairis Bertans received invitations to training camp from NBA teams, but he’ll continue to play in Spain instead, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM.
Ray Allen has expressed a wish in past years that he could wait until September to decide whether to play the following season, so his unwillingness to commit to a team for 2014/15 is no surprise, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes in his mailbag column.

Latest On Greg Monroe, Eric Bledsoe

August 12th, 2014 at 10:07am CST by Chuck Myron

Greg Monroe is “definitely” willing to take his nearly $5.48MM qualifying offer from the Pistons should it come to that, a source tells Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. He’s pursued sign-and-trade opportunities rather than offer sheets from other teams, the source also says to Goodwill. A sign-and-trade that would be amenable to all parties would dismiss the possibility that the Pistons would match a deal he inks with another team, and signing the qualifying offer would take Monroe to unrestricted free agency next summer.

Still, accepting the qualifying offer would be a drastic move. It would represent a steep one-year discount from the eight-figure salaries, perhaps in excess of $13.5MM, that Monroe would receive if he were to ink a long-term deal with the Pistons. The maneuver might backfire should Monroe become injured, but the 24-year-old has missed just one of his last 310 games, as Goodwill points out. Only 17 players have signed qualifying offers since rookie scale contracts came into being in the mid-1990s, and the most high-profile player to have done so was probably Ben Gordon, who took Chicago’s qualifying offer in 2008.

Goodwill’s source disputed the notion that he’s uninterested in returning to the Pistons, saying that the big man likes coach/executive Stan Van Gundy while cautioning that Monroe remains skeptical of Van Gundy’s vision for the team. The state of the relationship between Monroe and Bledsoe doesn’t sound quite as dire as the situation involving the Suns and Eric Bledsoe, as multiple reports have indicated that the point guard is souring on Phoenix.

“Maybe that’s just posturing and negotiating,” Suns owner Sarver said of the reports, in an interview with Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. “We haven’t heard from the guy in four months, so I couldn’t tell you. I do know that when he played here, he felt good about the organization, his coaching staff and his teammates at the end of the season. We had the same feelings toward him.”

The Suns reportedly extended a four-year, $48MM offer to Bledsoe, who appears to be holding out for the max, which would come to $84,789,500 over five seasons. Agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, who represents Bledsoe, is also the rep for Kevin Seraphin, the most recent player to have signed a qualifying offer, having done so last month. Seraphin was nonetheless in a drastically different position, since he couldn’t have commanded much more.

Bledsoe, like Monroe, stands to forfeit a significant amount of his earnings for the coming season if he inks his qualifying offer of nearly $3.727MM. The guard missed significant time with a meniscus tear, so injury is ostensibly a greater concern than it would be for Monroe. The qualifying offer would be a sacrifice for either Bledsoe or Monroe, and while either of them could make up the money over the life of a long-term max deal if he were to wind up with one in unrestricted free agency next summer, that sort of deal is certainly no guarantee.

Greg Monroe Denies Five-Year, ~$60MM Offer

August 10th, 2014 at 5:31pm CST by Zachary Links

Last week it was reported that the Pistons increased their offer to Greg Monroe from a five-year, $60MM package to one that’s slightly more lucrative. However, the restricted free agent took to Twitter today to deny that he has received any proposal of that nature.

“[I] can’t reject anything that was not offered to me…carry on,” Monroe said in response to a Twitter follower who asked how he could turn down a five-year, $60MM offer.

The report last week indicated that Detroit’s latest offer was slightly more lucrative than the four-year, $54MM contract that Josh Smith signed with the team last summer. The David Falk client has been widely expected to seek a max contract this summer, though many execs, scouts, and agents have balked at that idea.

The Pistons have looked into the sign-and-trade market and talked shop with the Blazers, Hawks and Pelicans but so far that hasn’t yielded a trade. Even though Monroe would be a valuable asset for a number of teams, one has to imagine that the Pistons’ match power scared off prospective suitors, much in the way that the Suns’ right to match has warded off teams with an eye on guard Eric Bledsoe.

So, for now, Monroe continues to stand without a team. If Monroe wants to enter free agency unencumbered next summer, he could take the risky and unlikely route of signing his one-year qualifying offer for less than $5.5MM.

Tom Gores On Pistons, Monroe, Team USA

August 10th, 2014 at 9:00am CST by Eddie Scarito

Pistons owner Tom Gores touched on a number of team and league subjects in a recent press interview. Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press has published the complete transcription, and here are some of the highlights:

The No. 1 topic that has dominated the entire off-season has been Greg Monroe. What are your thoughts on the contract impasse?

“We think Greg is a great player. First of all, he’s done a really great job of establishing himself as a player in Detroit. He’s shown great respect to the city and as a young man he’s really done everything we could ask of him. With Greg we just believe in him. I’d like Greg to really get excited about being in Detroit because he deserves it. He’s really been good to the city. You’ve seen him. He’s good to the city. Stan is going to have to figure out exactly everybody’s role, but we’re believers in Greg Monroe. He’s not just a great player; he also has a good basketball character. I know it’s been a lot of the off-season stuff, but I’m a believer in Greg Monroe.”

There’s a pretty substantial offer on the table (slightly better on a per-year basis than the four-year, $54-million deal Josh Smith signed last summer). Is there any disappointment that it hasn’t resolved itself and he [Monroe] hasn’t taken the offer yet?

“Of course we would like him to do that, but the fact is Greg has to decide what’s exactly right for him and he has great people representing him. We’d like Greg to get on board, but he’s got time to think about it and we should give him that time.”

It’s been a newsy summer from a league perspective and the most recent thing would be the catastrophic injury suffered by Pacers small forward Paul George at USA Basketball camp. You have Andre Drummond and he’s moving on to Chicago to continue tryouts with Team USA. Does George’s injury give you pause?

“It’s always difficult in this kind of situation. As a Detroit Pistons owner you get worried, but at the same time there’s such a valuable experience that comes out of them being together as players, camaraderie for the country, camaraderie for themselves, a different purpose. I think there is a part of it that’s great for the players because it’s just winning for your team. There’s something bigger at stake and they’re not doing it for their contract or this or that. I’m not torn on it. The upside is for the players. Is their downside for teams? That’s possible. As just a business owner? It’s very possible, but at the same time you can take a guy like Andre Drummond who has the ability to have this experience with all these different guys who are going to play for their country and are really superstars, how would I ever take that away from him? At the end of the day, I think the guy should have the experience.”

The [Pistons’] free-agent signings were targeted to address needs but lacked sizzle. Do you in hindsight wish this would have been the approach last summer when you made the splash of signing Josh Smith?

“Everybody has a different approach. One of things that I’ve really enjoyed about what Stan is doing is he’s connecting the floor to the front office, so everything he’s doing is about the way he’s going to coach it and the way he’s going to run this team and the way he’s going to move this franchise forward. He knows exactly what he’s doing. I have personally seen Stan be an executive. He has the ability to do both things. I know a lot of people question this, but I can tell you I’ve seen him in action. We all know he’s a great coach, but he’s a great executive. He’s a great leader. He’s very strategic.”

Eastern Rumors: Deng, Monroe, ‘Melo, Celtics

August 9th, 2014 at 4:15pm CST by Charlie Adams

Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel sat down with a league scout who believes that the Heat had a respectable offseason, even with the loss of LeBron James. The scout sees Luol Deng as a valuable piece for Miami to build around, even if he won’t generally be the club’s first or second scoring option. More from around the East..

Greg Monroe still isn’t sure if he’s going to be playing for the Pistons or not next season, as he tells Matt Dollinger of Sports Illustrated that the he isn’t sure how contract negotiations will end up.
The Knicks have been able to upgrade their roster this offseason, but Carmelo Anthony acknowledged that he doesn’t expect to win a title this season, notes Raul Alzaga of Primera Hora (translation via Basketball Insiders). ‘Melo is looking forward to next summer, when New York will have more cap space to work with, adds Alzaga.
Although the Celtics’ offseason lacked any major player movement, C’s owner Wyc Grousbeck was still pleased with the front office’s effort, writes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. “I said we’d try for fireworks and we tried,” Grousbeck said. “I’m reasonably content that first of all we tried as hard as we could and second of all we added some good pieces. But we have maintained our draft picks and we’ve maintained more building in the future as opposing to firing all the bullets now… We’re going to have to go the more patient route.“

And-Ones: Smith, Motiejunas, Ross

August 9th, 2014 at 10:21am CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pistons are in advanced talks with Otis Smith to coach their NBA D-League team, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Smith was the GM of the Magic during Stan Van Gundy‘s coaching tenure with Orlando, and had stepped down from his position in May of 2012, on the same day Van Gundy was fired as head coach of the team, notes Stein. This continues Van Gundy’s trend of hiring his former associates and players. Tim Hardaway was already brought in as an assistant coach, and Quentin Richardson was hired as director of player development.

Here’s more from around the league:

Chaz Williams has signed with Oline Edirne Basketball of the Turkish League, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The 5’9″ point guard went undrafted this year out of Massachusetts, after averaging 15.6 PPG, 2.8 RPG and 6.9 APG as a senior. Williams had worked out most recently for the Wizards, with hopes of securing a training camp invite from the team.
During an interview with Zip FM radio, Donatas Motiejunas was asked where he’d like to play if he were to leave the Rockets, and his preference was the Lakers, the Basketball Insiders article notes (hat tip to Talkbasket.net). Motiejunas said, “Most likely in Los Angeles because there are no serious bigs and I would likely get chances to play. I mean the Lakers, not the Clippers.“
Former Ohio State forward LaQuinton Ross has signed with Consultinvest Pesaro of the Italian League, the team reported via their Facebook page (translation by Carchia). Ross went undrafted after averaging 15.2 points and 5.9 rebounds as a junior. Ross had been projected as a possible second-round draft pick this year, but showed up 15 lbs. overweight to the scouting combine, and didn’t perform especially well. He played for the Lakers in the NBA Summer League, but only appeared in three games, and totaled just nine points, six rebounds and four turnovers in 31 minutes.

And-Ones: Gay, Clippers, Monroe, Rogers

August 8th, 2014 at 6:48pm CST by Alex Lee

It’s been a rough week for Team USA following the gruesome injury sustained by Paul George and the subsequent withdrawal of Kevin Durant. However, help is on the way in the form of Kings forward Rudy Gay, writes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Gay was a reserve on USA’s 2010 title squad and joins Chandler Parsons and Gordon Hayward this time around as the team’s only true small forwards. At tonight’s Hall of Fame ceremony, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo told NBA.com’s David Aldridge that a repeat gold medal performance this summer would be the “sweetest win because of the circumstances.” (via Marc Stein on Twitter).

Here is what else is happening around the league on Friday night:

The official transfer of the Clippers could happen at any moment, as attorneys for Donald Sterling claimed in a request for a stay of a probate court decision that affirms Shelly Sterling’s right to sell the team to Steve Ballmer, reports Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times. The judge in the probate trial signed the final statement of decision Thursday, clearing the way for Donald Sterling to file the request, as Fenno explains. The sale may proceed once the judge issues a final order, which could come at any time, Fenno adds.
There is a very good likelihood that Greg Monroe is in a Pistons uniform next season according to David Mayo of MLive.com (via Twitter), who puts the chances at 85 to 90 percent. With the sign-and-trade market for Monroe now essentially non-existent, Mayo believes the sides will either come to an agreement on a longer-term deal or that Monroe will sign his one-year qualifying offer. Monroe would become an unrestricted free agent next summer if he chooses the latter route.
The Wizards have added Roy Rogers as an assistant coach, the team announced on their website today. Rogers has six years experience as an NBA assistant under his belt, previously working with the Nets (twice), the Celtics and the Pistons. Prior to reaching the NBA ranks, Rogers coached in the D-League for four years after a seven-year playing career. He joins fellow assistant David Atkins, hired in July, as a newcomer on the staff of head coach Randy Wittman.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Parsons, Heat, Southerland, Pistons

August 8th, 2014 at 2:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Chandler Parsons was an all-around contributor for the Rockets, averaging 16.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists this past season, but that sort of production isn’t why the Mavs gave him a near-max offer sheet that Houston declined to match. They’re confident he can be a “far better” player than he was with the Rockets, as owner Mark Cuban said, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. While we wait to see whether Parsons proves worthy of Cuban’s investment, here’s more from around the league:

The Heat will likely sign a center for the reserve role that Greg Oden played last season, writes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Andray Blatche is available, but the Heat have shied away from him in the past because they’ve disliked his maturity level and behavior, according to Jackson, who seconds the notion that the Heat are unlikely to re-sign Oden following Oden’s arrest Thursday.
The contract that James Southerland signed Thursday with the Blazers is a one-year, non-guaranteed pact, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. That means it’s a summer contract, as I speculated. It also fits the stipulations required to make it an Exhibit 9 contract, though it’s not necessarily one.
Former NBA players Tim Hardaway Sr. and Malik Allen will serve as assistant coaches for the Pistons next season, the team announced. The Pistons also announced the hiring of former Knicks executive Jeff Nix as assistant general manager. He’ll serve alongside fellow assistant GM Brian Wright underneath president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy and GM Jeff Bower.

Pistons Hire Quentin Richardson For Staff

August 7th, 2014 at 5:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

5:18pm: The hiring is now official, the team announced via press release.

10:20am: Pistons president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy plans to hire Quentin Richardson for a role that would include player development and mentorship duties, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Presumably, the job would mark the end of Richardson’s 13-year NBA playing career.

The former McDonald’s All-American emerged as a valuable swingman for the Clippers in the early 2000s, setting a career high with 17.2 points per game in 2003/04. He led the NBA in three-pointers made the next season as a member of the Suns. He averaged 10.3 points and 35.5% three-point shooting during his time in the league that also included stops with the Knicks, Heat and Magic. He played in just one regular season game and five playoff contests during 2012/13, his final season in the NBA, when the Knicks signed him shortly before the postseason. They shipped him to Toronto as part of the Andrea Bargnani deal the next summer, and the Raptors released him before training camp this past fall.

That swap was the sixth trade in which Richardson had been involved during his career, the most notable of which was the one that briefly sent him back to the Clippers in 2009 and allowed the Grizzlies to acquire Zach Randolph. He made more than $63MM as an NBA player, according to Basketball-Reference.