Hardwood Paroxysm presents: Winners, losers and shockers of NBA free agency
Detroit Pistons Muck Up Strong Offseason With Overpays
Bryan Toporek (@btoporek) — Hardwood Paroxysm
Once Stan Van Gundy learns some fiscal restraint, he’ll become one of the league’s few examples of someone who can capably juggle the dual head coach/team president role.
The Pistons, by and large, had an excellent offseason. Acquiring Ersan Ilyasova in what amounted to a salary dump for the Milwaukee Bucks gives the Pistons a reliable stretch 4 to work alongside Andre Drummond, not to mention insurance for Greg Monroe once he inevitably departed in free agency. Ilyasova isn’t likely to pour in the per-game production of Monroe, but his on-court fit with Drummond is far superior thanks to his ability to knock down treys.
Detroit also filled its biggest area of need by drafting Stanley Johnson with the eighth overall pick. Though the decision to pass up Justise Winslow might have raised some eyebrows, Johnson quelled some doubts during the Orlando Summer League, where he was the fourth-leading scorer (16.2 points per game) while shooting a stellar 57.7 percent from the floor. If the Arizona product learns to shoot the three-ball with any consistency — he knocked down four of his 12 attempts from deep during five summer-league contests — he’ll be the team’s starting small forward in no time.
The Pistons’ best move of the summer, however, was their acquisition of Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger in a salary dump from the Phoenix Suns. Though Morris is none too pleased about being separated from his twin brother Markieff, he’s capable of playing either forward spot, has knocked in 36.8 percent of his 511 three-point attempts over the past two seasons and is only owed $20 million between now and 2018-19. Bullock, meanwhile, hasn’t gotten much of an opportunity to latch on during his time with the Los Angeles Clippers or Phoenix, but it’s too early to discount him being a quality rotation player.
That’s all well and good. Where Detroit erred, however, is in the free-agent market. The team handed backup center Aron Baynes a three-year, $20 million contract with a third-year player option, which, just… b’gah. Baynes is a perfectly fine backup center, but when Drummond should be seeing 30-35 minutes per night, $6-plus million per year on a backup 5 seems a bit exorbitant, especially when guys like Brandan Wright (three years, $18 million), Kyle O’Quinn (four years, $16 million) and Alexis Ajinca (four years, $20 million) took less.
The elephant in the room, though, is the five-year, $80 million pact for Reggie Jackson. As John Wall so aptly pointed out, he and Jackson are now on the exact same contract. (You can thank the collective bargaining agreement for that.) Even if this deal winds up looking reasonable in three years’ time, it represents value lost for Van Gundy and the Pistons. Jackson was a restricted free agent, and few teams, outside of the Philadelphia 76ers, had the need and the cap space to lure a starting point guard with a near-max offer sheet. Some team could have pulled the tomfoolery Portland did with Enes Kanter’s max offer sheet, but with Brandon Knight having signed a five-year, $70 million deal and Goran Dragic only taking $5 million more over that same five-year span, Van Gundy should have played a bit more hardball with Jackson during negotiations.
At this point, though, what’s done is done. And thanks to a strong offseason infusion of talent, don’t be surprised if the Pistons push for 40 wins and a bottom-tier Eastern Conference playoff spot this season.
Next: Bargnani Deal Aside, Nets Have Had a Strong Offseason