Pistons Sign GM Jeff Bower To Extension

MONDAY, 9:27am: The Pistons have officially announced their new deal with Bower.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the job Jeff has done for our organization,” Van Gundy said in a press release. “He’s been at the forefront of all the moves we’ve made over the last two seasons and has implemented much of the strategy and structure throughout our basketball operations department.  The confidence I have in his ability allows me to go out and coach during the season knowing that he’s always looking to make our team better.”

SUNDAY, 11:25 am: The extension is for one year, meaning that Bower is under contract until June 30, 2018, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press tweets.

10:55 am: The Pistons have reached a multiyear contract extension with GM Jeff Bower, league sources told The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Bower has been Stan Van Gundy‘s right-hand man since Van Gundy was named head coach and president of basketball operations in the summer of 2014. Bower was entering the final year of a three-year contract.

Bower, 55, has negotiated several trades that have transformed the Pistons’ roster, including the acquisitions of forwards Tobias Harris and Marcus Morris and point guard Reggie Jackson. The Pistons made the Eastern Conference playoffs as the N0. 8 seed after a six-year absence and lost to the Cavaliers in the first round.

Bower was the GM for the New Orleans Hornets from 2001-03 and 2005-10, and was the head coach of Marist College from 2013-14 before Van Gundy hired him. Van Gundy has deflected credit for the team’s deals to Bower and other members of the front office, indicating that he simply rubber stamps or nixes the trade proposals that Bower and his staff negotiate.

Van Gundy praised Bower’s roster-building skills in an interview with Detroit Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel this spring.

“I think that’s where Jeff Bower is really at his best,” Van Gundy told Seidel. “It’s not just one big splash. He really understands how to put a team together. I think we have a lot of good people in our organization, but he is the one who has run a team before, and he is a guy who understands team building and how to put it together.”