Central Rumors: Pistons, Cavs, Bulls, Mirotic

The Pistons are considering free agents like Jonas Jerebko and Anthony Tolliver for one of their open roster spots, according to Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter links). Ellis adds that the team has also engaged with a handful of other players as it weighs how to fill that spot.

Having traded away Marcus Morris and lost Aron Baynes in free agency, the Pistons could use some frontcourt depth, but their ability to add another free agent is somewhat limited. Having already used their full mid-level exception, Detroit could make an offer with its $3.29MM bi-annual exception, but otherwise could only offer the minimum.

Here’s more from around the Central:

• Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert met with assistant GM Koby Altman for dinner on Monday night to discuss the future of the club’s front office, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). After losing David Griffin, the Cavs pursued Chauncey Billups to fill their head front office position, but haven’t been linked to any candidates since Billups turned them down. It’s possible Altman – who has essentially been the acting GM this offseason – will be offered the permanent job at some point, though that’s my speculation.
• The Bulls remain optimistic about getting a deal done with restricted free agent Nikola Mirotic, per GM Gar Forman (link via Sam Smith of Bulls.com). “We want Niko back and we think Niko wants to be in Chicago,” Forman said. “Usually when you have those two things, at the end of the day there’s usually a way to get something done.”
• Forman also discussed the Bulls‘ rebuilding process, expressing no regrets at moving Jimmy Butler last month, per Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago.com.
• The Bulls continue to operate as an over-the-cap team, having signed Justin Holiday to a deal using part of their mid-level exception ($4.6MM of $8.4MM), tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Chicago could create between $25-30MM in cap room by renouncing Mirotic’s cap hold and various exceptions – including the trade exception from the Butler deal – but there has been no reason to do that so far, since the club hasn’t made any big-money acquisitions.