The Pistons were still undecided whether they would match any offer sheet for restricted free agent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope until the Celtics offered shooting guard Avery Bradley and a draft pick for small forward Marcus Morris, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Though the Pistons reached an agreement with Langston Galloway during the first day of free agency, they were still hoping to re-sign Caldwell-Pope until Boston came calling, Langlois continues. The Pistons renounced their rights to Caldwell-Pope after the trade with Boston was finalized. Galloway will receive playing time at both guard positions, Langlois adds.
In other news regarding the team:
- Coach Stan Van Gundy believes Stanley Johnson will bounce back from a disappointing sophomore campaign in part because he will play his natural small forward position regularly, Langlois writes. Johnson, who could become a starter in the aftermath of the Morris trade, might even play some power forward in smaller lineups.
- The Pistons originally planned to sign big man Eric Moreland to a two-way contract if he impressed during the Orlando Summer League, Langlois notes in the same piece. Moreland exceeded all expectations, especially at the defensive end, and that’s what led to the team signing him to a three-year contract with a partial guarantee.
- Van Gundy and GM Jeff Bower tried to trade for Galloway in recent seasons before landing him in free agency, Rod Beard of the Detroit News writes. “Langston Galloway has been a guy that Jeff and I have had an interest in virtually from the time we got here, when he was in New York [with the Knicks],” Van Gundy told Beard and the assembled media. “This year, when he was in New Orleans and Sacramento, we’ve made inquiries about trying to get him. It’s been a long process for us to try to bring Langston here.”
- Palace Sports & Entertainment, which owns the team, and Olympia Entertainment, which owns the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, were added to a federal lawsuit seeking to force a vote over the use of $34.5MM in public funding to finance the Pistons’ move, Katrease Stafford of the Detroit Free Press reports. The Pistons will share the arena with the NHL’s Red Wings, who are also owned by Olympia.
It’s a pipe dream, but I wish billionaire owners would just finance their own stadiums instead of holding the cities hostage
^^ couldn’t agree more
The cities need to do more of what San Francisco did with the Giants give the teams some prime real estate and tax breaks and get a privately built and operated stadium. It saves the cities a fortune and gets to keep the team in town.
Do you get how much more money those teams draw from the team bringing in fans from outside said city. When they bring billions in millions is not a lot.
Just imho the Celtics really missed with that trade. Bradley is one of those rare outstanding defensive guards that on any given night can score at ease. I understand they had to dump one of their players and maybe they did try to dump smart instead, to get under the cap for Hayward. Shooting, the Celtics got better, but I’m not convinced they’ll even be as good as they were this past year overall after dumping Avery. They’ll have to shoot lights out every game bc of the hit they’ll take in D.
He was good on defense, but it’s not like he forced 25 turnovers a game… they play good enough defense as a unit they will be ok. Adding Baynes for rim protection also improved the defense and rebounding, and Smart is still one of the better defensive guards in the league. Morris is a good player in his own right I think that trade is better than some people think.
Also Morris is a PF but the article says SF.