If the Pistons are going to make changes to their coaching staff or front office, they will probably happen in the next 10 days, writes Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. Preparation for the draft begins to intensify with the lottery on May 15, followed by the opening of the combine two days later. The Pistons will want to have their management issues resolved by then, even though their first-rounder is headed to the Clippers without some lottery luck.
GM Jeff Bower met with majority owner Tom Gores on Thursday, Ellis adds, amid reports that structural changes are being considered to the front office. Bower and coach/president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy, who also met with Gores this week, are both entering the final year of their contracts.
Ellis speculates that the longer the situation drags on, the less likely it is that Van Gundy returns for another season. He notes that Gores is unhappy about the way the team has managed its salary cap, particularly with generous contracts for role players Jon Leuer [four years, $42 million] and Langston Galloway [three years, $21 million].
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Watching the Eastern semifinals has been a painful experience for Thaddeus Young and his Pacers teammates, relays Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. The Indiana players are still reeling after dropping a tough seven-game series to the Cavaliers, and they believe they could be on their way to the conference finals if they had gotten by Cleveland. Young adds that he hasn’t decided whether to opt out of a $13,764,045 salary for next season, but he believes the Pacers are headed for even better things. “Man, I think the sky is the limit for us,” he said. “As a team, we’re already pretty good, but I think we’ll be so much better entering next season because we’ll all have another year of experience under our belt and we won’t be a new-look team that just got together anymore.”
- The Pacers need to add a 3-point shooter in free agency, observes J. Michael of The Indianapolis Star, who examines potential targets for this summer. Indiana should have roughly $10MM to spend, even if Young opts in, which could be enough to land Wayne Ellington, Joe Harris or Marco Belinelli.
- The Bucks are in position to trim some money from their roster heading into free agency, according to Fox Sports Wisconsin. Brandon Jennings [$2,222,803], Tyler Zeller [$1,933,941] and Malcolm Brogdon [$1,544,951] all have non-guaranteed contracts for next season, although Brogdon, a former Rookie of the Year, is expected to be brought back.
To even remotely suggest the Bucks would entertain the idea of cutting Brogdon loose just to save some cap $ makes the author of this article sound completely inept and out of touch with reality.
“he’s expected to be brought back.” well no sh*t Sherlock.
Also why would we cut the 3 most team friendly salaries on the team for salary reasons? If we want that spot open on the team fine but not like 2 mil is going to open up our shot at Lebron lol
lol
Those three were named because their contracts are not guaranteed next year.
By renouncing two of them, the Bucks would go under the cap, meaning they could for instance do a sign-and-trade before going back over later with new signings if they want to. The Wisconsin writer did not say that but I think it’s so.
@mac you’re funny too but HR was just summarizing.
The Pacers can’t go into next season with this same roster and just adding a shooter. I could understand playing Sabonis and Turner together but you can’t come back with both Bogdanovic and Collison as your starting 1 and 3. One or the other, Collison is not a threat offensively what so ever.
With all respect collision led the league in 3 point percentage and assist turnover ratio. How does that not make him a threat?
He needs to score the ball more, if not than Turner needs to step up his game.
For some reason, I think Joe Harris needs to be a Pacer. He just has the feel of that franchise. I think the fit would be fantastic.