The addition of swingman Glenn Robinson III filled the Pistons’ biggest need this offseason, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. The Pistons didn’t anticipate an early commitment but a phone call from new coach Dwane Casey as the start of free agency helped to seal the deal with the ex-Pacers wing. Robinson received a two-year, $8.3MM contract. “We didn’t expect we would get Glenn that quickly,” senior advisor Ed Stefanski said. “We felt getting the two-year commitment was huge to us. To find a young wing who can make a shot, they’re hard to find in the league. When the opportunity came up that quickly, we felt we had to make a move. If it wasn’t for him, we would still be out there looking for a guy.”
In other news involving Central Division teams:
- Pacers GM Kevin Pritchard hopes to use a majority of next summer’s cap space on his own free agents, Mark Monteith of Pacers.com reports. Rotation players Thaddeus Young, Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Tyreke Evans could all be free agents next summer, which would free up as much as $57MM in cap space, Monteith notes. But Pritchard would prefer to use most of the money to re-sign some of those players, as he told Monteith. “We have the season like we want to have, our free agents will be the priority,” he said. “I think this team has a chance to grow this year. … We already know these guys. They become our priority in free agency.”
- Rookie second-round pick Khyri Thomas could get playing time with the Pistons through his defensive prowess, Rod Beard of the Detroit News writes. The swingman out of Creighton views himself as a defensive specialist. “When I was younger, I didn’t get the ball a lot playing with older people so I just stole the ball to get it,” he told Beard.
- The addition of center Brook Lopez gives the Bucks 13 guaranteed contracts for next season but they’re still $15MM away from being hard-capped, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Lopez reportedly agreed to a one-year deal on Sunday. Milwaukee still has to deal with restricted free agent Jabari Parker‘s status, as he remains unsigned, but they could gain more flexibility since the contracts for Tyler Zeller and Brandon Jennings are not guaranteed, Marks adds.
Pacers Myles Turner is a restricted free agent and Domantis Sabonis is eligible for an extension next summer. Oladipo , Holiday, and McDermott are only players who won’t be free agents. That’s a lot of money and a lot of players. Pritchard has said he’d like to use Turner and Sabonis together 25-30 minutes a game this season. Says this could help save them money in the future.
Robinson is the son of former Milwaukee Buck and Atlanta Hawk, Glenn (Big Dog) Robinson, a former no. 1 draft pick. He is from Gary, In. and played in the NCAA Championship game with Nik Stauskas and Tim Hardaway Jr. for the University of Michigan, so this works well for him. He missed most of last season with ankle injury.
Fun quote from Khyri Thomas about learning how to steal from playing with older players. As the youngest in a large family, I can definitely understand his motivation.
Avail-ability is the most important ability and Robinson was not. Go to Detroit.