As we noted when Joe Johnson agreed to sign with the Pistons earlier today, no roster move will be required to create room on the 20-man roster for the veteran forward.
Although multiple reports suggested that Michael Beasley would be waived, ESPN’s Bobby Marks confirms (via Twitter) that Beasley and the Pistons never officially finalized their reported agreement, so Johnson will simply take the spot on the roster that Beasley would have.
Of course, preseason rosters are generally fluid, so if the Pistons still want to bring the former second overall pick in for training camp, they could eventually do so — they’d just have to cut another camp invitee. However, a source tells Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link) that Beasley is unlikely to be in camp with Detroit.
Beasley still faces a five-game suspension for violating the league’s anti-drug policy, so if and when he signs with a new NBA team, he’ll have to miss his first five regular season contests for that club.
Here’s more on the Pistons:
- A source tells Ellis (Twitter link) that Pistons head coach Dwane Casey was “very instrumental” in selling Johnson on signing with Detroit.
- Marks provides an update on the guarantee details on Christian Wood‘s contract, tweeting that Wood’s $1.65MM salary will only become partially guaranteed for $822K if he’s not waived by October 23. Wood figures to be Johnson’s primary competition for a regular season roster spot in Detroit.
- While Derrick Rose‘s goal of winning a championship with the Pistons is admirable, the former MVP’s top priority should be staying healthy, writes Rod Beard of The Detroit News.
- Keith Langlois of Pistons.com lauds the work that head of basketball operations Ed Stefanski has done in the last two offseasons to add young talent to the Pistons’ roster. Five players currently under contract with the team were drafted in the last two years, and that list doesn’t include 2017 lottery pick Luke Kennard, 22-year-old big man Thon Maker, or draft-and-stash prospect Deividas Sirvydis.
Interesting bunch of bets what want to win on the Pistons with DRose, Joe Johnson and Micheal Beasley. Also a lot of offence from these guys and not a hell of a lot of D
Lol @ the Rose bit.
Right? I think Rose might be ok. Just a hunch.
Pistons should keep Joe Johnson and Christian Wood and move one of there 2s like trading Langston Galloway or Khyri Thomas
I mean since he has a 15 million guaranteed 2-year contract and all.
Keith Langlois at PISTONS.com kissing up to Stefanski. Smdh
I think Maker and Woods can be very good players when given plenty of playing time, definitely diamonds in the rough
Michael Beasley can’t even beat out Iso Joe for the final roster spot on the Pistons right now. Last year he got $3.5M from the Lakers. What does that say about how poorly that organization is being run by LeBron?
So you rather the organization that gives $165MM to an old & diminishing CP3… very clever right. That destroys your cap… $3.5MM is small change that doesn’t even affect the salary cap you genius troll!!!
A Derrick Rose-Blake Griffin combo without the major injuries would have been championship caliber.