February 28: The buyout is now official and Muscala has been placed on waivers, the Pistons announced in a press release (Twitter link).
February 27: Veteran forward Mike Muscala is finalizing a buyout with the Pistons, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Muscala has some playoff contenders interested in signing him, Wojnarowski adds.
A player on an NBA contract must be waived by the end of the day on Friday in order to retain his playoff eligibility. As our Buyout Market Watch shows, Muscala will join several other veterans recently waived who are seeking to sign with a team in the postseason hunt.
Muscala, 32, had the misfortune of playing for the league’s two worst teams this season. He appeared in 24 games with the Wizards before he was dealt in mid-January to Detroit. Muscala has made 13 games appearances with the Pistons, including four starts, averaging 3.5 points and 2.2 rebounds in 13.2 minutes per night.
Muscala can play either power forward or small-ball center and his 37.6% career three-point percentage could make him a valuable bench piece for a team looking for frontcourt depth.
Muscala was on an expiring $3.5MM contract this season and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He has $905,000 remaining on this year’s salary, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, so he’ll presumably be giving up a portion of that figure as part of his buyout agreement.
The other forward Detroit acquired in the deal with Washington, Danilo Gallinari, was waived after the trade deadline and joined the Bucks.
Good and obvious decision. Curious who else will get bought out.
Mainly Fournier, Morris and Curry are interesting buy outs to watch.
Full list according to the tracker:
Davis Bertans, Hornets
Troy Brown, Pistons
Seth Curry, Hornets
Evan Fournier, Pistons
Devonte’ Graham, Spurs
Wesley Matthews, Hawks
Patty Mills, Hawks
Shake Milton, Pistons
Marcus Morris, Spurs
Mike Muscala, Pistons
Cedi Osman, Spurs
Otto Porter, Jazz
Lamar Stevens, Grizzlies
Garrett Temple, Raptors
He’s an okay buyout option. Hopefully for him a contender picks him up. But likely he won’t see time down the stretch or in the postseason for a serious contender. Maybe a play-in team would offer him some consistent bench minutes. But there’s better options in terms of both shooters and forwards that may get bought out.
It’s just funny how much Muscala may have impacted the current NBA landscape. He’s the reason (alongside some questionable drafting decisions ahead of him) that the sixers have Tyrese Maxey. The sixers had no 1s that spring and Muscala hit that buzzer beater vs the Heat for the thunder in the final bubble game. It conveyed the Thunder pick to the Sixers and they took Maxey. If he doesn’t hit that shot, likely the sixers are in another rebuild as their future would’ve been barren and Embiid probably would’ve asked for a trade.
Crazy how this one random role player hit a shot in an inconsequential game during the pandemic and it possibly altered the complexion of the Eastern Conference.
Reminds me of Hou Texans winning last game of the year to “ slide “ to 2
Would they have gone B Young … we”ll never know
Cavs? We can always use more 3pt shooting. And Damian Jones is a nothing burger in the frontcourt. A random nobody off the street with his physical attributes would be better.
I’d state the obvious that the Bulls should sign him but he plays a position they need. So he’s out.
akme would sign another guard. Im sick with this fo
GS
Nah…To late. The team is just starting to come together. It will screw things up trying to figure out to find time for him and who to bench. He doesn’t provide them with much defensively.
Why would them adding a player matter if the game is fixed, Luke?
Thunder go bring him back
Celtics. He knows the system. And Celtics needs another 3pt shooter. Their coach motto is “You live by the 3, You die by the 3”.
Celtics have zero need.