Troy Weaver‘s four-year stint running the Pistons was a flop but he did gift his successor, Trajan Langdon, with over $60MM in salary cap space this summer.
Detroit’s new president of basketball operations didn’t make any blockbuster deals, nor did he accumulate many future assets. Instead, Langdon mainly chose to bring in veteran help on short-team deals to make the team more competitive while easing the burden on the team’s star, Cade Cunningham.
The most significant transaction was bringing in free agent Tobias Harris on a two-year, $52MM deal. Harris, 32, wasn’t the difference-maker the Sixers hoped he would be when they signed him to a five-year, $180MM contract in 2019, but he’s a solid, durable and productive starter.
Langdon took on Tim Hardaway Jr.‘s $16.2MM salary in a trade with Dallas with three future second-rounders attached as sweeteners. Free agent Malik Beasley was signed to a one-year, $6MM deal and restricted free agent Simone Fontecchio was brought back on a two-year, $16MM contract.
That quartet should dramatically improve the team’s woeful perimeter shooting while tapping into Cunningham’s play-making ability. They’ll also greatly boost the professionalism for a team that endured the worst season in franchise history. It’s quite possible some of the veterans will be flipped for assets during the season.
Detroit also claimed big man Paul Reed off waivers, though his contract doesn’t become full guaranteed until midseason.
The other major move, unrelated to the cap, was firing Monty Williams and hiring J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach. Bickerstaff was eager to get another coaching job after getting fired by the Cavaliers. Williams had to be coaxed by owner Tom Gores into coaching last season via a lucrative six-year contract. Gores was willing to eat the remaining years on Williams’ contract in order to give Langdon and the organization a fresh start.
The Pistons only have 13 players on guaranteed deals and still have around $10.2MM in cap space, so it seems likely Langdon will make another free agent move or trade before training camp.
Langdon swung for the fences in the lottery, choosing Ron Holland with the fifth overall pick, which many experts considered a reach. The Pistons front office hopes Holland, who played well in the Las Vegas Summer League, can develop his offensive game to match his physical skills.
That brings us to our topic of the day: How do you view the Pistons’ offseason? Should they have made a bigger splash or added more assets? Or was Langdon wise to use his cap room to bring in veteran players on short-term deals?
Please take to the comments section to weigh on this topic. We look forward to your input.
How to view the Pistons off-season? Owner has no clue, hires unproven new GM who immediately proves he’s incompetent.
Unproven GM doesn’t want to develop previous GM’s high lottery picks, will instead overpay unwanted veteran free agents and play his own badly advised lottery picks. Previous lottery picks will be exchanged for inferior value, some becoming stars on other teams.
This year Pistons win 22 games, next year they win 23, then new GM is fired.
Rinse and repeat.
“Unwanted”
All the sweetners in the world won’t make the THJ deal any less bitter. Poor first impression, and then a bunch of moves about nothing.
Bringing in veterans can be important part of team building. But the idea is to bring in players with profiles similar to those you will want in the younger (and hopefully more talented) players that will eventually ascend to their roles. Harris, THJ, Beasley are about as far from what I would want in that regard as I can imagine.
When will these owners learn that if they ever want their team to truly contend, they need to hire a commenter from Hoops Rumors – that’s where you find all the experts for these front office jobs.
The problem in DET is the owner did hire one, or the equivalent.
The Thj thing almost feels like Nico has some friends over in Det.
Either that or Det just didn’t realize how much leverage they had in the market (not a good look) Agreed tho, sloppy a## use of resources this free agency from them
It is way too early to judge. Most of this off-season was spent completely overhauling the front office. The work they do, collectively, should be judged over a couple years- not a couple months.
I was immediately on the record last year criticizing the Monte hiring, but they somehow took a step back in the coaching department, and I am not sure they have made any personnel improvements that will make a difference in their long term outlook. Can they win 35 games, I doubt it. If I were ranking the worst 3 future outlooks in the NBA it would Chicago, Charlotte and Detroit, Atlanta in a bit of a distant 4th.
Not a Pistons fan, but I don’t understand why they haven’t at least made an offer an Isaac Okoro. Even after all of these moves, they still have about $12.5 Million in Cap Space. They could offer him a deal slightly less than the Full Mid-Level Exception and let him choose how many years he wants. He could take something like 4 years, $53 Million or even if he just wanted to do 2-years and ~26 Mil. He would still make more money than his qualifying offer and have the security of additional years. The deal would make sense fie both sides. Now, the Cavs could match the offer, but doing so would buy them in a tough position as they would be above the luxury tax threshold and would barely have room to add 2 more minimum contracts to fill their 15-man roster.
The pistons just hired J.B Bickerstaff as their head coach. He spent the last couple seasons in Cleveland with Okoro. Why not take a chance on a solid young forward who was a top-5 pick & still has potential???
Pistons goal should be to get their FRP back from NYK. Last GM failed to do so. Pick is in limbo until 2028 and they can’t make a trade except for draft night bc of that.
Firing Monty wasn’t logical at all …….. that $65M aside, Monty and that noobish core deserve to get at least a year more, just for the continuity of things.
It’s not as if Monty was replaced by an elite coach, it’s JB who was fired not a few months ago.
why but why did they sign t.harris and t.hardaway jr ? Was there nobody else?
For the two people who stumble across this post months later, after the trade deadline, just putting this contrarian opinion here: The short-term vet signings are going to come in handy later as expiring salary matches attached to players who can actually play. Great assets to later pick up either an impact player (maybe too soon for that) or a salary dump with real assets attached.