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Gores Rejects Call To Sell Pistons

December 27th, 2020 at 8:59am CST by Arthur Hill

A nearly empty arena took away some of the excitement of Andre Drummond‘s return to Detroit on Saturday night, but the experience was still memorable for the Cavaliers‘ center, who spent the first seven and a half years of his career with the Pistons, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Drummond was a franchise cornerstone from the time he was taken in the 2012 draft, but he became expendable at the February trade deadline when Detroit decided to shed salary and embrace rebuilding. Pistons coach Dwane Casey has watched Drummond a few times since the trade and has noticed his growth on offense since arriving in Cleveland.

Gores is rejecting a call to sell the Pistons because of his ownership of a prison telecom company that is accused of charging inmates up to $15 for a 15-minute phone call, according to Eric Woodyard of ESPN.

NBA Teams With Open Roster Spots To Start Season

December 24th, 2020 at 12:23pm CST by Luke Adams

Now that the regular season is underway, no NBA team is carrying more than 17 players in total — 15 on standard contracts and two on two-way deals. However, not every team is making use of all 17 roster spots available to them.

Currently, 12 of the league’s 30 teams have at least one open roster spot, either on their regular roster or in their two-way slots.

Those dozen teams have different reasons for not carrying a 15th man on their standard roster. For some clubs, the decision is likely financially motivated, since an open roster spot means not having to pay an extra player.

Some teams may want to maintain the roster flexibility that an open roster provides — it can allow a club to act quickly and decisively in the event of an injury or a two-for-one trade opportunity.

A handful of teams actually can’t add a 15th man at this point, since they’re too close to their hard cap and won’t be able to fit another minimum-salary contract below that hard cap until later in the season.

With the G League season not yet underway, a healthy team may simply decide there’s no point in filling the 15th spot with a developmental player who won’t see any game action. That may also be the reason why some teams haven’t yet filled both their two-way contract slots.

Listed below, with the help of our roster counts breakdown, are the teams that aren’t carrying full rosters.

Teams with an open 15-man roster spot:

Charlotte Hornets
Houston Rockets *
Los Angeles Clippers *
Los Angeles Lakers *
Milwaukee Bucks *
Minnesota Timberwolves
New Orleans Pelicans
Portland Trail Blazers
San Antonio Spurs
Utah Jazz

Note: An asterisk (*) denotes that the team can’t currently sign a 15th man due to the hard cap.

Teams with an open two-way slot:

Detroit Pistons
Phoenix Suns
Portland Trail Blazers

Weaver Plans To Stay Aggressive

December 22nd, 2020 at 9:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

As we noted, the Pistons remade their roster more than any team in the league. New GM Troy Weaver promises to continue making changes. “We are going to stay aggressive,” Weaver said, per Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports. Owner Tom Gores is confident that Weaver has the franchise on the right path. “He is concise in how he sees talent. He sees it on a micro-level,” Gores said. “I’ve met a lot of executives who know basketball. Troy is just on a whole different level.”
The Pistons have a program that includes night sessions and extended practice sessions for players that would ordinarily be on their G League squad, coach Dwane Casey told Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link) and other media members. The Pistons had been affiliated with the Grand Rapids Drive but are switching to the newly-created Motor City Cruise in Detroit next season. They are not expected to participate in the G League bubble season in Atlanta.

NBA Teams With Most, Least Roster Continuity

December 22nd, 2020 at 10:53am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s offseason felt awfully busy, with free agency opening just two days after the draft and training camps starting about 10 days later. As hectic as those couple weeks were though, they actually didn’t feature a ton of player movement relative to a typical offseason.

A year ago, for instance, when we looked at the teams with the most and least roster continuity from year to year, we found that only one team was bringing back 13 players (counting two-ways) from its previous squad, while a total of four had 11 or more returning players.

This time around, seven clubs are bringing back 13 or more players from their end-of-season 2019/20 rosters, and a total of 18 teams will have 11 or more returning players. The Bulls and Pacers lead the way, having carried over 14 players apiece.

While the condensed offseason made for an exciting November, the quick turnaround also likely played a major part in teams’ decisions to stand relatively pat. Without a Summer League or the opportunity to conduct offseason mini-camps, teams haven’t had a lot of time to integrate new players, and have generally opted for as much continuity as possible.

Of course, while that may have been the general rule for the 2020 offseason, it certainly doesn’t apply to every team. A year ago, seven teams – including the eventual-champion Lakers – brought back just six players from their 2018/19 rosters. This time around, two clubs had that much turnover.

Of those two clubs, one – the Pistons – exhibited an impressive disregard for roster continuity, retaining just four players (Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose, Sekou Doumbouya, and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk) from last season’s roster. That’s the lowest number of returning players a team has had to start a season since the 2017 Celtics.

Here are the number of returning players for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, from most to fewest:

Chicago Bulls: 14
Indiana Pacers: 14
Boston Celtics: 13
Brooklyn Nets: 13
Memphis Grizzlies: 13
Miami Heat: 13
San Antonio Spurs: 13
Golden State Warriors: 12
Orlando Magic: 12
Cleveland Cavaliers: 11
Los Angeles Clippers: 11
Los Angeles Lakers: 11
Minnesota Timberwolves: 11
New York Knicks: 11
Sacramento Kings: 11
Toronto Raptors: 11
Utah Jazz: 11
Washington Wizards: 11
Charlotte Hornets: 10
Dallas Mavericks: 10
Denver Nuggets: 10
Portland Trail Blazers: 9
Atlanta Hawks: 8
Houston Rockets: 8
New Orleans Pelicans: 8
Phoenix Suns: 8
Milwaukee Bucks: 7
Philadelphia 76ers: 7
Oklahoma City Thunder: 6
Detroit Pistons: 4

Pistons Exercise Sekou Doumbouya’s 2021/22 Option

December 21st, 2020 at 10:49am CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons have exercised their 2021/22 team option on Sekou Doumbouya‘s rookie contract, league sources tell Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). The move guarantees the forward’s $3.6MM salary for the ’21/22 season.

Doumbouya, who will turn 20 on Wednesday, was the youngest player in the NBA last season after being selected 15th overall in the 2019 draft. He averaged 6.4 PPG and 3.1 RPG on .390/.286/.674 shooting in 38 games (19.8 MPG) as a rookie.

While Doumbouya’s contributions in 2019/20 were modest, he has flashed some promise during the preseason this month. Most notably, he racked up 23 points, five rebounds, and a pair of blocked shots in just 17 minutes of action against New York last Sunday.

As our tracker shows, Doumbouya’s rookie scale option was the only one left for the Pistons to pick up after they waived Zhaire Smith and Dzanan Musa. The deadline for teams to exercise those options is December 29.

Detroit’s next decision on Doumbouya will come a year from now, when the club will have to either exercise or decline his team option for 2022/23. Assuming that option is picked up, the Pistons forward will become eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2022 offseason.

Criminal Justice Group Pushing For Tom Gores To Sell Pistons

December 20th, 2020 at 8:55pm CST by JD Shaw

A criminal justice group has submitted a letter to NBA commissioner Adam Silver with hopes of forcing Pistons owner Tom Gores to sell the franchise, according to Davide Scigliuzzo of Bloomberg (via The Detroit News). The group’s concerns lie with Gores’ financial interest in Securus Technologies Inc., which came under fire this year for charging prisoners as much as $25 for a 15-minute call, Scigliuzzo writes.

Roster Moves Still Required For Thunder, Kings

December 20th, 2020 at 4:24pm CST by Luke Adams

Nearly every NBA team currently has a roster in compliance with regular season limits — no more than 15 players on standard contracts and two on two-way deals.

However, there are still a couple teams that will need to make at least one cut before Monday’s regular season roster deadline: Oklahoma City and Sacramento.

The Thunder are currently carrying 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts and one – Frank Jackson – on a partially guaranteed deal. Jackson appears likely to make the team, which means one of those players with a guaranteed salary will presumably be the final victim of the roster crunch.

While we don’t know for sure which player will be the odd man out, Kenrich Williams and Darius Miller appear to have the most tenuous holds on their roster spots. They came over from New Orleans in the Steven Adams deal and looked more like salary-matching pieces than players the Thunder were specifically targeting.

As for the Kings, they have 14 players on guaranteed contracts, one (Chimezie Metu) on a partially guaranteed contract, and one (Glenn Robinson III) on a non-guaranteed deal. Reporting on Saturday indicated that Robinson is expected to make the 15-man roster — that would make Metu the most obvious odd man out, though Sacramento may decide to cut Justin James or another player with a guaranteed salary.

If they do waive Metu, the Kings could theoretically bring him back on a two-way deal, since his partial guarantee doesn’t exceed $50K. He’d have to clear waivers first though.

As we explained on Saturday, while most teams completed their roster moves early, the Thunder and Kings can afford to take an extra day or two to consider their options without any financial ramifications, since they won’t be cutting a player who has a fully non-guaranteed contract.

While Oklahoma City and Sacramento are the only teams that still have to make moves today or tomorrow, we’ll likely see a little more roster shuffling before Monday’s deadline. Players who have been cut by one team might appeal to another club that has an open roster spot or an expendable 15th man.

Additionally, five teams still have one open two-way contract slot and may look to fill those openings before the season begins. Those clubs are the Pistons, Warriors, Suns, Trail Blazers, and Kings, as our tracker shows.

Central Notes: Cavs, Giannis Effect, Mad Ants, Pistons

December 20th, 2020 at 2:44pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Thanks to the intriguing addition of rookie swingman Isaac Okoro, drafted with the No. 6 pick out of Auburn, the Cavaliers will suddenly face some fun wing rotation questions, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Fedor speculates that Collin Sexton will most likely remain the starter at the shooting guard slot, pointing to head coach J.B. Bickerstaff‘s recent praise of Sexton. Bickerstaff declined to officially confirm whether or not Sexton would start.

“I think his performance last year, and at the end of last season, was above and beyond,” Bickerstaff said. “I think he’s one of those guys who earns the opportunity to play extended minutes.”

Fedor opines that the tough, defensive-minded Okoro’s strong showing in training camp and the preseason suggests that he deserves the opportunity to start over incumbent starting small forward Cedi Osman.

There’s more out of the Central Division:

The Bucks are benefiting from a “Giannis effect” merchandise boon, according to Jabari Young of CNBC. “The phone calls started both ways,” Matt Pazaras, chief business development and strategy officer for Milwaukee, said. The team’s sponsored jersey patch is now open for new bidders after its deal with Harley-Davidson expired this offseason. Interest in a sponsorship is strong now that MVP forward Giannis Antetokounmpo inked a record five-year, $228MM contract extension.
The G League affiliate of the Pacers, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, intend to take part in the proposed G League “bubble,” according to team president Tim Bawmann in a conversation on 1380 The FAN’s Sports Rush with Brett Rump, (hat tip to Caitlin Cooper of Indy Cornrows). Bawmann notes that the bubble’s locale could be Atlanta or Orlando.
With the 2020/21 NBA regular season fast approaching, James L. Edwards III of the Athletic assesses the depth chart for the Pistons and, in a surprise, speculates that oft-injured power forward Blake Griffin and new small forward Jerami Grant could play the most minutes per game (28) for a rebuilding Detroit team.

Pistons Waive Dzanan Musa

December 20th, 2020 at 11:33am CST by Arthur Hill

11:33am: The move is official, tweets Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press.

8:16am: The Pistons will waive swingman Dzanan Musa, a source tells Rod Beard of The Detroit News.

Musa will still earn $2,002,800 for the season as Detroit had 16 players in camp with guaranteed contracts. His $3,615,054 team option for 2021/22 will be voided unless he’s claimed on waivers.

The move will bring the roster down to 15 players on standard contracts, although Detroit still has an open two-way slot.

Musa was acquired from the Nets last month in a three-team trade that also brought Rodney McGruder and the draft rights to Saddiq Bey, the 19th pick this year. Musa spent two years in Brooklyn and averaged 4.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 40 games last season.

Why Many Teams Are Finalizing Roster Cuts On Saturday

December 19th, 2020 at 12:21pm CST by Luke Adams

NBA teams have until Monday night to officially set their rosters for the 2020/21 regular season. However, a majority of NBA teams will likely have their rosters ready to go on Saturday, with more roster cuts expected today than on Sunday or Monday.

Why is that? Well, releasing a player today will allow him to clear waivers on Monday, before the regular season gets underway.

Players who are cut during the season are also paid for each day they spend on waivers, so a player who hits waivers on Sunday and doesn’t clear until the first day of the season on Tuesday would technically earn one day’s worth of pay, even if his salary isn’t guaranteed. A player waived on Monday would spend two regular season days on waivers.

For players with partial or full guarantees, spending the first day or two of the regular season on waivers doesn’t really matter — they’re getting their full 2020/21 salary no matter when they’re released. But if a team waits until Monday to cut a player with a non-guaranteed salary, that team will be on the hook for two days’ worth of dead money for the player.

Two days’ worth of dead money won’t exactly break the bank — it shouldn’t be more than about $22K for a minimum-salary player. But most teams already know which players are in and which are out, so there’s no need to take the decision down to the wire on Monday. They’ll make those cuts today and will avoid adding extra cap charges to their books for ’20/21. Even that small amount of savings could make a difference for teams who are right around the tax line or up against a hard cap.

While many teams will make their cuts today, clubs like the Pistons and Thunder can afford to wait an extra day or two, since they’ll each be waiving a player who has a full or partial guarantee. Waiting until Sunday or Monday to make that move won’t affect their cap outlook at all.

[RELATED: 2020/21 NBA Roster Counts]

Meanwhile, it’s worth keeping an eye on a team like the Knicks, who have 15 players on guaranteed contracts but might want to retain veteran forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, whose deal is non-guaranteed. If New York hangs onto Kidd-Gilchrist and doesn’t trim its roster to 15 players on standard deals today, that’ll signal that the team likely plans to waive a player with a guaranteed salary by Monday.