- A handful of NBA players are taking part in a basketball tournament in Paris this week, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post, who reports that Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina, Pistons forward Sekou Doumbouya, and Bulls two-way player Adam Mokoka are participating in the event.
The NBA has moved up its 2020 draft lottery by five days, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the event, previously tentatively scheduled for August 25, will now take place on Thursday, August 20.
The eight teams with the best odds in this year’s lottery are the same eight teams that weren’t invited to participate in the resumption of the 2019/20 season in Orlando. The Warriors, Cavaliers, and Timberwolves each have a 14.0% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, followed by the Hawks (12.5%), Pistons (10.5%), Knicks (9.0%), Bulls (7.5%), and Hornets (6.0%).
The other six teams that will be part of the 2020 lottery will be determined once this season’s 16 playoff teams have been set, which will happen a few days before August 20. The six clubs in Orlando that don’t make the postseason will occupy the bottom six spots in the lottery standings — their order will be determined by their records as of March 11.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: NBA Draft Lottery]
The tentative 2020 NBA draft lottery odds, assuming the Grizzlies, Magic, and Nets all hang onto their playoff spots, can be found right here. This year’s draft will take place on October 16.
- James L. Edwards III of The Athletic shares an interesting story on how Langston Galloway is spending this time during the hiatus — the Pistons guard, an unrestricted free agent, is becoming certified as a personal trainer.
The Pistons‘ offseason decisions will be heavily influenced by what happens with the NBA’s salary cap, writes James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. Originally projected at $116MM, there have been rumors that the cap for next season could remain at $109MM. That would limit the flexibility for Detroit, which has just four players under contract beyond this year.
That number will likely grow when Tony Snell exercises his $12.178MM player option, Edwards notes, and second-year guards Bruce Brown and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk are expected to be brought back for $1.6MM each, along with Khyri Thomas. That would leave the Pistons with a seven-man roster at roughly $76MM, giving the team nearly $30MM in cap room.
The top priority will be re-signing Christian Wood, who blossomed as a star after the trade of Andre Drummond. If a depressed market allows Detroit to keep Wood at a reasonable price — Edwards estimates around $12MM per year — the team could have enough left to make a serious run at Toronto guard Fred VanVleet. The downside, Edwards points out, is that the Pistons would have to fill out the roster with just a $4.8MM mid-level exception and minimum contracts.
There’s more from Detroit:
- Derrick Rose is likely to be moved sometime before next year’s trade deadline, Edwards adds in a mailbag column. It depends on Rose maintaining his health and high level of play after he turns 32 in October, but Edwards notes that the veteran guard is only under contract for one more year and Detroit doesn’t look like a playoff contender next season.
- There’s little chance the Pistons would consider an early termination of coach Dwane Casey, even though the organization is in a far different position than when he was hired two years ago, observes Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press. Casey seems to have accepted the challenge of a rebuild, just as he did in Toronto. He was also involved in the interview process that led to the hiring of new general manager Troy Weaver. “Dwane Casey is the rock of the organization,” senior advisor Arn Tellem said in a recent radio interview. “We were lucky to get him a couple of years ago when we went through this search. He’s a true leader of this organization.”
- Weaver penned a message to Pistons fans on the team’s website, discussing his decision to leave Oklahoma City and his long relationship with Tellem while acknowledging, “We have work to do to make the roster better.”
The Pistons are overhauling their front office this summer, hiring Troy Weaver as their new general manager and David Mincberg as an assistant GM, as former assistant GMs Malik Rose and Pat Garrity leave the organization.
Although Weaver is ostensibly atop the basketball operations hierarchy, basketball decisions figure to be something of a group effort. Senior advisor Ed Stefanski, who has served as the de facto head of basketball operations for the last two years, is still in the picture. And according to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, sources around the NBA believe that vice chairman Arn Tellem “still has a significant voice in front office matters.”
The changing landscape in Detroit makes it unclear whose voice will be the loudest if there’s any disagreement on which player to draft in the lottery this fall. However, Vecenie – who has the Pistons picking seventh in his latest mock – suggests that Iowa State guard Tyrese Haliburton would be a nice fit, since he’s versatile to play alongside either Luke Kennard or Derrick Rose, if one of the two is traded.
Here’s more on the Pistons:
- James L. Edwards III and John Hollinger of The Athletic examine the Pistons’ future, with Hollinger arguing there’s no urgency to trade Blake Griffin and suggesting that Detroit should be reluctant to re-sign Christian Wood if the cost is higher than about $15-16MM annually.
- A first-round pick in 2017, Justin Patton has yet to enjoy much success at the NBA level, but the Pistons will give him a chance to earn a place on next year’s roster, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com writes. While Patton is unlikely to replicate Wood’s success, Langlois points out that the signing of Patton is a low-risk, high-upside move not unlike last summer’s Wood waiver claim.
- Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press revisits Detroit’s pick of Kennard at No. 12 in the 2017 draft, noting that the sharpshooter has been one of the team’s more productive draft picks in recent years, even if Pistons fans would rather have one of the two players selected right after him (Donovan Mitchell or Bam Adebayo).
- Pistons coach Dwane Casey expressed similar sentiments regarding his rebuilding club, according to Pistons.com’s Keith Langlois, though he may prefer to hold a team mini-camp rather than traveling to another city. There’s only so much a player can benefit from one-on-one drills, so Casey would like to get his players in scrimmages and other team activities, particularly last year’s top pick, Sekou Doumbouya. “He needs an entire summer to get work,” Casey said. “He’s getting the one-on-one stuff, but he needs to go out and get the competition that young players need.”
- The Pistons have hired David Mincberg, the Bucks’ former director of basketball strategy, and his role as an assistant GM could be broad, as Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press explains. Mincberg’s responsibilities could have a jack-of-all-trades feel to it, since he brings experience in scouting, analytics, salary-cap management and legal counsel.
JULY 9: The Pistons have officially hired Mincberg as an assistant general manager, announcing the move today in a press release.
JULY 7: The Pistons are hiring Bucks executive David Mincberg to fill an assistant general manager role in their front office, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Mincberg, who previously worked in the Grizzlies’ legal and scouting departments, has been in the Bucks’ front office for the last three years under GM Jon Horst. As Wojnarowski notes, Mincberg most recently served as Milwaukee’s vice president of basketball strategy.
It’s the first front office addition the Pistons have made since hiring new general manager Troy Weaver, who presumably played a role in the pursuit and hiring of Mincberg. Detroit has lost two assistant GMs this year, with Malik Rose leaving the team for a job in the NBA’s league office and Pat Garrity departing the organization as well.
Given both of those losses, Mincberg won’t be the last executive hired by the Pistons to fill out Weaver’s new-look basketball operations department. Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link) hears that the club will likely make “at least” two more hires.
- It’s not clear yet what responsibilities new Pistons assistant GM David Mincberg will take on, but the veteran executive is “something of a jack-of-all-trades addition” for the team, according to Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press, who notes that Mincberg has experience in scouting, analytics, salary cap management, and legal counsel.
The Pistons won’t have to make decisions on three young players with non-guaranteed deals until October, James Edwards III of The Athletic notes.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the Pistons had to decide whether to pick up the contracts of Bruce Brown, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Khyri Thomas during the first two weeks of July with each player scheduled to make approximately $1.66MM next season. That date has been pushed back until after the playoffs are completed in Orlando.
It’s a given that Detroit will exercise its team option on Mykhailiuk and guarantee Brown’s contract, but Thomas’ situation is uncertain. He missed most of the season with a foot injury and returned to action shortly before the stoppage of play. The coaching staff believes Thomas can be a contributor, which helps his chances of getting his deal guaranteed, Edwards adds.
We have more on the Pistons:
- New GM Troy Weaver has said he’ll be looking for a high-character player in the lottery. That increases the chances that the team will draft Auburn’s Isaac Okoro, USC’s Onyeka Okongwu or Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Though none are currently ranked at the very top of the draft, that trio consistently draws high marks among scouts, college coaches and NBA executives for their personality traits, Langlois adds.
- The mutual respect between Weaver and coach Dwane Casey bodes well for the franchise’s future, Langlois writes in a separate piece. Casey has proven he can develop talent and he has full confidence that Weaver will acquire the type of talent that can lift the franchise back to prominence, Langlois adds.
- Assitant GM Pat Garrity is leaving the organization. Get all the details here.
Pistons assistant general manager Pat Garrity is leaving the team’s front office, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). As Wojnarowski explains, Garrity had been on an expiring contract and new general manager Troy Weaver has begun to reshape Detroit’s front office.
Garrity, a former NBA forward for the Suns and Magic, joined the Pistons’ front office in 2014 as the team’s director of strategic planning. He received a promotion in 2016 to assistant GM and continued to hold that position when Ed Stefanski became the club’s head of basketball operations in 2018.
The Pistons’ front office is undergoing some changes this year. Besides the hiring of Weaver, the team has now lost a pair of assistant GMs, with Garrity joining Malik Rose in departing the organization. Rose was hired by the NBA league office as a vice president of basketball operations.
It’s not known what the next step is for Garrity, though he previously interviewed to be the NBPA’s next executive director. As for the Pistons, they were already believed to be in the market for a new assistant GM under Weaver — with Garrity and Rose both now out of the picture, it’s possible the franchise will make multiple hires.