Offseason Approach

Re-sign key free agents and keep pushing forward

Actual Cap Space

-$33.6 million

Practical Cap Space

-$33.6 million

Projected Luxury Tax Space

$52.7 million

Under Contract (12)

Cade Cunningham
Jalen Duren
Simone Fontecchio
Ron Harper Jr. (to-way)
Tobias Harris
Ron Holland II
Jaden Ivey
Bobi Klintman
Marcus Sasser
Tolu Smith (two-way)
Isaiah Stewart II
Ausar Thompson

View Roster

Potential Free Agents (6)

Malik Beasley (unrestricted)
Tim Hardaway Jr. (unrestricted)
Daniss Jenkins (restricted – two-way)
Paul Reed (unrestricted)
Dennis Schroder (unrestricted)
Lindy Waters III (unrestricted)

View Free Agents

Dead Cap (0)

None

Projected Signing Exceptions

Non-Taxpayer MLE ($14.1 million)
Bi-Annual Exception ($5.1 million)

Notable Trade Exceptions

None

First Round Draft Picks

None

Notable Extension Candidates

Jalen Duren (rookie scale extension)
Tim Hardaway Jr. (veteran extension – through June 30)
Jaden Ivey (rookie scale extension)

Analysis

The Detroit Pistons took a major step forward last season. A year after setting records for futility, Detroit made the playoffs and pushed the New York Knicks in the first round.

This summer, the Pistons have options. One of those options includes creating cap space, but in a change from recent offseason, Detroit won’t just be in the market to take on bad contracts for draft capital.

How quickly things can change in just one year!

The major items for Detroit this summer are to re-sign Malik Beasley and Dennis Schroder, or to find suitable replacements for either veteran guard. Tim Hardaway Jr. is probably rung lower on the importance list, but far too many are dismissing a player who started 77 games as an afterthought.

How Trajan Langdon goes about re-signing his guys will have an impact on the rest of the summer for Detroit. This isn’t as straightforward as simply re-signing players, because the Pistons don’t have full Bird rights for either Beasley or Schroder.

The first path, and the more preferable one, is for Detroit to stay over the cap. They can then offer Beasley most, if not all, of the Non-Taxpayer MLE. That would be a starting salary of $14.1 million for next season, with a full value of $60.6 million over four years.

Given that Beasley took just $6 million next year, then nearly won Sixth Man of the Year, he’s going to get a hefty raise. The MLE should be enough, considering only the Brooklyn Nets could offer more in terms of a straight signing. And that’s not a direction the Nets are likely heading in.

If the Pistons stay over the cap and commit the MLE to Beasley, they could then use Schroder’s Early Bird rights to give him a new deal. They can start him around the $13 million he played for last season, or give him a slight raise. Because he’s a bit older, something around $42 million over three seasons feels about right for Schroder.

From there, Hardaway could be re-signed using his Bird rights. He’s not going to get the $16.2 million he played for a year ago, but $30 million over three seasons makes sense. And it would be even better if Hardaway would agree to have that deal frontloaded some too. That would help ease things in the out years, when Detroit will be carrying more salary for other players.

Paul Reed and Lindy Waters III could both be brought back as depth players on veteran minimum deals. That’s true if the Pistons have to use cap space too. Let’s go there next.

Let’s say Beasley wants more than the Non-Taxpayer MLE. That would require the Pistons renouncing their free agents to create up to about $16.9 million in cap space. (This figure went down by about $8 million when Cade Cunningham was named All-NBA and earned a 30% of the cap max.) In this scenario, Detroit would also have the $8.8 million Room Exception to work with too.

Let’s assume that Beasley would need all of the available cap space. That’d work out to a max of $72.7 million over four seasons. Certainly, more than the MLE, but not by a massive amount.

We’ll project from there, that the Room Exception would be used to re-sign Dennis Schroder for a deal worth up to $27.6 million over three years. That’s a decent drop from what we proposed the Pistons would re-sign Schroder for using his Early Bird rights.

Because Detroit would have renounced Hardaway to create cap space, they wouldn’t be able to offer him more than a veteran minimum deal. That probably means he’d head elsewhere for more money.

Ultimately, this will come down to how much money Beasley wants in free agency. If he’s open to taking less, but still over-doubling his salary from last season, staying over the cap and using the MLE should be the play. Otherwise, things get a bit more complicated with trying to also re-sign Schroder and Hardaway.

Of course, Detroit could create additional cap space by moving off a contract or two. They’ve been mentioned as potential players for free agent centers like Myles Turner, Naz Reid or Santi Aldama. The easily-created $16.9 million won’t probably be enough for any of Turner, Reid or Aldama. But if the Pistons were to move off another contract or two, they could get into a pretty competitive range for one of that trio.

As exciting as that may be, it would very likely mean losing all of Beasley, Schroder and Hardaway. Is adding a veteran center, when the Pistons already have Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart II, really that big of a priority?

All of that said, don’t fully rule out sign-and-trade possibilities for Reid or Aldama. Both could end up casualties of cost-cutting efforts by their current teams. If so, Detroit could be positioned to pick up either player via a sign-and-trade deal. It’s pretty unlikely that the Pacers would help a division rival in a sign-and-trade for Turner, unless Indiana was being heavily compensated to do so.

If the Pistons more or less run it back, they don’t have a lot of holes on the roster. Another forward would be nice, simply to give Tobias Harris a stronger backup. Detroit is very high on Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland II, so don’t expect the team to bring in a wing that would take away much playing time from either player. In the backcourt, Jaden Ivey will be full-go at the start of the season, which will only add to the team’s guard depth.

Speaking of Ivey, he and Jalen Duren are both eligible for rookie scale extensions. Both are players that Detroit would like to retain on long-term deals.

Ivey was having his best all-around season before he broke his leg on January 1. While much was made of Cade Cunningham playing with better spacing around him, Ivey was an equal beneficiary of that spacing too. With more room to work, Ivey put up career-bests nearly across the board, including 46/41/73 shooting splits.

Ivey being able to defend either guard position, plus his ability to work on- or off-ball on offense makes him a perfect backcourt partner for Cunningham. An extension in the range of $25 to $30 million AAV makes sense. For Detroit, they should look to lock Ivey up on something around $135 million over five years. That’d be an AAV of $27 million per season. The high range should be $150 million and an AAV of $30 million per season.

For Duren, he took major steps forward this past season as a defender and showed real improvement on offense. To put it simply, it looked like things clicked for Duren on both ends of the floor. He’s never going to be an all-defense candidate, but Duren was out of position a lot less last season. He remains an elite rebounder.

On offense, Duren made better passing reads, especially on the short roll. He was also far more effective at finishing in the paint. Having Cunningham’s playmaking around for a full season, combined with better overall spacing, kept Duren closer to the rim than ever. Trading contested flip shots from floater range for layups and dunks resulted in a far more efficient offensive player.

Centers still get paid in the NBA. As more teams move back to two-big lineups, that’s going to be even more true. A contract in the same ranges as we laid out for Ivey should be in play for Duren.

Both Duren and Ivey are important players for the Pistons. Next summer, there should be more teams with cap space. That could lead to some offer sheets in restricted free agency. That’s not a game Detroit wants to play. They’re best off locking up both of their young players themselves this offseason.

The Detroit Pistons had their best season in well over a decade last year. Everything is in place for a repeat performance. It’s a big summer for Trajan Langdon to retain talent, while finding small upgrades where he can around the edges of the rotation. It’s not time for an all-in move yet in Detroit. But another year of winning and another playoff appearance puts the Pistons in place to make the big move as soon as a year from now.