Pistons renounce KCP after trading for Avery Bradley
By Duncan Smith
After a trade on Friday morning, sending Marcus Morris to the Boston Celtics for Avery Bradley, the Detroit Pistons have renounced Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The writing was on the wall for the Detroit Pistons. The Brooklyn Nets have made a max offer to restricted free agent Otto Porter of the Washington Wizards, and once the Wizards match, their sights will likely be set on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The Pistons decided to be proactive rather than wait to deal with this future offer sheet, and they traded Marcus Morris to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Avery Bradley and a 2019 second round pick. This provided the Celtics with almost exactly the amount of salary relief they needed in order to complete their signing of Gordon Hayward and gave the Pistons an upgrade over KCP at the shooting guard spot at a much more affordable price.
To indicate the end of the Kentavious Caldwell-Pope era in Detroit, the Pistons wasted no time in renouncing his rights and pulling his qualifying offer.
Detroit is renouncing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2017
This means that KCP becomes an unrestricted free agent on the open market, and the Pistons have no further rights to him or matching ability. They also have no ability to sign-and-trade him.
Buzz around the league began immediately once news broke.
Assuming Washington matches on Otto Porter sheet, Brooklyn will be a strong contender in the pursuit of Caldwell-Pope, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/pDNMtsnReg
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2017
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope now becomes the top unrestricted free agent on the market.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 7, 2017
Sources: If Caldwell-Pope's willing to do a one-year balloon deal, the Los Angeles Lakers have significant interest in pursuing him.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2017
The Pistons now have 12 players on the roster with about $110 million in salary on the books for the coming season. They’re $11 million over the salary cap, $9 million under the luxury tax and about $15 million under the luxury apron, which is a hard cap because they use more than $5.2 million of the mid-level exception to sign Langston Galloway.
Considering that the Pistons are already a hard cap team, they may also use the $3.29 million bi-annual exception to help fill out the roster. The downside of using the BAE is that it hard caps teams who use it, but the Pistons have already suffered that fate.
Next: Are there more moves coming for the Detroit Pistons?
The Pistons have turned over about a quarter of their roster since the day before free agency began, moving on from Darrun Hilliard, Marcus Morris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and adding Langston Galloway, Eric Moreland and Avery Bradley.