The Stan Van Gundy Front Office Chronicles
By Joe Imburgia
2014-15 Season
July 2014
In Stan Van Gundy’s first free agency with the Pistons, he signed three notable players including D.J. Augustin, Caron Butler, and Jodie Meeks. All three of these players didn’t necessary contribute much to the Pistons success on the court, but were very important assets for future trades.
December 2014
After the Pistons started off the season with a 5-23 record, Van Gundy saw the need for change. He decided to release Josh Smith who had just signed a four-year, $54 million dollar contract (given by Joe Dumars) during free agency in 2013. He was never a good fit with the Pistons though Van Gundy tried to make it work the previous season but to no avail. Smith had $28 million remaining on his contract after the 2014-15 season.
Van Gundy elected to use the stretch provision on Smith, which allowed the Pistons to pay Smith $5.4 million each year for the next five years rather than the normal method of paying his salary for the last two years of his contract. So essentially the Pistons will be paying Josh Smith $5.4 million every year through the 2019-20 season to not play for them, though this move did create an important $8.1 million in cap space for free agency in 2015 and 2016.
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It’s fair to suggest that Van Gundy should have traded Smith to avoid the salary hit though it’s almost certain they would have gotten very little in return if there even was a team willing to take on Smith. Overall, the Josh Smith experience was a mistake and will hurt the Pistons on the books for handful of years though the rising salary cap makes the impact of Smith’s dead salary on the Pistons a little less harmful.
February 2015
The Pistons acquired Reggie Jackson from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a trade in exchange for D.J. Augustin, Kyle Singler, and second round picks in 2017 and 2019. Augustin and Singler are fringe backup players at best and to not have to give up a first round pick in this deal was surprising. It’s fair to say that Reggie Jackson is currently somewhere between a solid starting point guard and a fringe all-star caliber player.
Looking back on this trade, you would be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t think the Pistons won this deal. Later this month, the Pistons claimed Shawne Williams off waivers.
June 2015
The Detroit Pistons traded Caron Butler and Shawne Williams to the Milwaukee Bucks for Ersan Ilyasova. Caron Butler and Shawne Williams were two fringe rotation players on one-year contracts while Ilysavoa is probably best used as backup stretch four. Ilyasova gave the Pistons a player who was a better asset than Williams and Butler and Van Gundy would later exercise that in another trade.
However, the Pistons did acquire him to be their starting power forward at the time and provide some floor spacing with his outside shooting. Ilysavoa proved to only be a stopgap at the power forward position for the Pistons as they later acquired other players who are better options for that role.
Overall, to get Ilyasova for just two fringe rotation players on one-year contracts was a great haul for Stan Van Gundy and the Pistons. Later that month, the Pistons possessed two picks in the 2015 NBA draft in which they selected Stanley Johnson and Darrun Hilliard. Both players have potential to be role part of the Pistons rotation while Johnson (hopefully) could become even more than a role player.
Next: 2015-16 Season