The Detroit Pistons may have a hard cap dilemma

The Detroit Pistons made their first foray into free agency, signing Langston Galloway to a three-year $21 million contract. Now, however, they may be hard capped.

The Detroit Pistons are on the board in free agency, having signed Langston Galloway to a three-year $21 million contract. He’s a good depth piece who can play either point guard or shooting guard, shoots the three very well (39 percent last year and 47.5 percent after being traded to the Sacramento Kings at the deadline) and is a capable defender.

At face value, Galloway is a shrewd signing at an affordable price for a team that is poised to be up against the luxury tax. Unfortunately, the Pistons were a little too close to that luxury tax and may have backed themselves into a corner.

The salary cap structure is such that the cap itself is $99 million, the luxury tax kicks in at $119 million, and the luxury tax apron is $125 million. Signing Galloway to this deal used more than $5.2 million of the mid-level exception, which means that if the Pistons want to re-sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, they’re about $3.4 million over the apron. Using more than $5.2 million of the MLE means that the apron becomes a hard cap. As the Pistons’ roster stands now, if they had to match a max offer for KCP they would have to dump salary to do so.

This means that the Pistons will likely have to make further moves if they expect the Brooklyn Nets to offer the max, which is what they’ve been preparing for. Of course, if the Nets offer several million below the max, the Pistons are in good shape, but there’s no reason to expect this outcome.

Next: Locked On Pistons - A Chauncey Billups breakdown

While it’s likely that retaining KCP is still the Detroit Pistons’ primary goal, things just got a bit more interesting in Auburn Hills.