Detroit Pistons: Victim of the worst free agency

The Detroit Pistons were victim of the 2016 free agency. They weren’t the only team to fall victim, but definitely were hit hard to this day of the free agency.

The 2016 NBA Free Agency was by far the worst ever; teams expecting the salary cap to rise but inventively not is  a prime example. Players like Allen Crabbe, Joakim Noah, and Chandler Parsons – just to list a few, but there are many, many, many more – all received 70+ million dollars each after fairly average seasons.

These guys are just the start of a list of players who were disappointing contracts, most of these disappointing contracts are still on those teams they once signed with and rides on the bench all year, traded to another team, or bought out.

There are more stories of how the 2016 free agency doomed team’s salary cap situation.

The Detroit Pistons were a team who just came off a good (best record the team has had since 2008, still hasn’t been beaten) 44-38 season in the 2015-16 season. The team looked good for the next year; the only issue was the depth. You know it’s bad when Steve Blake is getting playing time in the playoffs, and he was, not much but still was.

The team played their starters an average of 37 minutes a game. Not because they were the greatest starting lineup ever, they weren’t, but because you couldn’t play anyone else!

The Pistons deemed it obvious to improve their depth, so Stan Van went out and attempted to improve their depth.

They first got what at that time seemed like a steal in the first round of the draft, Henry Ellenson, a good stretch-four or five because why not, who didn’t want a stretch four in 2016? Who could also provide solid rebounding and good bench help for Andre Drummond. Henry has spent most of his career in the G-League.

Now here is where it gets good, the 2016 NBA Free Agency. The first move was finding a backup for Reggie Jackson, so they inked Ish Smith with a three-year $18 million deal. Smith came off a great year in Philly averaging 14 points and 7 assists per game. This deal seemed good at the time, and today it doesn’t disappoint many Pistons fans.

The next move was re-signing Andre Drummond. Drummond was, maybe still is, the biggest talent on our roster. His great ability to rebound, be a big force down low and really give the Pistons the ability to play small around him let the Pistons know he was a must to re sign.

In July, they signed him to a five-year $130 million deal making him the highest paid Piston of all time. It seemed okay at the time, Mike Conley the same day signed a deal worth more than $20 million than Drummond. The next year Andre busted, blamed it on a deviated septum…. The question of the deal being worth it is a debate to this day; Zach Lowe believes many GMs wont even take his contract, so maybe that ends that debate.

So far we’ve spent $32 million (per year), and $148 million (in total), how can we spend more?

Oh let’s bring this stretch-four who’s career high in points per game is less than what we are going to pay him per year. It was Jon Leuer, a guy who got a four-year $42 million deal playing in Memphis and Phoenix.

He looked good, and for a little bit he did pretty well. He seemed like he was going to be ready to dance and be a solid back up or starter, but injuries have been plaguing him for a while now leaving him off the court for long stretches playing in only 35 games in the past two seasons. In the little time he’s played these past two seasons he hasn’t shined, giving us half of the production we were accustomed to with him.

BOBAN!!!

I loved this signing at the time, this guy had one of the highest PER’s last season with the Spurs. He’s the tallest guy in the league, and who’s not scared of him.

But, we signed him to a three-year $21 million deal which never turned into a good investment for us. He sat on the bench, and seemed more like a mascot than a player. I knew there was no respect for him as a player when I saw the entire team teaching him how to play defense, during a game. He found a new home in LA and is enjoying it; you didn’t workout for us, but you were fun to watch Boban.

Also, a little side note, Reggie Jackson went into the season signing a *gasp* five-year $80 million deal, which may have been the worst thing that the Pistons have done in the past few years. But since it was not in the 2016 off-season we will not include it into our list.

So here’s the roundup

Ish Smith – three-year – $18 million

Andre Drummond – five-year – $130 million (resign)

Jon Leuer – four-year – $42 million

Boban Marjanovic – three-year – $21 million (traded)

Nearly $50 million of salary cap spent in one off-season that is still plaguing the Detroit Pistons to this day. This has limited our team from making any big improvements in free agency.

I wouldn’t say I would pay face value for any of these player’s contracts today, not even Drummond or Smith’s. This even nearly put us into the luxury tax, who pays luxury tax for an average team who makes you no money?

These are bad contracts that SVG, and Ed Stefanski couldn’t even get rid of. I truly believe that because of the false claim that the NBA Salary Cap was going to rise it killed the growth of the Detroit Pistons, and Van Gundy’s job.

For a team that doesn’t like rebuilding through the draft (or rebuild in general), acquiring names is the only option, without money there’s no way to do that. The Detroit Pistons are stuck up against a wall, and it all starts from this off-season, the one they can clearly never recover from.