Should the Detroit Pistons consider a reunion with Stanley Johnson?

The Detroit Pistons will head into free agency with plenty of open cap space. Should they consider bringing back a familiar face?

By the time free agency rolls around this season, which is set to occur later this fall, the Detroit Pistons will potentially have the most money available to spend in the entire league.

Considering the fact that they’re now in full rebuild mode, this means their options are more open than they’ve been in recent years, when they’ve been attempting to make regular pushes for the playoffs.

The upcoming pool of free agents is rather lackluster when you consider previous ones or even the one that’ll hit in 2021. Because of that, fans of any team, not just the Pistons, should expect that their team will have a pretty mellow offseason.

When thinking about who exactly Detroit should consider bringing on, admittedly one of the last names that will pop into fan’s minds would be Stanley Johnson. However, it may be a better idea than most would care to admit.

No, he’s not the “LeBron stopper” and he’s not the star that he had envisioned coming out of the draft. But there’s still something there.

A 2015 draft pick to the Pistons, Johnson played three and half seasons with the team before being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, and subsequently signing with the Toronto Raptors that same summer.

He signed a two year contract worth $7.4 million, with a player option on the second year. So theoretically, this whole idea could be thrown out the window if Johnson decides to opt into the $3.8 million he’s owed in 2021.

What that could mainly come down to is whether or not he’d get equal or greater value on the market elsewhere. In reality, he likely wouldn’t get anything more than that. He’s likely not going to walk away from guaranteed money, but stranger things have happened in the NBA.

But if he receives equal money from a team who can give him a larger role, then there could be something there.

Enter; Detroit.

One of the more (randomly) divisive players in recent memory within the fan base, people either loved him or they couldn’t seem to understand why he was on the floor.

In reality, the issues stemmed from both his inability to capitalize on chances he was given, and on Stan Van Gundy for utilizing him improperly. Having him shoot as many three-pointers as he did was inevitably going to fail him.

At times though, he would even struggle to make lay-ups. Once he arrived at his fourth season, he slowly began to make strides offensively, but it was too late.

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Under the right coach, someone who understands how to utilize him, Johnson could get his career back on track.

Dwane Casey often rewards players whose defensive efforts outweigh others, and there’s not a single thing that Johnson does better than defend. That’s been the most consistent thing about his game since entering the league.

Sometimes it felt as if he was trying to refine every single aspect of his offensive game at once, which seemed to stunt his growth and he’s just moved laterally so far in his career.

With new General Manager Troy Weaver in the mix, maybe that “never back down” attitude that Johnson brings could come in handy. They’ll have more minutes available to him in Detroit than they would in Toronto.

The Pistons are going to have to take some risks in order to navigate their rebuild. Some big, and some small. “Buying low” on free agents is one way to go about this process, and that’s exactly what this move could be.

While it’s easy to say that it didn’t work with him once, why would it work again? The reality is that at this stage, Detroit doesn’t have a lot to lose. Stanley isn’t an enormous risk, especially with the money that he could be signed for.

For someone who very clearly has good basketball in him somewhere, it’s worth taking another shot on him if the chance presents itself. Fortune tends to favor the bold.