Pistons are winners in salary cap, while few teams have any

With the NBA Draft, quickly followed by free agency, both now less than a month away, the Detroit Pistons continue to be one of the few NBA teams with salary cap space, That could be an important weapon in swinging trades, and going after free agents.

Almost every team has a ‘capologist’, someone’s whose job it is to figure out the implications of every move in relation to the NBA salary cap. Yet, it seems a lot of teams either ignored their advice in the quest to win (likely) or they simply were not good at their job.

In its latest team cap tracker, Spotrac has a total of just five NBA teams (out of 30) with any projected practical salary cap space. Detroit is near the top of the list.

Why so little cap space for most NBA teams?

Could be a few different reasons:

• Since this year’s free agent class is not that great, teams were not looking to clear cap space to go after free agents.
• With the play-in tournament, more teams are making post-season, which gives them more reason to hold on to players, and maybe overpay them.
• The pandemic screwed up the expectations for the cap. Teams budgeted their contracts expecting the cap to be much bigger.
• Team executives are sometimes just stupid.

According to Spotrac, the Orlando Magic lead in salary cap space with $28.67 million, but the Pistons are a mere $113,000 behind them in second place, so a virtual tie.

The other teams with cap room are Portland ($21.1 million), Indiana ($25 million) and San Antonio ($22.86 million). The Spurs are the only one that made the post-season, falling in the play-in tournament, so Detroit is as attractive a destination as any of the rest.

What is interesting is that Detroit still carries $11 million in dead money on its cap. Not as much as when Blake Griffin’s max deal was on it, but still, almost 10-percent of its total cap space. This is from the DeAndre Jordan trade and cutting Zhaire Smith and DeWayne Dedmon (who they could have used).

Detroit could gain even more cap space if it needed to, by trading away Jerami Grant ($21 million for 2022-23) and/or Kelly Olynyk ($12 million). No one else on the team makes more than $6 million except Cade Cunningham ($10.6 million), but he is not going anywhere.

What does it mean for the Detroit Pistons to have so much cap room?

It means they can throw money at free agents like Zack Levine and Jalen Brunson, and make their panicked current clubs pony up big bucks to keep them. If those teams, surprisingly, let them walk, well, Detroit will take either one of them.

Want to take a whack at restricted free agents like Deandre Ayton and Miles Bridges. Why not? Worse they can say is no, or their current team matches the Pidtons offer.

It also gives agents confidence that the Pistons have the space to sign their client, that no cap gymnastics or sign-and-trade will be needed. That could help getting a mid-tier player like Knicks center Mitchell Robinson.

It also opens Detroit to taking a toxic contract for some future picks. The Pistons could some of those.

Basically, it is good to have lots of cap space, as it opens up many possibilities.