The Detroit Pistons lost Malik Beasley (pending), Dennis Schroder and Tim Hardaway Jr. this offseason and replaced them with Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert, and we can expect this carousel of role players to keep spinning.
Trajan Langdon has made his strategy with role players clear: He’s only going to sign guys who complement his young core of Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren and Ron Holland II and he’s not giving anyone long-term deals.
Caris LeVert got a two-year free-agent deal at fair market value, a contract that would be useful to pad out a big trade and one that doesn’t come with any long-term obligations.
Same for Duncan Robinson, whose three-year deal is actually a one-year deal when you look at the fine print.
The cold hard truth is that role players come and go in the NBA, and it wouldn’t be surprising if neither of these players was on the team at this time next year, so I wouldn’t go buy a Duncan Robinson jersey just yet.
We’re likely to see more Robinsons and LeVerts in the coming years, good role players on short-term, easy-to-move deals, at least until the Pistons’ core is established.
The Detroit Pistons have a vision and need to stay flexible
The Pistons are clearly building around the young players they’ve drafted, and until that core is fully established, we are likely to see an ever-changing array of role players like Robinson and LeVert, and Beasley, Shroder and THJ before them.
All of these players complemented the young core and contributed to the growth we saw last season and that we’ll continue to see in the next one.
Keeping all of your role players on short deals also gives you a steady stream of tradable contracts, something they will need if the Pistons ever decide to push in some of their assets for a star.
We’ve seen teams like the Mavericks take the opposite approach, giving their role players lucrative long-term deals that they are banking will get better with age, and they may be right.
But the Pistons will never get burned with their approach, as they don’t have to worry what type of player Robinson or LeVert will be in four years, as they will be cycled out by then with new veteran role players in their place.
Obviously, these players are important to overall team success, but under the more punitive tax penalties, we are going to see teams take a more measured approach with role players.