Detroit Pistons named best fit for 2 impact free agents

Most of the focus right now is on the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft for the Detroit Pistons, but free agency will follow closely behind. 

Teams can already start negotiating with some of their own potential free agents and it won’t be long before we get a flurry of contract announcements. 

The Pistons will go into the draft with a plan, whether that involves a trade or drafting a player and should come out guns blazing in free agency given that they have the most cap space in the NBA. 

Bobby Marks of ESPN (subscription) recently looked at some of the top free agents and where he thought they best fit. The Detroit Pistons were named as a possible home for two of them, but they’d have to spend big. 

Detroit Pistons free agents: Isaiah Hartenstein 

The Pistons need better defense and rim protection from the center position, so Hartenstein makes sense even if they don’t move on from Jalen Duren or Isaiah Stewart. 

Hartenstein is a paint protector and solid drop defender who averaged more than a block and steal per game. 

He’s not a prolific scorer but sets good screens and is skilled in the dribble handoff. He’s efficient around the rim and showed in the playoffs that he can impact games with his defense and offensive rebounding. 

The Knicks are limited to offering him a 4 year/$72.5 million extension, so Marks suggested the Pistons could come in with a shorter deal with more in annual salary in the range of 2 years/$50 million. 

That’s a steep price for Hartenstein, but a two-year deal wouldn’t kill Detroit and would give more time to Duren to develop splitting minutes with a veteran center. The question is whether Hartenstein would take more guaranteed money and stay on a good team rather than take seven million more per year to join a bad one. 

Derrick Jones Jr. 

I love Derrick Jones Jr. and wrote about him as an underrated possibility for the Pistons this offseason. 

Marks thinks so too, as the Pistons can offer more than Dallas can afford to match for Jones Jr., who isn’t flashy but is a very good defender who makes plays in transition. 

He played a key role for Dallas and helped propel them through the playoffs. Jones Jr. has offensive limitations, but he’s the kind of glue guy who can fit on any team, a solid role player, which is something the Pistons need. 

The problem is that he’s not a great shooter and the Pistons may have to overpay to get him according to Marks, who suggested he’ll get around 2 years/$44 million. 

Again, this is probably an overpay, but it’s a short-term deal that wouldn’t hurt the long-term financial flexibility, and as the cap continues to go up, this is what good role players are going to make. 

That’s a large chunk of cap space to spend on two role players, but given the Pistons situation, short-term deals with higher annual salary may be their best leverage to lure impact free agents to Detroit.