If I had to bet right now, I’d bet the house against the Detroit Pistons adding a star in free agency next summer.
There are two reasons for this: The first is that there aren’t any realistic targets.
The second is that this is increasingly not the way the NBA does business, as teams know they often have to overpay in free agency and would rather make trades and sign extensions, which we have seen much more frequently of late.
The best players rarely make it to free agency for this reason, so depending on how you feel about a guy like Myles Turner, there just aren’t many viable options that make sense for the Pistons.
If they do add a star player, it’s far more likely to be via trade, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be active in free agency.
Because of the lack of stars and cap space, teams can find bargains on the free-agent market, as the Pistons did last summer with Malik Beasley.
My guess is that is the type of free agent they will be looking for and their best options might already be on the team.
Detroit Pistons: Top free-agent options
Bleacher Report ranked the top-30 free agents and two Pistons featured towards the back end of the list in Malik Beasley and Dennis Schroder.
Beasley has proven himself to be a valuable part of the roster, not just with his elite 3-point shooting, but his leadership and overall vibe. He’s a positive in the locker room with his big personality, but also leads by example by showing up first to practice every day.
If the Pistons can retain him, they should, and there does seem to be mutual interest from Beasley, who has enjoyed a different kind of role than he has had in the past.
Schroder is still pending, as he hasn’t yet played much for Detroit, though his impact has already been noticeable in the organization of the second-unit offense.
Both of these players will have other suitors, but given that few teams have cap space, I could see them both returning to Detroit.
If the Pistons did want an upgrade, there is another player in that tier who makes a lot of sense for them.
Pistons free agency: Ty Jerome
Jerome is enjoying a mini-breakout season for the Cavaliers as a role player who comes into the game and gets buckets.
He’s averaging 11.4 points, 3.4 assists and 2.5 rebounds in just 19 minutes per game on outstanding shooting splits of 51/42/89, a couple of made free throws away from the vaunted 50/40/90 club of shooters.
Jerome is a pesky defender with good size at 6-foot-5 and would give the Pistons a solid role player who is only 27-years-old. They’d also be stealing him from a division rival, and given he’ll be an unrestricted free agent, it’s going to be difficult for Cleveland to retain him.
To me, these are the types of players the Pistons should target in free agency, guys on team-friendly deals who are proven producers on good teams.
Free agency is no longer the primary way teams acquire stars and will increasingly be used by good teams to find value role players like Beasley, Schroder and Jerome.