RealGM

What will be the order of decisions?

1. Coaching Hire

2. Draft

3. Sign Free Agents

That should be the order. I don't see them waiting until after June 27th to hire a coach.

Also, I don't see how you can do free agency prior to the draft, so those are kind of set in stone.

The Pistons have became ridiculously quiet since the news of Mo Cheeks' third interview. I wonder if they're baking something up? Or, just ironing out some minor details on Cheeks' contract offer?

Coaching hire can actually come at anytime, but yes, it would be nice to get that resolved before the draft. And as ImHeisenberg (love that handle) pointed out, Draft is officially before Free Agency, although I'm sure there is a lot of backroom talks between GMs and agents before free agency officially opens up.

What I'm more interested in is at what point do we decide what Knight is? And when do we decide the best approach to use our cap space? And better yet, who is actually making these decisions, Tom, Joe, Phil?

I assume the vision for the team has already been set by Dumars in consultation with our owner. Gores has already approved of the plan his BB people have presented him. If he didn't, Joe would have been let go.

Picking the coach will come first. Cheeks, McMillan, Shaw (who I assume has at least had an informal interview) - nobody who doesn't fit nicely into the vision and plan of the GM and owner will even be considered.

However, with that vision intact, the draft and trades will be a function of who fits that vision. I doubt the coach we hire will have a lot of say in personnel decisions. If the team had wanted Phil Jackson as a coach, I'm sure he'd have had a lot of imput into personnel, but no other potential coach we're looking at will have that.

I agree that a coach is first and foremost but I think decisions need to be made on Stuckey and Villanueva to help for the draft than I would follow your course of action.

If memory serves we can amnesty CV-DNP anytime after July 1st... Stuckey can be waived at anytime after July 1st...

What we ultimately do with those 2 could take months, depending on what we do with the rest of our cap space. We still need to reach the minimum team salary... and if we don't have to dump Stuckey or CV-DNP then we won't

You don't pay them to walk away just because you're sick of them... you dump them if you need the additional cap space. I'm hoping we'll need it but nothing is set in stone.

IMO:

Coaching hire... Shaw gets the job next Monday

Draft.... hoping for some wheeling and dealing... likely to be disappointed

Free Agency... now it gets interesting

Pharaoh wrote:Stuckey can be waived at anytime after July 1st...

That is incorrect, Stuckey's contract is partially guaranteed until June 30th, after that it's fully guaranteed. So if Stuckey is waived it is before June 30th.

I don't remember for sure the Amnesty Clause window but I do think it's at least 1 month, someone else around here might know it.

AnnArborpiston wrote:What will be the order of decisions?

1. Coaching Hire

2. Draft

3. Sign Free Agents

I would add a #4 which is trades. We are allowed to trade since the start of the playoffs, We cannot trade contracts that already expired (Calderon for example) or contracts with options (Villanueva has a player option for example).

Stuckey has a partially guaranteed contract and can be traded. Kravtsov has a partially guaranteed contract and can be traded. Kim English has a fully unguaranteed contract and can be traded.

We also have a 1.4 mil TPE from the BG trade we can use in trades and obviously Jerebko/Monroe/Knight/Drummond/Singler and Middleton all can be traded right now.

We cannot trade our pick before the draft because we owe a future pick to Charlotte and a team can not trade 2 consecutive picks. We can draft a player and trade his rights at the draft night if I'm not mistaken tho.

We cannot trade with San Antonio or Miami for obvious reasons but we can trade with any other team right now, so trades can happen anytime from now to the deadline in 6+ months. Since our GM is still Joe Dumars I don't expect any trades anyway, however I think it's important to point out we already have that option and it is an important summer decision.

vege wrote:

Pharaoh wrote:Stuckey can be waived at anytime after July 1st...

That is incorrect, Stuckey's contract is partially guaranteed until June 30th, after that it's fully guaranteed. So if Stuckey is waived it is before June 30th.

I don't remember for sure the Amnesty Clause window but I do think it's at least 1 month, someone else around here might know it.

Thanks for the correction... seems my memory did not serve me well

Updated Answer-

Step 1- Fire Larry Frank

Step 2- Deliberate over a new coach

Step 3- Lose lottery

Step 4- Procrastinate on hiring a coach

Step 5- Draft players. Who? Who knows? Not even Dumars knows.

Step 6- Still looking for a coach

Step 7- Free agency, overspend on some role players. Claim OJ Mayo isn't an inconsistent undersized SG, patronize fanbase saying he can play the point.

Step 8- Hire Mo Cheeks, patronize fanbase stating that Mo Cheeks will make Knight the next Westbrook.

Step 9- Fanbase self-implodes

Step 10- Singularity occurs inside Pistons' offices, obliterating Dumars, Gores, and hopefully Jackson as well.