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With only a few weeks before he must make it official, there is a sense around the NBA that backup center Aron Baynes could remain with the Detroit Pistons after all.

The expectation remains that he will eventually opt out of the $6.5-million player option by June 20 and become an unrestricted free agent this off-season.

He likely can get more in the open market with the $8.4 million mid-level exception being the bench mark.

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2017/05/30/detroit-pistons-aron-baynes/355296001/

With FA monies predicted to be slowing, he's not guaranteed to be out of our price range given we have his EBR. He's sure to opt out of his $6.5M PO in the next couple of weeks, but with his EBR we can offer him up to 175% of his 2016-2017 contract or $10.5M - the MLE is $8.4M, so we can outbid any team planning to use only their MLE, and teams with mucho cap space ain't looking to spend it on Aron Baynes.

I wonder if it would even take use the full EBR value. But another question is do we want him back? I mean if he wants back he could opt in for $6.5M, but if he opts out than he has to be fair game to let him walk on our end. We have Boban here for $7M each of the next two seasons and paying Dre max money - are we really going to tie up $40M in center only players? Leuer can easily play small ball center, which would free up minutes at PF for Ellenson.

God I hope he doesn't come back

I like Baynes, but this would kind of suck for the Pistons because they would once again be overloaded at center with very few minutes available behind Drummond. Marjanovic definitely deserved to play more last season but you can't put together a quality rotation of three centers with one getting ~30 and then trying to split 18 between the other two. That's too few for a player to settle in to any kind of role. And then there's the added salary for the luxury tax situation.

Not that Andre deserves big minutes of course, but Van Gundy is going to die on that hill. He kind of has to though.

I think Boban would be traded if Baynes is brought back. Boban at 2yrs @7M/season isn't terrible for a team looking for a back-up center, potentially with a PF/CE type already starting at their four.

Vomit, give me Boban over Baynes all day everyday.

I'm a bigger fan of baynes than most, but I don't know if it's worth keeping him on.
Boban should play more, leuer should play more c and potentially Henry could play c at a pinch. Chucking more money into the C spot isn't necessary.
Now if Drummond is traded for a star wing, we should definitely keep baynes on board

Not really surprised, I guessed this would be the case... There is no market for Centers in the NBA right now. And if Baynes a defend and rebound guy can't find a new home, the chances are that neither can Boban. So prepare for a similar rotation at C...

I'd hope Baynes opts out, we retain him with EBR and trade Drummond, RJ & #12 to fix this roster.

Playoffs has once again demonstrated that without playmakers and shooters at almost every position you're cooked

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I like Baynes, but resigning him doesn't really make sense as long as Dre is around. Bench guys are supposed to compliment the starters. We need more of a 4/5 that can block a shot and defend on the perimeter.

Pharaoh wrote:I'd hope Baynes opts out, we retain him with EBR and trade Drummond, RJ & #12 to fix this roster.

Playoffs has once again demonstrated that without playmakers and shooters at almost every position you're cooked

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Playoffs demonstrated that if you don't have at least 3 All-Stars on your team let alone 2 MVPs then you won't win anything for the next 5 years. With all the talent in the West and Warriors still went 12-0? Ridiculous

MUCH rather just roll with Boban....

If Baynes opts in & Pope gets a 20 mil/year extension = Hello luxury tax

If he opts in maybe trading Drummond. Boban will v likely outperform his trade value. Drummond less so, but some teams will want him no matter what realgmers say.

EDIT: and Baynes can play 30 minutes well if he has to. It would almost be perfect for the Pistons if this happened instead.

just a reminder that baynes' decision has to come by tomorrow. the market isn't nearly as lucrative as it was the past couple offseasons, no contending team has cap space, etc. he could still opt in but his decision is the first domino to fall for the pistons offseason.

^Not as lucrative, and not a low post center stiff league. I think he definitely opts out though as $6M is a couple million below the MLE, and wherever he signs he's getting a longer term deal than if he opted in for the last year here.

I wouldn't be surprised if he opts out but then we re-sign him as we have his EBR and can offer up to $11M a season to re-sign him. Not sure he gets an offer bigger than that, so in the very least we're able to keep him if we want to.

If he opts in we may as well just shop Boban

I don't think he'll even sniff close to $6 mil AAV on the open market.

I expect we'll see some spending come back from last summer, at least on guys who can't shoot and can't defend in the P&R.

Kilo wrote:^Not as lucrative, and not a low post center stiff league. I think he definitely opts out though as $6M is a couple million below the MLE, and wherever he signs he's getting a longer term deal than if he opted in for the last year here.

he still has value though, he's a great screener and can actually move his feet on defense which lets him do some pick and roll coverages on the perimeter.

personally i think he'd be perfect for golden state, he'd set mean screens for their shooters, crash boards and then be active on defense.

People love to rag on Baynes but he's actually a really good back up center.

mattao313 wrote:People love to rag on Baynes but he's actually a really good back up center.

Yeah his defensive impact according some stats are really good but Drummond might also be helping him there a bit by sucking.