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So, this is how we're looking next season.

Blake Griffin $ 32,088,932
Andre Drummond $ 25,434,263
Reggie Jackson $ 17,043,478
Jon Leuer $ 10,002,681
Langston Galloway $ 7,000,000
Ishmael Smith $ 6,000,000
Stanley Johnson $ 3,940,402
Luke Kennard $ 3,275,280
Reggie Bullock $ 2,500,000
Henry Ellenson $ 1,857,480
Eric Moreland $ 1,826,300

*Josh Smith $ 5,331,729

Total Cap $116,300,545

Luxury Tax $123,000,000

Under the LT $ 6,699,455

MLE - $ 8,568,000

Andre Drummond / Jon Leuer / Eric Moreland
Blake Griffin / / Henry Ellenson
Stanley Johnson / /
Reggie Bullock / Luke Kennard / Langston Galloway
Reggie Jackson / Ish Smith /

We'll probably need to split those 6.7 million on a backup SF and a backup PF.

Maybe Tolliver sign with us for the vet minimum? He would get paid $2,373,466. The cap hit for us would be around 1.4 million, which would leave us with around 5.3 million to spend which is slightly more than the tax payer MLE.

If Ennis plays well and fits well, we can probably bring him back for that money.

So, if this team performs well the rest of the season, and is worth keeping the exactly same way, without add or substract anything (well minus Nelson and Buycks), we probably can do it and stay under the LT.

We can waive Moreland and Ellenson to free a little bit more money under the Luxury Tax, however they're salaries are really close to the minimum salary, and we would need to add 3 more players to reach the minimum roster size, so the gain would be minimum.

We'll have Ish, Stanley and Bullock as expirings. Reggie, Leuer, Galloway and Moreland expire one year later.

The Luxury tax must be paid. And the Full MLE used on one player. We need scoring off the bench.

This team, with small signings to keep us under the tax is doing nothing next year and beyond.

Tax needs to be paid the next two years until Leuer, Galloway and Jackson expire and knock $34M off the books. Reggie could be replaced by a full MLE PG, Galloway and Leuer by vet minimum types.

Kilo wrote:The Luxury tax must be paid. And the Full MLE used on one player. We need scoring off the bench.

This team, with small signings to keep us under the tax is doing nothing next year and beyond.

Tax needs to be paid the next two years until Leuer, Galloway and Jackson expire and knock $34M off the books. Reggie could be replaced by a full MLE PG, Galloway and Leuer by vet minimum types.

Agreed

We’ve already bitten the bullet, and there should be no half measures taken anymore. If Gores isn’t willing to back up his words the other season when he said he’d be willing to pay the LT for a playoff team we are screwed. Either way we are going to be a treadmill team, we may as well make it to the second round once or twice.


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Cant believe Galloway got 3 years 21mill. Then Jon Leuer got 4 year 42mill. Then I see a few days ago Lou Williams signs 3 years 24mill what a steal compared to the turds we locked up.

The next two seasons nobody has cap space. Perfect time to have it as theirs going to be alot of bargain deals going out. SVG busting his nut early as always.

buzzkilloton wrote:Cant believe Galloway got 3 years 21mill. Then Jon Leuer got 4 year 42mill. Then I see a few days ago Lou Williams signs 3 years 24mill what a steal compared to the turds we locked up.

The next two seasons nobody has cap space. Perfect time to have it as theirs going to be alot of bargain deals going out. SVG busting his nut early as always.

Galloway and Leuer contracts aside, are you implying that we could’ve signed Lou-Will for that much?

jakebernat wrote:

buzzkilloton wrote:Cant believe Galloway got 3 years 21mill. Then Jon Leuer got 4 year 42mill. Then I see a few days ago Lou Williams signs 3 years 24mill what a steal compared to the turds we locked up.

The next two seasons nobody has cap space. Perfect time to have it as theirs going to be alot of bargain deals going out. SVG busting his nut early as always.

Galloway and Leuer contracts aside, are you implying that we could’ve signed Lou-Will for that much?

I think Lou-Will is the first of many "bargain" deals in a cash strapped free agency climate. It's a shame the Pistons aren't better positioned to capitalize.

GreekAlex wrote:

jakebernat wrote:

buzzkilloton wrote:Cant believe Galloway got 3 years 21mill. Then Jon Leuer got 4 year 42mill. Then I see a few days ago Lou Williams signs 3 years 24mill what a steal compared to the turds we locked up.

The next two seasons nobody has cap space. Perfect time to have it as theirs going to be alot of bargain deals going out. SVG busting his nut early as always.

Galloway and Leuer contracts aside, are you implying that we could’ve signed Lou-Will for that much?

I think Lou-Will is the first of many "bargain" deals in a cash strapped free agency climate. It's a shame the Pistons aren't better positioned to capitalize.

We can be. MLE is where the bargain deals will come from - and we have those. It just depends on Gores and his willingness to pay the tax. I understand the 3rd year is killer and has to be avoided, but two years of tax will cost maybe $25M in tax - given how the Pistons value has shot up since be bought the team there is no excuse not to. The third year we lop off Reggie, Leuer, and Galloway and sure to get under. Gores owes it to go over the tax the next two years to give this core their "window".

Kilo wrote:The Luxury tax must be paid. And the Full MLE used on one player. We need scoring off the bench.

This team, with small signings to keep us under the tax is doing nothing next year and beyond.

Tax needs to be paid the next two years until Leuer, Galloway and Jackson expire and knock $34M off the books. Reggie could be replaced by a full MLE PG, Galloway and Leuer by vet minimum types.

Well said.

Our window with Griffin is very short. His athleticism is curtailing relatively fast. Look at him in his first couple years compared to now. He was flying through the air as a 21-24 year old catching ridiculous passes and finishing at the rim over literally anyone. Now? He rarely gets off the ground, and pretty much just dunks when it's wide open.

Luckily, he's constantly working on his skills and has definitely built a skill set that can age as the athleticism slips away. But, that said, our window with him is right now. The last 2-3 years of that contract have a high potential to be dead money.

ImHeisenberg wrote:

Kilo wrote:The Luxury tax must be paid. And the Full MLE used on one player. We need scoring off the bench.

This team, with small signings to keep us under the tax is doing nothing next year and beyond.

Tax needs to be paid the next two years until Leuer, Galloway and Jackson expire and knock $34M off the books. Reggie could be replaced by a full MLE PG, Galloway and Leuer by vet minimum types.

Well said.

Our window with Griffin is very short. His athleticism is curtailing relatively fast. Look at him in his first couple years compared to now. He was flying through the air as a 21-24 year old catching ridiculous passes and finishing at the rim over literally anyone. Now? He rarely gets off the ground, and pretty much just dunks when it's wide open.

Luckily, he's constantly working on his skills and has definitely built a skill set that can age as the athleticism slips away. But, that said, our window with him is right now. The last 2-3 years of that contract have a high potential to be dead money.

That's my fear is now being willing to pay the tax and having limited options.

The Blake Griffin deal definitely makes the team a more watchable product and I hope Gores will spend whatever is necessary to further make us believe there truly is an actual "window".

Given we aren't tanking this thing anytime in the future, I would love to see Leuer & Galloway combined for one worse money but much better player.

Batum is the perfect example. The guy can still play and is WAY better than Leuer & Galloway, he's just paid too much. So if Charlotte is desperate to get out of his money, swapping him for L & G gets them out a year earlier, we push the money out another year (it's not likely we'll be in FA anyways with Blake & Dre) but get a dramatic upgrade in player quality.

GreekAlex wrote:That's my fear is now being willing to pay the tax and having limited options.

We're already at "limited options" being so far over the cap, with contracts that can't be moved without attached first round picks to them (Galloway, Leuer, Jackson). I really don't care if Gores has to pay the tax at this point. He wants a "win now" team that goes all-in every season with little or no planning for the following year, this is what you get.

That one offseason just screwed about every team with one high priced role player. Gonna be some good players getting signed to good deals this offseason.

My main goal is just to keep our picks after this one converts til that right 3rd piece AllStar level player becomes available.

The Penguin wrote:Given we aren't tanking this thing anytime in the future, I would love to see Leuer & Galloway combined for one worse money but much better player.

Batum is the perfect example. The guy can still play and is WAY better than Leuer & Galloway, he's just paid too much. So if Charlotte is desperate to get out of his money, swapping him for L & G gets them out a year earlier, we push the money out another year (it's not likely we'll be in FA anyways with Blake & Dre) but get a dramatic upgrade in player quality.

Nah, those contacts on their own are much easier to move than one huge max like Batum has.

MotownMadness wrote:

The Penguin wrote:Given we aren't tanking this thing anytime in the future, I would love to see Leuer & Galloway combined for one worse money but much better player.

Batum is the perfect example. The guy can still play and is WAY better than Leuer & Galloway, he's just paid too much. So if Charlotte is desperate to get out of his money, swapping him for L & G gets them out a year earlier, we push the money out another year (it's not likely we'll be in FA anyways with Blake & Dre) but get a dramatic upgrade in player quality.

Nah, those contacts on their own are much easier to move than one huge max like Batum has.

But my point is we don't need to move it if it's a guy who can actually play. Instead of paying someone to take an extra year of Leuer and/or Galloway, someone pays us to take an extra year of a much better player.

Basically our only path to max money is ripping it down to just Dre / Blake / Kennard in the summer of 2020. So that's assuming no extension for Stanley, no extension for Ellenson and letting Reggie walk. Maybe Dre / Blake / Kennard will have us in a position to actually be major FA players that summer, and I understand not wanting to give that up, but if everyone is worried about dumping money I think there's something to be said for dumping our bad money for worse money with an asset attached.

The Penguin wrote:

MotownMadness wrote:

The Penguin wrote:Given we aren't tanking this thing anytime in the future, I would love to see Leuer & Galloway combined for one worse money but much better player.

Batum is the perfect example. The guy can still play and is WAY better than Leuer & Galloway, he's just paid too much. So if Charlotte is desperate to get out of his money, swapping him for L & G gets them out a year earlier, we push the money out another year (it's not likely we'll be in FA anyways with Blake & Dre) but get a dramatic upgrade in player quality.

Nah, those contacts on their own are much easier to move than one huge max like Batum has.

But my point is we don't need to move it if it's a guy who can actually play. Instead of paying someone to take an extra year of Leuer and/or Galloway, someone pays us to take an extra year of a much better player.

Basically our only path to max money is ripping it down to just Dre / Blake / Kennard in the summer of 2020. So that's assuming no extension for Stanley, no extension for Ellenson and letting Reggie walk. Maybe Dre / Blake / Kennard will have us in a position to actually be major FA players that summer, and I understand not wanting to give that up, but if everyone is worried about dumping money I think there's something to be said for dumping our bad money for worse money with an asset attached.

In theory what you're saying sounds goods but in practice Batum isn't the deal I want to make.

Next year Batum will make about $8M more than Galloway & Leuer combine.

Look at Batums game logs. He is wildly inconsistent and showing signs of decline along with injury issues.

GreekAlex wrote:

The Penguin wrote:

MotownMadness wrote: Nah, those contacts on their own are much easier to move than one huge max like Batum has.

But my point is we don't need to move it if it's a guy who can actually play. Instead of paying someone to take an extra year of Leuer and/or Galloway, someone pays us to take an extra year of a much better player.

Basically our only path to max money is ripping it down to just Dre / Blake / Kennard in the summer of 2020. So that's assuming no extension for Stanley, no extension for Ellenson and letting Reggie walk. Maybe Dre / Blake / Kennard will have us in a position to actually be major FA players that summer, and I understand not wanting to give that up, but if everyone is worried about dumping money I think there's something to be said for dumping our bad money for worse money with an asset attached.

In theory what you're saying sounds goods but in practice Batum isn't the deal I want to make.

Next year Batum will make about $8M more than Galloway & Leuer combine.

Look at Batums game logs. He is wildly inconsistent and showing signs of decline along with injury issues.

Batum is just a placeholder for the idea.

My point is more good players are going to be given away for salary concerns. If we are truly going for it, as the Blake trade suggest, I hope Gores & SVG are aggressive in adding talent by eating salary and don't give up assets just to get under the tax line.

With as little flexibility as we have, I'd assume that the best thing to do is keep Toliver and Ennis to be our backup forwards and wait for the season after that to make moves. Fully healthy this team could compete for a 3rd seed depending on where LeBron goes.

We don't want to keep Leur or Galloway but without a first round pick to ship them out with we can't expect to move them except for garbage players on similar contracts. Those are lateral moves at best and aren't worth playing around with, as getting any upgrades from them are wishful thinking or will inevitably put us into a worse cap situation long-term.

Jackson/Ish
Kennard/Galloway
Johnson/Bullock/Ennis
Griffin/Toliver/Leur/Ellenson
Drummond/Moreland

That leaves us with a gaping hole at backup C, which we'll probably fill with Blake, but I'd rather not force him to play C too often. Kennard might take the starting job or just serve as the lead scorer for the bench unit with Bullock starting at SG. Season after that we'll have a pick to play with and Galloway/Leur expiring, so we'll actually have the flexibility to make moves, and that's when we have to either become a title contender or just be content with having a decent playoff team.

Even Reggies game is more built driving to the rim but helps more than Ish obviously. We really need a 3 point shooter at the PG in my opinion like a George Hill or Goran Dragic.

jakebernat wrote:

buzzkilloton wrote:Cant believe Galloway got 3 years 21mill. Then Jon Leuer got 4 year 42mill. Then I see a few days ago Lou Williams signs 3 years 24mill what a steal compared to the turds we locked up.

The next two seasons nobody has cap space. Perfect time to have it as theirs going to be alot of bargain deals going out. SVG busting his nut early as always.

Galloway and Leuer contracts aside, are you implying that we could’ve signed Lou-Will for that much?

I'm implying that were going to see alot of good deals coming out in the next two seasons because nobody has cap space. Not that it matters because the master of panic blew our cap space on Blake.

The Pistons are going to have to get creative and unconventional.

The Pistons have a strength, they have to do everything to maximize their strength.
They need to make themselves as competitive as possible and then wait for the right opportunity.

Add:
A back up point guard that excels in the pick and roll and can shoot.
Athleticism, rim protection, and shooting in the front court.
More wing shooting.