2014 Free Agent targets

[Joe Berry]

Assuming the Pistons dont make a trade involing the big expiring contracts Charlie and Stuckey, the Pistons have about 10 mil capspace before extending Moose.

Looking at the free agents next year, there is only one quality unrestricted SG free agent, Lance Stephenson

http://www.hoopsworld.com/2014-nba-free-agents

The Pacers will extend George and will be at about 63 mil for their core next season. I doubt they can keep Stephenson. He had a breakout year last season, and had pretty good playoffs too. If he keeps improving i think he could be a very good complimentary player to our core. He is already a great defender, if he can improve his offense next season he should be no.1 target next offseason. I would probably offer him Stuckey money (3y/24 mil)

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/4771/

Other suggestions?

[tmorgan]

No other suggestions come to mind yet, but I worry about Lance Stephenson -- I don't doubt his talent, but I get the feeling he's a world-class knucklehead. If we can corral our current knuckleheads first, and things work out, then maybe I'd have more faith in investing in a guy like Stephenson.

Also, I still think KCP will work out just fine as our SG of the future. Assuming the other four projected starters stick around, our SG needs to play defense and hit from distance when he's open. Those are things Kentavious is supposed to be good at, and if he isn't ready to fill that limited role by next season, then he's a bust.

[dVs33]

i think it's far too early to predict who fits best. There could be some trades during the season which could change everything.
Right now KCP projects to be our starting SG moving forward, so let's give him a chance to do it before we decide which FA fits best

[DocRI]

I'm gonna go the other way and be optimistic and assume that our projected starting five of Jennings / KCP / Smith / Moose / Dre proves out over the course of the season and locks itself in as our starting lineup for years to come (maybe I'm just in a good mood tonight). If that's the case, I'd like to see us use that ~$10M in cap space to target two solid, plus-level bench players at about $5M a piece, the kind of players who would be borderline starters on other teams. Keep in mind, the only projected backup we have under contract past 2015 is Tony Mitchell; while I hope a few of Datome, Singler, Siva, Billups, Bynum, Harrellson and Jerebko prove to be worth keeping, I'm not banking on it and I wouldn't mind upgrading, anyhow. As such, I'd like to see us target Spencer Hawes (a "pick and pop" center who could cement our big man rotation as the best in the league) and Ramon Sessions (instant offense backup PG who could be the #1 option on the second unit). If we make our bench our priority, we could swoop in on those guys while other teams are "big game hunting" for the star free agents and greatly improve our depth next offseason.

[WillTheThrill12]

We definitely need a legit 6th man IMO. Possibly a wing or a big?

[Laimbeer]

Assuming the Pistons dont make a trade involing the big expiring contracts Charlie and Stuckey, the Pistons have about 10 mil capspace before extending Moose.

Then we don't have much cap space if any.

[DocRI]

Assuming the Pistons dont make a trade involing the big expiring contracts Charlie and Stuckey, the Pistons have about 10 mil capspace before extending Moose.

Then we don't have much cap space if any.

We can go over the cap to extend Moose 'cuz he's our guy, so as silly as it seems, it's all literally about the order in which the contracts are signed. If we extend Moose for $12M per year first, then poof, the cap space is gone and we're $2M over the cap; if we sign $8M worth of free agents first and then extend Moose for $12M, we land those free agents and are $10M over the cap. It's all semantics and cap management and playing the game to also try to avoid the luxury tax, but it's very, very doable.

[Phenomenonsense]

Assuming the Pistons dont make a trade involing the big expiring contracts Charlie and Stuckey, the Pistons have about 10 mil capspace before extending Moose.

Then we don't have much cap space if any.

We can go over the cap to extend Moose 'cuz he's our guy, so as silly as it seems, it's all literally about the order in which the contracts are signed. If we extend Moose for $12M per year first, then poof, the cap space is gone and we're $2M over the cap; if we sign $8M worth of free agents first and then extend Moose for $12M, we land those free agents and are $10M over the cap. It's all semantics and cap management and playing the game to also try to avoid the luxury tax, but it's very, very doable.

Except you have literally no idea what you're talking about. There are cap holds to prevent this exact scenario from playing out. Monroe's cap hold will eat any space we have.

[vege]

Except you have literally no idea what you're talking about. There are cap holds to prevent this exact scenario from playing out. Monroe's cap hold will eat any space we have.

If you're going to call someone out at least make sure you know wtf you're talking about. you are wrong and in fact he is correct. Monroe cap hold is 10 million.

[Cowology]

I expect us to be relatively conservative next off-season, but a lot will depend on how this season goes. I think it's far too early to make these sorta projections and think we'll make at least 1 more trade this season.

[Joe Berry]

Then we don't have much cap space if any.

We can go over the cap to extend Moose 'cuz he's our guy, so as silly as it seems, it's all literally about the order in which the contracts are signed. If we extend Moose for $12M per year first, then poof, the cap space is gone and we're $2M over the cap; if we sign $8M worth of free agents first and then extend Moose for $12M, we land those free agents and are $10M over the cap. It's all semantics and cap management and playing the game to also try to avoid the luxury tax, but it's very, very doable.

Except you have literally no idea what you're talking about. There are cap holds to prevent this exact scenario from playing out. Monroe's cap hold will eat any space we have.

Karthik (Farmington Hills, Mich.): When is Greg Monroe due for an extension and when will it impact the salary cap?

Langlois: Monroe is entering the fourth and last year of his rookie contract, Karthik. He will be playing under a new contract once the coming season ends. So the 2014-15 cap will have to accommodate a new salary for Monroe. He will have a “cap hold” of 250 percent of his 2013-14 salary, which means slightly more than $10 million. Unless the Pistons and Monroe agree to a new deal in advance – and it has been widely reported that Monroe’s agent, David Falk, is a proponent of taking his clients into free agency – then Monroe will count against the 2014-15 cap for about $10.2 million on next July 1, assuming the Pistons extend a qualifying offer, a safe assumption. Because it is reasonable to assume that the actual contract Monroe signs will start at a higher rate than that, given contracts signed recently by players like Roy Hibbert and JaVale McGee, the Pistons would be best served by using the cap space they are projected to have – around $10 million as it stands today – and then coming to terms with Monroe. If Monroe were to agree to a deal that, for argument’s sake, starts at $12 million a season, then the Pistons would have $2 million less to work with in free agency next summer.

I think our whole backcourt is still a wildcard, KCP is an unknown, Jennings inconsistent, Chauncey old, Bynum just a scorer and Stuckey just terrible at playing basketball. For all we know right now KCP could just be a rotation player. I still think this team lacks one or two serious perimeter players and i agree trade should be the first option. I would gladly give up that capspace(Stuckey first and foremost) for a really solid guy like Afflalo, Thornton etc.

[sc8581]

Not sure when that was written but Langlois is wrong as usual unless the cap is expected to go up a couple million. Assuming it will be around $59 million, we will have less than $8 million and under 7 if we pick up the option on Harrelson, maybe KL forgot about Datome or something.

[vege]

Not sure when that was written but Langlois is wrong as usual unless the cap is expected to go up a couple million. Assuming it will be around $59 million, we will have less than $8 million and under 7 if we pick up the option on Harrelson, maybe KL forgot about Datome or something.

Chauncey salary has a team option and both Harrelson and Siva are 100% unguaranteed. So we could possibly have even more than 10 million in cap space next season but will likely have between 8-10 assiming we don't trade anyone which is very unlikely imo.

Even counting Billups salary we have $40,413,230 plus Monroe 10.2 million which would put us at 50.5ish million. With the cap likely being close to 59-60 KL is not wrong at all.

[sc8581]

Not sure when that was written but Langlois is wrong as usual unless the cap is expected to go up a couple million. Assuming it will be around $59 million, we will have less than $8 million and under 7 if we pick up the option on Harrelson, maybe KL forgot about Datome or something.

Chauncey salary has a team option and both Harrelson and Siva are 100% unguaranteed. So we could possibly have even more than 10 million in cap space next season but will likely have between 8-10 assiming we don't trade anyone which is very unlikely imo.

Even counting Billups salary we have $40,413,230 plus Monroe 10.2 million which would put us at 50.5ish million. With the cap likely being close to 59-60 KL is not wrong at all.

Without Harrelson and Siva we are already at $51,113,230 including the $10.2 million hold for Monroe, that's $8 million in cap space at best unless Jerebko opts out or we don't pick up the team option on Drummond which are both pretty unlikely.

[vege]

Without Harrelson and Siva we are already at $51,113,230 including the $10.2 million hold for Monroe, that's $8 million in cap space at best unless Jerebko opts out or we don't pick up the team option on Drummond which are both pretty unlikely.

Josh Smith $13,500,000
Brandon Jennings $8,000,000
Jonas Jerebko $4,500,000
Greg Monroe $10,216,135
Will Bynum $2,915,908
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope $2,772,480
Chauncey Billups $2,500,000 TEAM OPTION
Andre Drummond $2,568,360
Luigi Datome $1,750,000
Kyle Singler $1,090,000
Tony Mitchell $816,482

Total $50,629,365 or $48,129,365 Without Billups.

Your numbers are a little bit off but whatever, you're nitpicking just to bash KL for the sake of it. He does write a lot of crap but this wasn't one of his craps.

What he said is 100% accurate considering we don't know exactly what the salary cap will be. Around 10 million is as accurate a number can be at this point

[Phenomenonsense]

Except you have literally no idea what you're talking about. There are cap holds to prevent this exact scenario from playing out. Monroe's cap hold will eat any space we have.

If you're going to call someone out at least make sure you know wtf you're talking about. you are wrong and in fact he is correct. Monroe cap hold is 10 million.

I wasn't looking at our cap situation when I read his post. If you read his post, regardless of our 20 million we'll have off the books (then adding monroe's cap hold for 10 leaving us with around 10), it insinuates we have 10 million total in cap space and that, we can sign someone for that 10 million then resign monroe and then go over the cap by 10 million to resign Monroe. I wasn't talking about OUR cap situation, I was talking about "This exact scenario" as in the one he put forward.

[Pharaoh]

Vege and KL are correct as has been stated numerous times by myself and others since the wheeling and dealing slowed to a crawl this off-season

I believe our salary cap will be a consistent topic throughout the season and every time it's brought up we'll first have to educate some on our situation before we can get to the options.

Can a Mod post the numbers and sticky it please? Possible links to Larry Coon's FAQ would be good too

[vege]

not needed - roc

[Phenomenonsense]

I wish it wasn't deleted. I thoroughly wish to know what he wanted to say.

[roc]

Let me clear this up...

What Phenemenonsense wrote about not being able to sign to the cap limit and THEN sign our own players is correct but was worded in a way that caused confusion. It was the way Monroe's $10mil cap hold was brought into that post that caused it.

Vege is also correct in saying that we could have roughly $10mil in cap space including Monroe's $10mil cap hold.

The way I read the original post that started all this...

was that we could sign up to the cap and THEN sign our own players. This is both true and false depending on how you look at it.

IF you look at as we can sign up to the cap (including the cap holds in that number) and then sign our own players... it would be correct.

IF you look at it as we can sign up to the cap (not including cap holds like Monroe's) and then sign our own players... it would incorrect.

it was just non concise wording that started this back and forth so let's let it go now please.