The Detroit Pistons have historically been one of the first franchises out of the gate when free agency begins. Who can forget the Pistons starting the post-Going to Work era by signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva on the first day of free agency in 2009? Or signing Josh Smith to the largest contract in franchise history at 12:01 a.m. in 2013? Or Stan Van Gundy “setting the market” with the signing of Jodie Meeks in 2014? Or the one-two punch of Ish Smith and Jon Leuer in the cap spike year of 2016? They signed Jerami Grant to a $60-million deal in 2020.
If we’re looking at the Trajan Langdon era to be better than previous regimes, maybe it will be quieter. Patient even. As patient as Detroit might want to be, they are at the mercy of what other teams around the NBA are doing. Because Langdon has stated clearly that his preference is to use his $50 million in cap space to trade for players and picks to help other teams land targeted players, they might be part of some big moves early.
There is also a chance they proactively sign some actual free agents on the market. They do have $50 million to spend, after all. Some players they could be interested in include former Piston Tobias Harris, Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein, Nuggets forward Naji Marshall, Sixers wing Buddy Hield, and Heat wing Haywood Highsmith.
Detroit has a lot of holes on its roster — especially shooting and rim protection — and there are a lot of avenues they could turn to to help fill those voids. The best-case scenario is for Detroit to get roped in as a third team in a mega-star trade for a player like Paul George.
We will cover it all at DBB, but this is a landing spot for all the latest rumors and other deals as they come in.