Preparing for the draft and free agency, making decisions on contract options for players already on the Pistons’ roster, filling a front-office position that opened unexpectedly, planning how to delegate the time of assistant coaches to meet the needs of their players scattered across the country and doing a deep dive into evaluating roster strengths, weaknesses and needs are among the bullet points atop Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Bower’s off-season agenda.
And we’ll get into all of those things over the next few days, weeks and months. For now, here are the bullet points on those subjects based on what Van Gundy and Bower discussed Thursday when they met with reporters to talk about the season that ended in the playoffs for the first time since 2009 and the next steps in the franchise’s future.
There is no question the Pistons view Andre Drummond as a player worthy of a maximum contract, free-throw issues notwithstanding. “Just boil it down to purely a business decision. His value around the league is very, very high,” Van Gundy said. “He’s a 22-year-old All-Star center. There aren’t very many guys in the league that have the ability he has.”
About those free throws: Van Gundy wouldn’t go into detail, but said they’re looking into a variety of avenues to improve the situation and not relying on the NBA to fix it for them with a rules change – about which Van Gundy is dubious for its ability to prevent coaches from finding ways to effectively bring about the same result.
Bottom line, he said it’s beyond the point where the Pistons can expect Drummond to simply “practice” his way out of it without changing something, whether that’s his method of delivery or invoking psychological remedies. He said a group of about four or five members of the organization is involved in exploring options and Drummond’s openness to alternate solutions – as he talked about Wednesday with him – was paramount.
With a young roster, Van Gundy’s coaching staff again will be busy going to wherever their players make their off-season training bases. That includes potentially following Drummond to wherever his duties with USA Basketball take him if he is included on the Olympic team roster.
Stanley Johnson might not participate in Summer League. The most important thing for Johnson’s development, Van Gundy made clear, was individual skills improvement in shooting, ballhandling and footwork. He’d prefer Johnson stay away from pickup games – specifically mentioning the immensely popular Los Angeles-area Drew League where NBA and college stars participate every summer – because, he said, Johnson’s competitive instincts will take over and he’ll revert to his strengths at the expense of focusing on those areas where he needs to improve.
Van Gundy said the range on what the Pistons might have in cap space can vary from as little as $7 million if they pick up every player option to a high end of $26 million if they were to decline all options and do realistic maneuvering. The likelier range will be somewhere between $14 million to $20 million.
The Pistons last year used a chunk of their cap space, in effect, on trading for Ersan Ilyasova in May. Milwaukee’s desire to clear cap space – which largely went to sign Greg Monroe – was the impetus for the deal. But because the salary cap is going up dramatically this summer and nearly all teams will have space, Bower said he expects “financially driven deals to be minimized.”
Van Gundy acknowledged reports that Ken Catanella will leave the Pistons, apparently to become No. 2 in command in Sacramento under general manager Vlade Divas. Catanella is one of three assistant GMs with the Pistons with a concentration on analytics and the salary cap. Bower said the Pistons have in-house candidates to replace Catanella but they will look both inside and outside. One in-house possibility: Pat Garrity, director of strategic planning. Like Catanella, Garrity, who played for Van Gundy in Orlando, has a strong background in business and analytics from his time working for a hedge fund; also like Catanella, he’s a graduate of the Duke business school.
Van Gundy cited three areas where the Pistons can improve without help from the draft, trades or free agency. He ticked off better shooting, better defense and skills development from their core of young players, including Drummond, Johnson, Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris, Tobias Harris, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Reggie Bullock, Darrun Hilliard and Spencer Dinwiddie.
Toward that end, he was heartened by some of the feedback from players during exit interviews conducted this week. He cited Jackson talking about wanting to study videotape to better handle pick-and-roll decisions against aggressive defensive tactics and both Marcus Morris and Aron Baynes talk about technical improvements they can make the help them become better defensively.
Van Gundy said he was frank with both Steve Blake and Anthony Tolliver, two pending free agents valued for their experience, character and reliability. “In a very general sense, I like the idea of having both of them back. I was honest with them – there’s priorities ahead of re-signing them.” Van Gundy said he told Blake "flat out we'll look to upgrade that position with a guy who is more of a long-term answer."
We’ll go into these subjects in greater depth as the off-season unfolds. Some key dates to keep in mind: the NBA draft combine May 11-15, Chicago; the NBA draft, June 23; free agency opens, July 1; Summer League, July 2-8, Orlando.
“Just boil it down to purely a business decision. His value around the league is very, very high,” Van Gundy said. “He’s a 22-year-old All-Star center. There aren’t very many guys in the league that have the ability he has.”
About those free throws: Van Gundy wouldn’t go into detail, but said they’re looking into a variety of avenues to improve the situation and not relying on the NBA to fix it for them with a rules change – about which Van Gundy is dubious for its ability to prevent coaches from finding ways to effectively bring about the same result.
Bottom line, he said it’s beyond the point where the Pistons can expect Drummond to simply “practice” his way out of it without changing something, whether that’s his method of delivery or invoking psychological remedies. He said a group of about four or five members of the organization is involved in exploring options and Drummond’s openness to alternate solutions – as he talked about Wednesday with him – was paramount.
