Stan Van Gundy‘s Detroit Pistons were in such a different space this time a year ago, on the eve of a training camp filled with uncertainty on the roster and in terms of their culture. There are no such issues this time around, as Rod Beard of the Detroit News reports:
Last fall, the Pistons were concerned about whether Andre Drummond would sign a contract extension. He signed a five-year, $125 million deal this summer, but a similar scenario exists with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock, whose rookie contracts are up. If they can’t reach a deal by the Oct. 31 deadline, both players could become restricted free agents next summer.
General manager Jeff Bower said the team has been in ongoing discussions with both players and their agents, but haven’t reached a deal yet.
“We’re all in agreement it’s an atmosphere and environment where they have good thoughts,” Bower said. “We’re going to continue to take those talks a little bit further through the month and see if there’s an opportunity to reach an extension now.”
After the Pistons used their cap space to re-sign Drummond and bring in the free agents, they don’t any remaining space, but would go over the cap to re-sign either or both players.
“It’s different for us now because we’ll be over the cap regardless next summer,” Van Gundy said. “We can try to get extensions done — and we’d like to if we can — if we can come to an agreement on something mutually beneficial.
“In a perfect world, we’d like to get both of those done.”
