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Pistons Mailbag - February 25, 2015

Quite a week for the Pistons, adding four new players, including one – Reggie Jackson – who Stan Van Gundy sees as joining Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as part of the young core. That stirred a few Mailbag questions.

Reid (@reid_austin): With Reggie Jackson's cap hold of around $5 million, if Moose walks would the Pistons have enough cap room to sign two max free agents and then go over for Reggie?

Langlois: No, that wouldn't be possible, Reid. There are many variables depending on contract options, but I think it's a fairly safe assumption that the Pistons will go into July 1 with about $38.5 million salary commitments based on three assumptions I'm making: (1) Reggie Jackson's cap hold of $5.5 million; (2) picking up Anthony Tolliver's option at $3 million and (3) declining Caron Butler's option at $4.5 million, and that last one is very much up in the air. I have not included Greg Monroe's cap hold of roughly $10 million, but the Pistons surely will not renounce their rights to him until they know what is happening with his free agency. If you count both Jackson and Monroe's cap holds – and assuming a salary cap of somewhere around $66 milliion – then the Pistons would have about $18 million in cap space. Without Monroe's cap hold, that goes to $28 million. Let's say, for the sake of argument, the Pistons sign one max player with a first-year salary of $16.5 million (25 percent, the maximum contract for a player with less than seven years of experience). The Pistons would have a little more than $1 million in cap space left. If they felt at that point that Monroe was going elsewhere but they had a chance to sign another very good free agent, they could renounce Monroe's rights and sign a player for a first-year salary of around $12 million, if they so chose, taking them right up to the salary cap. And then they could sign Jackson, exceeding the cap to do so. Last week's trades did very little to change their cap picture for this off-season. They shed D.J. Augustin's $3 million and Kyle Singler's cap hold of $1.4 million and took back Jackson's cap hold of $5.5 million.

Carl (Lansing, Mich.): It seemed like Reggie Jackson's teammates in Oklahoma City weren't sorry to see him go. How does he seem around his teammates with the Pistons?

Langlois: He's gone out of his way to be complimentary and deferential, Carl. I was struck by his response after the Cleveland game when someone asked him what it says about his defense that he'd played against two All-Star point guards so far, John Wall and Kyrie Irving, and held them both to tepid shooting nights (Wall 5 of 16, Irving 6 of 16). Jackson's response: "It says I have four great guys on the court with me at all times who make it easy on me," he said. Stan Van Gundy covered his bases here. In addition to absorbing all of the voluminous scouting reports the Pistons had on Jackson, compiled by their four pro scouts on a weekly basis, Van Gundy tapped into the intimate knowledge Caron Butler had of Jackson and the Oklahoma City dynamic from their time together as teammates over the final few months of last season and through three rounds of playoffs. Butler gave Van Gundy an enthusiastic thumbs up. "I told (Van Gundy) all the pluses, because there wasn't any minus. I said he'd be a great addition." "It meant a lot to me," Van Gundy said. "It meant a lot to me what everybody had to say, but Caron was the final piece. You can do all the intelligence you want, but you don't know anybody that's been in the locker room with a guy and Caron had been in the locker room with him. He's been in the locker room here and a lot of other places, so he knows good from bad and he also knows me and what I'm going to like and not like. So it meant a lot when he said what he thought of him as a player and what he thought of him as a worker. It really pushed me over the top."

Eric (Huntsville, Ala.): Is it possible to make the playoffs and get a lottery pick?

Langlois: Not unless you acquire the pick from another team, Eric. If you make the playoffs, you don't get to participate in the lottery. That's reserved for the 14 non-playoff teams.

Nicholas (Hudsonville, Mich.): With the way Stan Van Gundy has changed this team around this season from the last few, does Greg Monroe lean more toward re-signing or has he had enough of Detroit mediocrity?

Langlois: My rule of thumb with NBA teams is they don't make decisions until they must be made – and the same applies to players. Monroe and his agent, David Falk, very deliberately chose to get to unrestricted free agency so they would have the broadest possible array of options. Monroe isn't leaning in any particular direction as February turns to March. I think Van Gundy has used this season – and still is, most likely – to gauge how much of the salary cap it would be prudent to invest in Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond. My hunch is he's comfortable that keeping both is the best option for the Pistons, but you can bet the front office has a plan of action ready in the event Monroe chooses to play elsewhere. And Monroe is using this season to see if Van Gundy is that rare NBA coach/executive who can enunciate a vision and then implement it. So far, so good on that count. I think it has to resonate with Monroe that the new Pistons management structure implemented by owner Tom Gores, putting Van Gundy atop the organization as both coach and president of basketball operations, was empowered to make the dramatic move to waive Josh Smith and really clear the way for a full examination of the viability of a core of Monroe-Drummond. I think it has to resonate with him that Van Gundy kept the environment from being polluted by the stain of a 5-23 start. I think it has to be appealing to him, on some level, to grow as a young team with Drummond (21), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (22) and Reggie Jackson (24) while Van Gundy continues to make quality additions in young veterans like Anthony Tolliver and Jodie Meeks and, before he was traded to add Jackson, D.J. Augustin. But Monroe, as mature a 24-year-old as the NBA has, is going to get to free agency and weigh all of his options and judge for himself what fits best for him. And he's still in the information-gathering phase, not yet in full-blown decision mode.

Geoff (@Geoff_Bitson): Could we see Brandon Jennings traded this off-season for some sort of draft-pick package from the 76ers?

Langlois: The 76ers are in the business of acquiring, not trading away, draft picks, Geoff, or at least they have been for the past three seasons. We'll see if they're ready to make their move this summer or not, but trading away Michael Carter-Williams at the trade deadline suggests otherwise. I think Stan Van Gundy is comfortable playing next season with Reggie Jackson and Brandon Jennings. He mused about the playmaking potential of them as a backcourt tandem in certain situations last week. I think they'd be open to trading Jennings, given their plans to invest in Jackson, but I question if they can hope to get anything close to a fair return for Jennings until he proves he's well on the mend from Achilles tendon surgery. That's a tricky one, though at 25 I think Jennings will return at full strength at some point. But a team acquiring him with one season left on his contract isn't going to want to acquire him to let him rehab on their dime and then hit free agency – they're going to want to know they're getting a guy who can help now ... unless it's a team looking to move longer-term salaries and interested primarily in the expiring contract. Lots of ways that one could go. But the Pistons aren't going to be making any move involving Jennings out of desperation to dump the contract. If doing so helps them make another move that Van Gundy sees as enhancing future prospects, sure. But not otherwise.

God's Gift (@QuanBigKuntry): Do you think the Pistons will keep Quincy Miller after getting Shawne Williams?

Langlois: The Pistons claimed Williams off waivers, GG, and have no obligation to him beyond this season. Miller is on a 10-day contract. Teams very rarely make a longer-term commitment to a player on a 10-day contract before signing him to a second 10-day deal and giving themselves as much time as possible to judge the potential and the fit. Stan Van Gundy said they see Miller as "a developmental guy" when he talked about Williams on Tuesday night after the Pistons were awarded Williams. Williams, 29, is more ready to help over the final 25 games, essentially filling the role Jonas Jerebko held until being traded to Boston last week in the Tayshaun Prince deal. That means he'll be behind Anthony Tolliver in the rotation at power forward. On nights Van Gundy wants or needs to limit the time Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond spend together – either due to foul trouble or matchup issues – he'd like to keep Tolliver's minutes manageable and not play him for the final 16 to 18 minutes of each half. On those nights, Williams can come on and represent the same type of perimeter shooting threat. The Pistons have another full two weeks-plus to decide whether they'll keep Miller for the rest of the season. If so, once the season ends they can talk about a future with him – maybe committing to bring him to Summer League or, perhaps, giving him a fully or partially guaranteed contract for next season. The Pistons might, however, want to forestall such a move until they use up their cap space. That runs the risk, I suppose, of another team making a commitment to Miller. But he's been in the D-League this season without getting that type of commitment so far.

Russell (@koppinu): Are we sure if Moose is worth bringing back if money is the only reason? He was pitiful against Cleveland.

Langlois: I think "pitiful" is a tad harsh. He finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds. He had two or three misses at close range that would have made the numbers far more in line with his production since Christmas, when he was as responsible as anyone for the turnaround. He averaged 16.9 points and 12.6 rebounds while shooting .526 in 17 January games, Russell. Going into the Cleveland game, his numbers for February were very similar. The Cavs came to The Palace playing as well or better than any team in the NBA and have now won 17 of 19 games. It's never wise to base long-term decisions on the evidence provided by one game.