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Pistons Mailbag - September 17, 2014

It'’s our last pre-training camp Mailbag, and Greg Monroe questions dominate the agenda. On with Mailbag...

… Shoham (Detroit): Detroit needs a shooting guard and the Monroe-Smith problem isn'’t solved yet. So why isn'’t there a trade for a shooting guard?

Langlois: Hmmm. The previous administration drafted Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, true, but Stan Van Gundy loved what he saw from him in Orlando'’s Summer League, Shoham. He says he'’s already comfortable calling him the team’'s best perimeter defender. Van Gundy'’s first outreach in free agency was to Jodie Meeks and they struck an agreement on the first day. He’'s comfortable enough with those two that he told me recently he'’s thinking about ways to use them both at the same time because of how hard they play and how they run the floor. He also reached out and came to an agreement on the first day of free agency with Cartier Martin, who can play both shooting guard and small forward. Meanwhile, while it’'s true that bringing either Smith or Monroe off the bench might seem a luxury, the fact is the Pistons would be really thin up front if they were to deal one for yet another perimeter player.

De-Von (Indianapolis, Ind.): It’'s great that Greg Monroe is coming back, but what are the odds of him returning next season? I still think the three bigs can work because the Lakers did it with Bynum, Gasol and Odom. Do you think Monroe comes back if Stan Van Gundy makes it work?

Langlois: If the Pistons have a winning season, Monroe thrives and the Pistons are in position to make a competitive offer, they stand to be in the running to retain Monroe next summer, De-Von. But the list of possible suitors this far out would be a long one, so it’'s really meaningless to speculate about what might happen. I think Van Gundy is comfortable with the way it played out. He gets a full season to show Monroe what he’s all about and Monroe gets to compare that to the first four years of his career. Both sides will make informed decisions about their futures when it comes time to do so. If Monroe chooses to sign elsewhere, the Pistons won'’t be left with nothing. Because their salary cap has been well managed since coming out of the lockout, they will take cap space into next off-season. The worst-case scenario would have been losing Monroe and still being over or up against the cap. As it stands, they would be able to retool with the cap space Monroe’s departure would allow.

Josh (Ferndale, Mich.): I’'m a fan of the work you do in maintaining a positive outlook, but I'’m having a hard time staying positive about the Greg Monroe qualifying offer given that Stan Van Gundy stated at the beginning of the off-season that it was a priority to bring him back. What possible positive spin can there be on Monroe signing the qualifying offer?

Langlois: See above. I believe Van Gundy was being 100 percent truthful when he said it was his preference to retain Monroe. He turned 24 over the summer and he has four remarkably consistent seasons of productivity – and availability, a big consideration – on his resume. I think Van Gundy was acknowledging that Monroe was one of his team’s three best players and you never want to see someone like that get away on anything other than your terms. But, as I stated above, losing Monroe and not having any cap flexibility would really hurt; losing him and being able to address the hole he would leave is another story. If you were going to start a team from scratch, you’d want somebody just like Andre Drummond. But you probably wouldn’'t use your next two picks on players who also do their best work near the rim. So losing Monroe, if it comes to that, gives Van Gundy the chance to add another quality player whose skill set might be more complementary to the whole. He said when he went into free agency this off-season that he wasn'’t going to try to hit home runs, but three singles or two singles and a double. If they lose Monroe to free agency, they'’ll likely have a similar amount of money to spend as they did this year. But next summer – if this team develops as he expects it will and depth becomes its strength – he might try to hit a triple and get a high-quality perimeter player as opposed to adding two, three or four players.

Jeff (Phoenix): With Greg Monroe accepting the one-year qualifying offer, does this allow the Pistons to sign another free agent or accept a contract of higher value than they are trading?

Langlois: The Pistons are roughly $4 million under the cap of $63 million, Jeff. They had gone slightly over the cap by signing veterans Aaron Gray and Cartier Martin to deals by using the minimum exception, but once Monroe took the one-year qualifying offer his cap hold for approximately $10 million was replaced by his QO salary figure of $5.5 million. So, yes, the Pistons could sign someone with that money but almost certainly will not. They already have 16 players with guaranteed contracts, meaning they’ll need to pare one player from the roster – either via a 2-for-1 trade or waiving a player outright – by 5 p.m. Oct. 27 when all 30 rosters must be set. It does give them flexibility in negotiating trades during the season where they could, as you suggest, take back that much more in salary than they send out.

Joseph (Manila, Philippines): Now that Monroe has signed the one-year qualifying offer, does this mean he will play less? I expect him to play to the best of his ability to strengthen his stock for the coming off-season?

Langlois: Motivation hasn'’t been a concern with Monroe since he was a rookie, Joseph. So while it’'s true he has a lot at stake this season with unrestricted free agency looming, I don'’t expect him to change his approach. Neither do I think Stan Van Gundy will allow Monroe’s status to affect his playing time. That will be determined strictly by what Van Gundy believes is in the best interests of the team as it applies to winning basketball games.

Impatience (@discomfort_): How do you see Greg Monroe'’s suspension affecting his “starter vs. sixth man” competition with Josh Smith?

Langlois: It takes the decision out of Stan Van Gundy’'s hands for the first two games of the season, Impatience. I’'m pretty sure Van Gundy would much rather have Monroe'’s contributions for tough road games at Denver and Minnesota to start the season, but it does take any of the drama out of what will be the most scrutinized lineup decision for him and give Andre Drummond and Josh Smith a chance to click right out of the gate. After that, it'’s anybody'’s guess at this point. Certainly, Van Gundy will begin to form some meaningful opinions of the effectiveness of each two-man frontcourt combination: – Drummond-Monroe, Drummond-Smith, Monroe-Smith – during the seven preseason games and a month’s worth of practices before the opener rolls around.

Jason (Warner Robbins, Ga.): There have been reports the Pistons have brought on Pat Garrity as director of strategic planning. First, what is that? Second, how many new positions have been created and how does his front office compare to that of an average NBA team?

Langlois: General manager Jeff Bower ticked off a number of responsibilities that come with Garrity’'s role as director of strategic planning, Jason. He'’ll research and analyze business trends and strategies being adopted by other professional sports organizations, not just NBA teams. He’'ll conduct market research on player needs and expectations throughout the NBA. He’'ll be charged with investigating new products, services and technologies coming on the market seemingly every week. He'’ll work with Ken Catanella and the analytics team to create player performance management systems based on models, measurements and visualization reports. That’s an interesting one, because while Stan Van Gundy has been portrayed as being suspicious of analytics and new technologies, the truth is radically different. Van Gundy only wants to make sure of the validity of the underlying formulae that produce the avalanche of statistics now at every team’s fingertips. Garrity will help with that. And, finally, Bower said Garrity will blend his experience as a player with the success he achieved in his post-playing career in the business world to help define systems and strategies to be used in the ongoing pursuit of a basketball intelligence system. I know some of that might sound a little nebulous, but the reality is that they added a really smart guy to the front office and, I suspect, he'’ll carve out his own niche as he goes, using his smarts and experience to bring fresh ideas to the front office. I don'’t have an apples-to-apples numbers comparison for Van Gundy'’s front office compared to the one overseen by Joe Dumars, who preferred a smaller inner circle of trusted lieutenants. Van Gundy'’s is bigger and more in line with other NBA teams. For one example, Mike Abdenour moves into a newly created position, director of team operations. They didn’'t just hire a trainer to replace him, but added a director of sports medicine (Jon Ishop) and a strength coach (Anthony Harvey) to work alongside holdover Arnie Kander, whose new title is physical therapist.

Ash (Melbourne, Australia): Just wondering if you could tell us what uniforms the Pistons have for this season?

Langlois: Same as last season, Ash. Home whites, road blues and the alternate Motor City uniforms on Sundays, home and away.

Kenneth (@KennyDalen): How does Stan Van Gundy plan to use KCP this year? Does he compete with Jodie Meeks or does he share?

Langlois: Van Gundy told me he'’s going into training camp completely open-minded as far as the starting lineup and lineup combinations, Kenneth. But he likes the one-two punch of Meeks and KCP at shooting guard. I think they'’re going to push each other and wind up both playing 20-plus minutes a game. Who starts might really depend on what Van Gundy feels he needs most in the starting lineup – the career 40 percent 3-point shooting of Meeks or the greater defensive presence and athleticism that Caldwell-Pope offers. It’'s a tough call and you could make the argument on either side. The starting unit needs more shooting than it provided a season ago, but you also want to be able to check the opposition starter at the position with an above-average defender if you can. It'’s another one of the position battles to watch during camp. But both guys are going to play.