Stan Van Gundy said Sunday night that the future had decisively trumped the present in the pecking order of Pistons priorities. If there was any uncertainty about his commitment to that timeline, he brought emphatic clarity to the equation on Monday morning with the waiving of Josh Smith.
It was, from any perspective, an extraordinary measure. Teams don't generally cut loose players with two-plus years and more than $30 million remaining on their contracts.
But the first third of the Pistons season was an extraordinary experience. No one foresaw 5-23 coming. Smith surely wasn't the sole reason for that record, but it was tough to see a path to a better present with his presence looming over players who are at the core of the future Van Gundy intends to build.
Smith isn't the type to shrink into the background. That was a very large part of what made him a special player in the first place. On a rebuilding team, it's a tough fit.
"Josh is the guy on our team with the highest usage rate. He's taken the most shots. He's a high-assists guy. He's got the ball in his hands a lot," Van Gundy said after the first post-Smith practice. "We would have had to reduce his role offensively. I don't think he would have been happy with that at this point in his career. I don't think it necessarily would have been fair to him. But I think it's something we need to do to try to move on."
Give Van Gundy this much: He didn't dawdle. He never predicted a winning season or a playoff team, but he surely didn't see 5-23 coming, either. He almost surely expected this team, in the Eastern Conference as it exists today, would get to February and the trade deadline still in the running for a playoff berth. When that reality faded fast, Van Gundy acted appropriately.
He first broached the idea with owner Tom Gores, he said, about three weeks ago, targeting this break in the schedule – the Pistons have four days off between games. What made it an option worth considering was the "stretch provision" put into the 2011 collective bargaining agreement that enables the Pistons to spread the hit to their salary cap out over the five seasons after this one. With the cap expected to go up, dramatically in some estimates, the percentage of the cap the Pistons must devote to Smith gets increasingly more palatable.
"We gain an advantage the next two summers and then the three years after that, he sits on our cap – but with the cap going up, I think you're looking at that being a very small percentage of the cap. It helps a great deal," Van Gundy said.
The Pistons now figure to have $30 million, perhaps more, in salary cap space next July – again, a sign of the organization's focus on building a better future. Van Gundy said he expects the Pistons to get better over the course of this season – not by the subtraction of Smith, but by the opportunity other players will now have for personal growth.
"I think this is about a few things," Van Gundy said. "It's, No. 1, making significant improvement, particularly at the defensive end of the floor. No. 2, it's about developing our young core of guys. No. 3, it's about acquiring as many assets and as much flexibility as we can going forward to make the moves."
A few ripple effects of the decision to waive Smith: