Before the first week of training camp was up, Adonis Thomas felt confident he had a leg up in the race for the last Pistons roster berth. Stan Van Gundy said Friday – after having to making the tough call to waive him – that the numbers supported that view.
“The first week of camp, I mean, go back and check the numbers from our scrimmages, he was one of the top four or five guys out here early on,” Van Gundy said. “He came in in great shape, he was ready, but he just hasn’t been ready to compete in almost three weeks and really didn’t look like he was ready to go even yesterday. The decision part was actually easy because of that, but it was a hard one to tell a guy because we really, really like him.”
Thomas suffered a calf muscle injury in the team’s public scrimmage to end the first week of training camp, missed about 10 days and made an appearance last week at Indiana. But he aggravated the injury after a 10-minute stint and hasn’t been able to return since.
Thomas, 22, signed a partially guaranteed contract in the off-season, trained in Auburn Hills since the spring and played with the Pistons in Summer League. The trade the Pistons made with Phoenix in July to acquire Marcus Morris, though, also brought along Reggie Bullock, which not only put the Pistons over the 15-player limit but also crowded the roster at Thomas’ positions, shooting guard and small forward.
The Pistons D-League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Drive, retain Thomas’ rights. Thomas could entertain offers to play in a foreign league, though, where the money is often significantly more. The Pistons, though, could not prevent another NBA team from signing Thomas even if he returns to Grand Rapids.
“I hope it’s an option he’ll look at,” Van Gundy said. “Selfishly, we hope so. But I don’t know what he’s thinking about.”
Bullock did more than win his roster spot by default, though. In five games headed into tonight’s preseason finale at The Palace against Atlanta, Bullock averaged 10.2 points and shot 50 percent from the 3-point line in 18 minutes a game. He’ll get the start at shooting guard tonight as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is out with a sprained left foot, though he’s expected to play in Tuesday’s regular-season opener.
The Pistons also waived Cartier Martin and camp invitee Jordan Bachynski to get to 16. It’s likely that they’ll waive Danny Granger, who has spent all of training camp at his Phoenix-area home rehabilitating a plantar fasciitis injury, before Monday’s midnight deadline to get to 15.
Martin was signed in July 2014 but was riddled by a series of nagging injuries last season, shot just 18 percent from the 3-point line when he played, and missed the last three weeks of camp with a sprained wrist.
“Just disappointing to me because I thought when we signed him he was a guy that could’ve added a lot of the things we were looking for – shooting and toughness and everything else,” Van Gundy said. “It just didn’t work out at all.”
- In addition to Caldwell-Pope, the Pistons will rest two other starters tonight, Reggie Jackson and Ersan Ilyasova. Jackson’s knees are sore and Ilyasova got banged up a little in Wednesday’s game with Charlotte. Both would be good to go if it were a regular-season game, Van Gundy said.
- Spencer Dinwiddie will start in the backcourt and split time at point guard with Steve Blake, making his Pistons debut after missing the first seven games with a concussion.
“Pretty excited to get back out and play in game conditions and have fun playing with my teammates,” Blake said.
- Van Gundy said all 11 who’ll be in uniform tonight will play and nobody will get much more than 24 minutes. Aron Baynes remains on a 15-minute limit as he works through off-season surgery on his ankle. Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson and Andre Drummond will fill out the starting lineup.