The Pistons are headed toward a transformative summer, armed with the NBA’s greatest free-agent bounty and a high lottery pick to fill up several roster spots and bolster the eight current players under contract for next season and likely to be on the opening-night roster.
Those will all be critical decisions that shape the nucleus of the team and set the course for the immediate future of the franchise. Troy Weaver and his inner circle have no doubt already gotten a head start on their action plan for the off-season, monitoring not only the known pending free agents but also potential trade targets from teams that will be faced with onerous luxury-tax bills or navigating the more restrictive parameters of the 2023 collective bargaining agreement.
In the meantime, they’ve made a series of moves to give them back-end roster flexibility, the latest of which came last week when they signed Chimezie Metu to a standard contract after his 10-day deal expired. Metu, Stanley Umude and two-way players Tosan Evbuomwan, Jared Rhoden and Buddy Boeheim all could find themselves in the mix to be part of the training camp roster. Who emerges among them might depend on fit after the Pistons fold their lottery pick and key off-season trade or free-agent acquisitions into the mix.
The eight current players under contract for next season and expected to return – barring their inclusion in trade, at least – are Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart, Marcus Sasser and recent trade acquisitions Quentin Grimes and Simone Fontecchio. James Wiseman will be a free agent – an unrestricted one if the Pistons do not submit a $15 million qualifying offer – but his recent run of productivity makes his return a stronger possibility than it seemed a month or two ago.
Metu, 27, has averaged 7.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in his six games with the Pistons, starting twice and playing 26 minutes a game. He’s capable of playing with his back to the basket or on the perimeter at 6-foot-9. He’s a career 53.4 percent shooter in 252 games played with San Antonio, which made him the 49th pick in the 2018 draft out of Southern Cal, Sacramento and Phoenix before the Pistons picked him up.
PISTONS TRIVIA
Who was the last player to wear No. 11 for the Pistons before it was issued to Isiah Thomas in 1981 and would become a retired number?
A: Phil Sellers
B: Dennis Boyd
C: Bubbles Hawkins
D: Bob McAdoo
THIS WEEK IN PISTONS HISTORY
On April 5, 1991, Isiah Thomas returned from a wrist injury that had required surgery and sidelined him since late January to score 15 points and dish out 11 assists to spark a win over Minnesota, playing 32 minutes and – as Thomas typically did in returning from injury – beating his forecasted time for return. There were real fears Thomas wouldn’t be back in time for the playoffs when it was determined that surgery would be necessary, but the Pistons were focused on defending their back-to-back NBA titles and Thomas insisted he would be back in time for the postseason. It had been an incredibly turbulent season for the Pistons, who felt vilified by the NBA as Michael Jordan’s popularity swelled and rival coaches and teams took shots at the Bad Boys for their physicality. They would labor to a 52-30 record, finishing 11 games behind Chicago in the Central Division and as the No. 3 seed. The Pistons needed a deciding home Game 5 to oust Atlanta in the first round and fell behind Boston 2-1 in the second round before winning three straight as both aging rivals struggled with injuries, Boston’s Larry Bird dealing with the back issues that curtailed his career and Thomas missing time in that series with a foot injury to go along with his painful wrist. Chicago wound up sweeping the Pistons en route to the first of its six NBA titles in the ’90s.
THE WEEK AHEAD
- MONDAY – The Pistons host the Memphis Grizzlies, who make a second trip to Little Caesars Arena – unusual for a Western Conference opponent but a result of the schedule juggling that occurred after completion of play in the qualifying rounds of the NBA’s first In-Season Tournament. Memphis won 116-102 in its previous trip to Detroit on Dec. 6 behind Desmond Bane’s 49-point explosion. Memphis starts the week with a 24-50 record amid an injury-riddled season to rival that the Pistons have endured. Star Ja Morant played only nine games after returning from NBA suspension before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in January.
7 p.m. on BALLY SPORTS DETROIT/TV 20 DETROIT and WWJ-AM 950 or 97.1 THE TICKET FM
- WEDNESDAY – The Pistons visit Atlanta, which starts the week in a dogfight with Chicago for the 9-10 spots in the Eastern Conference play-in chase. The Hawks scored two impressive wins over Boston last week, part of a four-game win streak that ended with a loss Saturday to Milwaukee. Trae Young has been out since late February after undergoing finger surgery and backcourt partner Dejounte Murray has assumed the scoring burden in his absence. Murray jacked up 44 shots in scoring 44 points in Thursday’s overtime win over the Celtics. Ex-Pistons forward Saddiq Bey is also out for the season after suffering an ACL tear in his left knee in early March. Atlanta has averaged 128 points in its two wins over the Pistons this season, shooting 53 percent overall and 40 percent from the 3-point arc.
7:30 p.m. on BALLY SPORTS DETROIT and WWJ-AM 950 or 97.1 THE TICKET FM
- FRIDAY – The Pistons continue a four-game road trip with a return game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis wraps up a three-game road trip of its own in Milwaukee on Wednesday before returning home to host the Pistons. The Grizzlies over the weekend signed former Michigan point guard Zavier Simpson off the roster of the Pistons G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise. Brandon Clarke made his season debut last week after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in March 2023. Memphis’ bad luck with injuries began before the season when it was determined days before the opener that center Steven Adams, who injured his knee in January 2023, would require surgery and miss the entire season. Adams has since been traded to Houston.
8 p.m. on BALLY SPORTS DETROIT and WWJ-AM 950
- SATURDAY – The Pistons will play a tough back-to-back, switching time zones and losing an hour in the process, when they visit the Brooklyn Nets and look to even the season series at two apiece. Brooklyn has fallen out of the playoff race, starting the week 5½ games back of Atlanta for the 10th spot, the last play-in slot in the Eastern Conference. The Nets had a three-game winning streak snapped on Easter Sunday when they lost at home to the Los Angeles Lakers, in a desperate race themselves for play-in position in the West. The Nets will have a decided rest advantage over the Pistons as they are off on both Thursday and Friday after hosting the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
7 p.m. on BALLY SPORTS DETROIT and WWJ-AM 950
TRIVIA ANSWER
Bob McAdoo was the last Pistons player to wear No. 11 before it was issued to Isiah Thomas in the fall of 1981. McAdoo was an amazing talent – he was voted to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2000 – who was MVP in his third season, 1974-75, and had top-two finishes in two other seasons. He averaged more than 30 points a game in his second, third and fourth seasons while playing for the Buffalo Braves, who made him the No. 2 pick in the 1972 draft out of North Carolina after Portland drafted Loyola center LaRue Martin at No. 1, the Blazers ruing that pick almost immediately as McAdoo won Rookie of the Year and Martin washed out of the NBA after four forgettable seasons in a Trail Blazers uniform. McAdoo was traded to New York in December 1976 and by the Knicks to Boston in February 1979. Pistons coach Dick Vitale, coming off his first season, engineered the trade with Boston that brought McAdoo to Detroit in September 1979, the Pistons dealing two first-round picks to the Celtics as Vitale envisioned McAdoo and Bob Lanier forming a powerful 1-2 punch up front. One of those first-rounders became the overall No. 1 pick in 1980 after the Pistons went 16-66. Boston took that No. 1 pick and traded it to Golden State for fourth-year center Robert Parish, who had been the No. 8 pick in the 1976 draft and was coming off a season in which he averaged 17.0 points and 10.9 rebounds, plus the 1980 No. 3 pick which the Celtics used to draft Kevin McHale after Golden State picked Purdue’s Joe Barry Carroll at No. 1 and Utah went with Louisville’s Darrell Griffith at No. 2. The trade set Boston up for a dominant run in the ’80s, winning NBA titles in 1981, ’84 and ’86 with Larry Bird teaming with McHale and Parish in an overpowering frontcourt. The Pistons would eventually have to take down the Celtics dynasty, led by the man who took McAdoo’s No. 11, Isiah Thomas, the No. 2 pick in the 1981 draft. Others who’ve worn No. 11 for the Pistons include Jack Kiley (1952 when they were still in Fort Wayne, Ind.), Archie Clark (1976), Phil Sellers (1977), Dennis Boyd (1979), Bubbles Hawkins (1979) and McAdoo.