A Cade Cunningham contract extension, the Ausar Thompson news and thoughts on which Pistons can jump the highest are on the menu in the latest edition of Pistons Mailbag.
@Goat_of_GR: Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Realistic free-agent targets at the end of the season?
Langlois: Sure there is. It would take a roster without any long-term pieces and zero financial flexibility to define a scenario without light in the offing. Neither end of that equation applies to the Pistons. Cade Cunningham looks like a future All-Star, at minimum. Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey and Ausar Thompson all have vast room for growth. Isaiah Stewart is certainly someone who’d contribute to teams at every step of a franchise’s arc. Marcus Sasser’s rookie season at least established him as a valuable bench scorer. The Pistons love what they’ve seen from Simone Fontecchio and they fully expect similar wallop from Quentin Grimes once he gets over the relatively minor knee issue. They’ll have a top-half-of-the-lottery pick incoming and they’ll take about $60 million of cap space into the summer to add some top-of-the-roster impact. Whether that comes in the form of free agency or trade, we’ll see. But I would fully expect the Pistons to come out of the summer with at least one, and quite possibly two, sure-fire starter types.
Langlois: There’s a pretty clear path to Cade Cunningham signing an extension with the Pistons this summer to kick in for the 2025-26 season. It would be a major upset if that wasn’t the way this plays out. The new collective bargaining agreement struck last year allows for five-year rookie extensions. Four players signed five-year deals last off-season for more than $200 million: Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Tyrese Haliburton and Desmond Bane.
@lando_is_a_killa/IG: Who has the highest vertical on the Pistons roster right now?
Langlois: If the Pistons measure that, they don’t advertise it. But I think anyone who’s watched any amount of Pistons basketball this season would put their money on Ausar Thompson. Thompson didn’t test at last summer’s NBA draft combine, but there are reports that he measured a 42-inch vertical while at Overtime Elite. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hit 45 or better. Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey are two others who likely have very impressive verticals, though neither tested at the 2022 combine. There have been reports of Duren matching Thompson’s 42-inch vertical, which if true would be really impressive for an NBA center.
Darrell (Detroit): What grade would you give the Pistons if they were able to pull off the following scenario? Decline the option on James Wiseman to create more cap space, then sign Miles Bridges for $28 million, D’Angelo Russell for $25 million and Grayson Allen for $15 million and insert them into the starting lineup with Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren. Then use the remaining $8 million in cap space to re-sign Simone Fontecchio to go along with Stewart, Ivey, Thompson and the first-round pick on the second unit. I’m of the belief that player development should be secondary to amassing as many wins as possible going forward.
Langlois: They aren’t going to have $76 million in space given the money that will need to be set aside for the No. 1 pick. That will vary depending on where they land in the lottery. The No. 1 pick will get more than $10 million and it goes down roughly $1 million a year from there, the delta lessening with each successive pick. But split the difference and let’s say they have to set aside $8 million. They’ll have something north of $60 million in space but south of $70 million. I’ll refrain from commenting on the fit with specific free-agent possibilities. We know the cap keeps going up and salaries rise accordingly, so whether it’s possible to land the three players you mention with the space the Pistons will have is debatable. It appears you have set your free-agent algorithm to targeting players who shoot 3-pointers frequently and well – Russell 42.4 percent on 6.8 attempts a game, Bridges 35 percent (slightly below league average but he’s shot 40 percent for a full season before) on 6.6 per game and Allen 47.8 percent on 5.8 attempts a game. Volume is an important part of representing a true 3-point threat. A 36 percent 3-point shooter who takes 10 attempts per 36 minutes is going to have a bigger impact on the scouting report than a 42 percent shooter who takes three or four. You’ve cited three high-volume 3-point shooters. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone if the Pistons prioritize 3-point shooting in their off-season pursuits.
@bgkndo24: Why is Ausar out so long? He was just starting to make threes.
Langlois: The Pistons announced Wednesday afternoon that Thompson would miss the rest of the season after being treated for a blood clot. The statement said he has been cleared to resume conditioning, would resume basketball-related activity at the conclusion of the regular season and ramp up to a normal season in 2024-25. Blood clots are scary, but that can only be interpreted positively.
@cristiandellicarri/IG: Will Simone Fontecchio re-sign with the Pistons?
Langlois: It would be an upset if he didn’t. Fontecchio will be a restricted free agent and the history of RFAs is they are retained by their teams if those teams want that to be the outcome. The Pistons surely understood what Fontecchio’s status was before the February trade and they are just as surely comfortable with their ability to come to terms with him on a multiyear deal.
@drewsteinhart: What is the level of concern on Grimes’ knee? Is it worse than initially expected? Is there any sense that Wiseman is showing something more than what we saw over the first few months of the season?
Langlois: Haven’t seen a hint of long-term concern registered on Grimes. It’s listed as a right knee contusion on the NBA official injury report. If that means it’s a bone bruise, they can linger and be very painful. But as far as impact on Grimes’ future, it should be nil. As for Wiseman, yes, he’s definitely played his best basketball over the last few weeks or so. There doesn’t seem a realistic chance the Pistons would make him a qualifying offer because as a former No. 2 pick, the QO would be big – $15 million – and the cap hold would be double that, $30 million. The Pistons didn’t make the moves they made since January, including trading Marvin Bagley III and his 2024-25 salary to Washington, to not be able to maximize their options this summer. By not making a QO to Wiseman, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent. But that wouldn’t preclude the Pistons from re-signing him at a deal more appropriate for a backup center. There would be no guarantees, of course, that another team wouldn’t sign Wiseman. But it’s conceivable the Pistons and Wiseman express mutual interest in a reunion early in free agency, the Pistons do their other business and then re-sign Wiseman using cap space or a cap exception. Teams under the cap have at their disposal the “room exception,” which is projected at $8 million for 2024-25. It seems that’s a reasonable sum for a backup center in today’s environment.