FanPost

ShouldHavePlayedDatome's Off-Season Projections

The Cap is projected to be $67 million. Pistons players under contract next season:
Brandon Jennings - $8,344,497
Jodie Meeks - $6,270,000
(Josh Smith Stretch - $5,400,000)
Andre Drummond - $3,272,091
Anthony Tolliver - $3,000,000
K. Caldwell-Pope - $2,891,760
Quincy Miller - $981,348 (guaranteed until July 11)
Spencer Dinwiddie - $845,059
(Aaron Gray Stretch - $452,049)

Those are the guaranteed contracts for next season, totaling $31,456,804.

Non-guaranteed deals and options:

Caron Butler - Team Option for $4,500,000- Pass on the 4.5 Million, extend a cheaper offer.
Shawne Williams - Team Option for $1,356,146- No thanks
Cartier Martin - Player Option for $1,270,9640- He probably doesn't have many other options, so hes going to pick up his player option.

Draft picks:

Pick 8: $2,368,300
Pick 38: $507,336

8th pick we have to address the Small Forward position, and go with either Mario Hezonja or Stanley Johnson. I would prefer Hezonja, but it seems like he will be gone to the Nuggets at #7, so Stanley Johnson it is. I view him mostly as a Ron Artest type player which is not a bad thing at all, the defense is much needed and he showed glimpses of the spot-up shooting late in the season. With the second round pick we should get Mouhammadou Jaiteh, only 20 years old and adds nice depth to the position. Was able to see him play during the 5v5 part of the NBA draft combine and was impressed. Big athlete with a soft touch,

Free agency:

Players not under contract past 2014-15 season: Greg Monroe, Reggie Jackson (QO),Tayshaun Prince, Joel Anthony, John Lucas III

Here's a complete list of all free agents this summer.

Reggie Jackson will definitly be back, and I think he accepts a 4 year- 48 million dollar deal. I know he rejected the same Thunder offer, but the circumstances are different. Here he knows that he's the point guard of the future and can run the show, not be a permanent back-up to Westbrook.

Greg, Tayshaun and JL3 are all moving on.

Given Reggie's deal we have about 16.1 Million remaining. With this money I would offer Middleton and Tobias Harris a 11 or 12 milliion dollar deal and see which one jumps on it first. More than likely it will be Tobias Harris given his rifts with Scott Skiles in the past and the direction the team may be heading if the Magic select someone like Justise Winslow. Harris would be a tremendous pick-up and would add even more talent to our young group of players. He has the potential to be a real star in this league and will just be approaching his prime the next couple years. 4 year 48 million, identical to Jackson's

That leaves us with around 4 million of cap room left, which we can use on Joel Anthony and Caron Butler. Give each a 2 million dollar offer and go from there.

Trades:

.

Brandon Jennings to the Rockets for Terrance Jones. The Rocket's need a ball handler to take some of the pressure off of Harden. Jennings, if fully healthy, can provide the play-making and spacing that the Rockets need from the point guard position. The rocket's have an abundance of PF's and preferred Smith over Jones during the post -season. Add in D-Mo and the promising Capela, Jones seems to be expendable. Jennings is not going to be our point guard of the future due to the amount invested in Jackson, and this essentially would mimic the Jackson trade where we swapped a back-up point guard (Augustine) for a starter. I would also be willing to throw in a 2nd round pick given the nature of Jenning's injury to ease the Rocket's potential skepticism. More than likely, this is trade that would happen closer to the trade-deadline once Jennings has shown what he is capable of, but for the sake of this outlook i'll categorize it as an off-season move.

Just because it is safe to have a third string point guard, I would trade Cartier Martin for someone like Ish Smith on the 76ers. It really doesn't matter which player we get for Cartier, just someone to be a 3rd stinger.

Lineup:

PG: JACKSON- DINWIDDIE- SMITH
SG: KCP-MEEKS
SF: HARRIS-JOHNSON-BUTLER
PF: JONES- TOLLIVER- MILLER
C; DRUMMOND-ANTHONY-JAITEH

We will definitely have to upgrade our back-up center slot, but if Jaiteh continues to show growth he could be a solid option. I view this as a realistic off-season plan and tried to think rationally.

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