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Jeez, it's been nearly three hours since the Detroit Pistons were associated with a high-priced wing on the free agent market.
But that's over now as Sam Amick is reporting that Tyreke Evans has a meeting lined up with the Pistons in Los Angeles.
Restricted free agent Tyreke Evans (Kings) expected to meet with the Detroit Pistons & Kings today in Los Angeles. Already met with Pelicans
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) July 1, 2013
Evans is a victim of his own rookie success as he exploded on the scene to win rookie of the year as Sacramento's PGOTF in 2009-10 and had trouble replicating his success in his sophomore year.
He was eventually moved off the ball and even spent time at small forward as the mess that is the Kings brain trust couldn't quite figure out what to do with him.
But he turned in his strongest season to date in 2012-13 -- yes, even better than his rookie year. His shooting percentages climbed up to near 48 percent and he added five rebounds and 1.5 steals.
He's no longer asked to be a distributor, but he's now a quietly effective slasher and scorer. Superstar? No. Very good player who is only 23 years old? Yes.
That being said he'll never be confused for a three-point shooter, so if the Pistons were seriously interested in Evans to man the SG or SF positions, they would have to pair him with wing players that had three-point range. Calderon and Redick, perhaps?
He joins a long line of athletic wings Dumars has been associated with that have questionable range -- Evans, Josh Smith, Andre Iguodala, OJ Mayo. He talked before and after the draft about needing to add shooters that complement Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond.
Bu so far I'm seeing a lot of athletic scorers that rely on cutting to the basket to get their points. Rethink, Dumars, rethink! That being said, Evans might be the most offensively accomplished of the above group.
And as an added bonus, Evans' nickname is Reke, which lends itself to all kinds of great Game of Thrones jokes.
UPDATE: Word on Twitter is that Tyreke Evans was presented a sizable offer sheet by the New Orleans Pelicans. The idea is that Evans would come off the bench Manu-style as featured bench scorer.
While I think that plan would last about as long as it took to trade Eric Gordon's monster contract or his inevitable next injury, the Pelicans are throwing around serious money.
Have been told the Pelicans' sheet to Tyreke Evans is four years, $44 million.
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 1, 2013
Hopefully that is too rich for Joe Dumars to approach. I can understand him at $8-$9 million for four, maybe more for three, but not $11 for four.