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We're back with another Pistons Offseason Project! It was fun times last season where y'all actually called it on Stanley Johnson and Tobias Harris being future Pistons. We had 15 folks post FanPosts and with two starting jobs up for grab, there was quite a bit of variety in the plans.
This offseason stands to be less tumultuous than last year's, as each member of the starting lineup from the stretch last season are under contract for the coming season. Still, there are some important moves left to be made to help Detroit make the leap from an 8 seed, 44-win club to the top of the Eastern Conference.
The project: using the information below for a template, put together your own offseason plan for the Pistons. Share your thoughts/reasons for any key moves, then post it as a FanPost. I repeat, post it as a FanPost, not just in the comments here. We will do a recap at the end of this and only the FanPosts will be included.
Salary Cap/Re-signing
The NBA salary cap is projected to be $92 million for the 2016-17 season. The luxury tax is projected as $111 million - if you're able to get the Pistons over that mark, congratulations for a remarkable accomplishment and shred your credit cards. Pistons players contract for next season:
Tobias Harris - $17,000,000
Reggie Jackson - $15,000,000
Jodie Meeks - $6,540,000
Aron Baynes - $6,500,000
(Josh Smith stretch) - $5,400,000
Marcus Morris - $5,000,000
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope - $3,678,319
Stanley Johnson - $2,969,880
Reggie Bullock - $2,255,644
(Aaron Gray stretch) - $452,059
Non-guaranteed and options:
Joel Anthony - team option for $2,500,000
Lorenzo Brown - non-guaranteed $1,015,696
Spencer Dinwiddie - non-guaranteed $980,431
Darrun Hilliard - partially guaranteed $874,060
Draft picks:
Pick 18
Pick 49
Free agency:
Players not under contract past the 2015-16 season: Andre Drummond (QO), Anthony Tolliver, Steve Blake. Here's a complete list of 2016 NBA free agents.
Trades:
I would recommend keeping it relatively reasonable, but considering the trades Bower and SVG have pulled off, shit, go nuts.
Lineups:
Don't feel obliged to be beholden to this template. Feel free to get into whatever else you might feel is important, like hiring Hypnowheel to help Drummond's free throws or buying some robocall machine to harass Adam Silver all summer into a hacking rule change. Have fun y'all.