MONDAY, January 5, 2009
Steve (Grand Rapids, Mich.): I was playing NBA 2K9 and learned about the Larry Bird exception – what a way to learn about the salary cap! – and I was wondering if there was any possible circumstance after this season to re-sign Rasheed Wallace and, if so, how much are they permitted to go over the salary cap when exercising the Bird exception?
Langlois: The Pistons could have $22 million in cap space next summer. I say “could have” because in order to get that far under the cap, they would have to renounce their rights to both Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace. If they don’t renounce their rights to Wallace and Iverson, both would have a “cap hold” of 150 percent of their current salaries count against the Pistons’ cap – which, of course, would mean the Pistons would have no cap space at all. Iverson’s cap hold would be about $33 million and Wallace’s $20 million. Neither would actually sign for anywhere near that amount, of course, but the cap hold’s intent is to prevent teams from letting all of their players become free agents, going out and signing two or three big-time free agents from other teams, and then re-signing their own players using their Bird exception. If the Pistons renounce their rights to Wallace and Iverson, they lose their Bird rights and can’t go over the cap to sign them. As for your question specifically, you can go over the cap by as much as you want to sign your own free agent. But, remember, the luxury tax makes it onerous to do so. This year’s cap is about $59 million and the tax kicks in at about $71 million. The Pistons are right up against that latter figure. Anything over that and a team must send a dollar-for-dollar tax payment to the NBA. So, as a practical matter, let’s say the Pistons renounce rights to Wallace and Iverson and sign a big-time free agent next summer at a starting annual salary of $14 million. That leaves them $8 million under the cap. They’d then have to decide if they wanted to pursue either Wallace or Iverson – or somebody else – because they couldn’t get both of them for $8 million. And Iverson is probably going to be looking for more than that all by himself. For more detailed explanations of the salary cap, check out this
http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q29 Web site.
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Eric (Belcamp, Md.): Should the Pistons go after Marcus Camby from the Clippers for another big man with playoff experience?
Langlois: You’ve got your choice, Eric – do you want to trade Rasheed Wallace for him, Tayshaun Prince or Rip Hamilton? Those are the salaries that would match.
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Christian (Farmington Hills, Mich.): With the Pistons playing much better with Rip out, and the Toronto Raptors doing terrible, what about this trade: Bargnani, Moon and Anthony Parker for Hamilton and a first- or second-round pick?
Langlois: I think the Raptors would be all for it. The chance to add a pure scorer like Hamilton next to Jose Calderon and Chris Bosh – and get a first-rounder? I’m struggling to see what’s in it for the Pistons. Moon wouldn’t get many minutes behind Prince. Parker would be battling Arron Afflalo for minutes off the bench. Bargnani … maybe. Not sure what the Pistons’ front office thinks of him, but he hasn’t made anyone think he’s a future All-Star yet.
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Jack (Dallas): My girlfriend wants us to get married and have our honeymoon in the middle of June. I don’t want to because that’s when the NBA Finals are. What would you do?
Langlois: Get her a job on the Pistons’ dance team, Automotion. That way, her Junes will be booked, too.
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Dwayne (Detroit): I hear people say Kwame Brown is weak, but I think it’s more a lack of basketball instincts. He doesn’t know where the ball will come off of the rim like Dennis Rodman did or have timing to block shots like Ben Wallace. Is that fair to say?
Langlois: Wallace and Rodman were two of the most unique and effective defensive players of their eras. It’s not fair to compare Kwame Brown or anyone else to them. I don’t think Kwame Brown’s basketball instincts are an issue. What keeps him from being a premier big man mostly is questionable hands and lack of a scoring touch – and the scoring touch might be a function of his hands, as well. But if you mean weak literally, you’re wrong about that. The man is strong as a bull. He is an effective man-to-man defender. He lacks great explosiveness, like Rodman or Wallace, but that is a very rare quality in a big man.
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Mahnor (Bronx, N.Y.): Do you see Iverson’s stats going back to 30 to 35 points, seven to eight assists and two to three steals per game like in Philly? Because when AI is filling up the stat sheet, the Pistons are at their best.
Langlois: He’s averaging 14.4 shots a game with the Pistons and that number has held pretty steady until the last few games when they were up because the Pistons were so shorthanded. He’s averaging just more than six free throws a game. Those numbers might creep up a little bit, but not radically enough to expect his scoring to essentially double from the 18 a game he’s at now. The Pistons will be at their best with Iverson scoring efficiently – shooting a decent percentage and not turning the ball over and attacking to create scoring chances for others as well as himself. Nobody, Iverson included, expected he’d continue to score at 25 points a game when he came to a team with a balanced scoring capacity and mentality.
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Kevin (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.): I heard they showed a McDyess montage video before his first game back with Indiana. Is that posted on Pistons.com anywhere or do you know where I could watch it?
Langlois: We can’t show it on Pistons.com, Kevin, because of the copyright issues with the theme song from “Welcome Back, Kotter,” which was used as the backdrop for the McDyess video. But it was a terrific production piece from Pete Skorich’s crew, David Rhoades and Jeremy Smoker, the best in the business.
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Erges (Tirana, Albania): Do you know how do the players share hotel rooms during road trips?
Langlois: They don’t. They get their own rooms.
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Lewis (Wick, Scotland): The Pistons are now 21-11 and on a seven-game winning streak. How many games do you think they will win this season?
Langlois: Their pace through 30 games puts them on track to win 52. It would be nice to push the streak of 50-win seasons to eight straight, but the priority is to get the team playing its best basketball by April so they’re ready for the playoffs. If that means putting players in situations they aren’t completely comfortable with right now and absorbing an extra loss or two along the way, so be it.
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Marvin (Richmond, Va.): In your most recent Mailbag you said you don’t think regular-season minutes played by Prince have affected his playoff performance, but in the next sentence you say they have cut back his minutes heading into the playoffs and he was still worn down by the second round. Logic says if he plays a career high in minutes he will again be worn down by the second round.
Langlois: I didn’t say he was worn down by the second round, Marvin. In fact, his incredible block of Hedo Turkoglu at the rim in the final seconds of the clinching Game 5 win over Orlando would argue pretty strongly that he was still feeling mighty spry by the end of the second round last spring. I don’t know that he was worn down in the Boston series, even. Now, the two or three years prior to that, I think Prince wore down noticeably late in the playoffs – but, remember, the Pistons were to the NBA Finals in 2005 and the conference finals in 2006 and ’07. I don’t believe the regular season load Prince carried affected him nearly as much as the grind of the playoffs, when every possession is played with high intensity. Nothing contradictory about that.
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Jennifer (Chicago): Can you explain why Walter Herrmann is not getting playing time? I think he is very talented and deserves more minutes. Shouldn’t Michael Curry play him some minutes in every game so he can stay in shape?
Langlois: It’s up to players to stay in shape no matter how often or how long they play in the games, Jennifer. And Walter Herrmann keeps himself in top-notch condition. It’s tough to play more than eight or nine players regularly and Herrmann is right on the fringe of the rotation right now.
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John (Toronto): Do you think Jerry Stackhouse could be a guy we could use, especially for his playoff experience? I know it’s early and things look like they’re coming together, but that second unit seems to struggle scoring, especially against zone defense. Stack might be an answer.
Langlois: Stack’s 34 and what always made him a special player was his explosiveness. I suspect that’s ebbed and he’s never been a consistent enough jump shooter to live from the outside. In limited time this year, he’s shooting 29 percent overall and 19 percent from the 3-point line. You have to assume there’s a good reason why Dallas, a pretty astute franchise, has kept him on the inactive list so often this season. If you brought him here, it would be to fill a role similar to Arron Afflalo – backing up Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince. Right now, Afflalo is a far better defender and – from all appearances – a better scoring threat, too.
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Keith (Ocala, Fla.): I’m worried about the upcoming Denver game. I didn’t feel as worried when we played Ben and the Bulls, but Chauncey worries me. I don’t think he’ll let his team lose. Considering talent and experience, how well do you think Stuckey will match up with Mr. Big Shot?
Langlois: Stuckey has a physical advantage at this point – he’s quicker and faster than Billups and even a little bigger. Strength is probably a wash. Billups, of course, has a significant edge in experience. I always thought what made Billups an elite point guard was his sense of pacing – when to attack, when to pull back and when to get certain players jump-started. Stuckey is showing signs of developing along similar lines – ahead of schedule, if you ask me. While Stuckey has a big edge in ability to penetrate, Billups has just as big an advantage at this point as a deep perimeter shooter. It would be interesting to see how they’d fare against each other in a seven-game series. In a one-shot deal, I wouldn’t draw any conclusions either way.
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Cyle (Allen Park, Mich.): Do you think Rodney Stuckey could be our franchise player?
Langlois: There’s a reason Joe Dumars said last June, when he declared everybody on the table, than he quickly amended his remarks to say Stuckey wasn’t really on the table unless a few teams he knew wouldn’t call suddenly proposed something unimaginable. So, yeah, I don’t think there’s much doubt that the future of the Pistons is tied strongly to Rodney Stuckey.
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Boris (Troy, Mich.): At this point, do you have a feel for the likelihood of the Pistons re-signing Allen Iverson after this season? I want to see him finish his career as a Piston with multiple championships to his name.
Langlois: Let’s think about this one for a minute. When Joe D made the trade, he said one of the reasons was because the Pistons had become too predictable and limited offensively in the playoffs and Iverson, he hoped, would change that. So it only makes sense that he wants to see what Iverson does for the Pistons in the playoffs, when the game inarguably changes, before he’s going to make any firm decisions on the future. But it’s a two-way street. Iverson will have choices to make, too.
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Domnick (Manila, Philippines): I really enjoy your blog and your input on the Pistons. It gives us fans good insight and hope. I wonder if we need to make another trade to help the frontcourt. Amir has improved, but both Rasheed and McDyess are getting old.
Langlois: But they’re not going to get much older before the end of the season, and Johnson should get better by then, and when the season’s over, the Pistons have free agency and the draft to use as tinkering tools. If Joe Dumars looks at his roster after that and decides it still needs tweaking, then another major trade is an option. But the one major trade he recently made has given him the ammunition to improve the roster without having to execute another.
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Jay (Jackson, Mich.): Do you feel in the near future that a spot-up shooting guard would be a better fit to play alongside Stuckey?
Langlois: When you have a guy like Stuckey, a penetrator, it’s always good to have shooters who can play off of him. Then again, it’s always good to have shooters no matter what the makeup of the team. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the two-guard who qualifies as a great spot-up shooter, though. If you’re asking if Stuckey and Hamilton (or Iverson, for that matter) can be an effective backcourt, sure. I do think the trade of Billups has left the Pistons maybe one perimeter shooter short, but every team has one area they’d like to bolster.
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Jermain (Sterling Heights, Mich.): I’m loving the winning streak. The team seems to be developing some chemistry, but the one thing I think the Pistons need is a deadly 3-point shooter. Is there any chance the Pistons will acquire someone of that caliber?
Langlois: The guy who can give them that is Walter Herrmann. When he knocks down a few 3-pointers, it really seems to make a difference for how the rest of the team plays while he’s out there. It’s probably a function of his sporadic time lately, but he hasn’t been giving them that in recent appearances. As for the prospects of a trade, it’s possible that the Pistons would add a role player – and my guess is a perimeter shooter – closer to the trade deadline.
