Bobby Marks’ 2025 Detroit Pistons Offseason Guide | NBA on ESPN

Bobby Marks’ 2025 Detroit Pistons Offseason Guide | NBA on ESPN

All right, happy Thursday. Hopefully everyone is doing great out there. I’m sure there’s a lot of disappointed uh Detroit Pistons fans who thought you were going back to New York for a game seven. You know what’s funny? The Pistons, well, it’s probably not funny. Um, they remind me of a lot of the 20134 version of the Toronto Raptors who while in New or while in Brooklyn, we we played them in the playoffs and won based on just a Paul Pierce fingertip block of Kyle Larry. And although this team did not get to a game seven, I think it reminds me a lot of as far as kind of how this roster is built. Certainly Toronto wasn’t on those hard times. Um, but I do see a lot of similarities here. I tweeted this and this is the beauty of Twitter and how many crazy crazies are out there on that site, the dark web, I call it. Um, it was a terrific season in in Detroit and they should not be ashamed of anything. Um, I know how this it ended and I down the stretch. You could say that for Milwaukee. You could say it for a lot of teams. And I think for Detroit, everything is kind of about a learning curve for um what happens next. So you 44 wins. You basically you have tripled your win total from a year ago, which is remarkable. Um you have the second picking a second round pick, pick 37. That’s from Toronto. So basically almost a late first. Your first is going to Minnesota. Um, that was from a trade in uh 2020. I believe it was the Christian Wood trade that first kept on getting passed around and wound up in New York and then it went to Minnesota in the Carl Anthony Towns trade. So, you have no first round pick which is fine. You have uh all your picks going forward. I think it’s the first time since 2020. You can trade up to four. As I said, this story is terrific. I remember being away when the losing streak was going on and uh they were the laughingstock of of the league. And I do think it’s an it’s a it’s something where if you are a rebuilding team and you put the right pieces around your franchise player, which they do have in Kate Cunningham, you can turn it around pretty quickly. You got to hit on some moves and Tim Hardaway Jr. trade, signing Tobias Harris to a really nice contract. I I I I thought it was a bad deal because it’s like who you bidding against with him. That turned out nice. Um Malik Beasley signing and these are your free agents right now. You got Beasley for one year, $6 million. Dennis Shruder trade at the deadline from Utah. All those players, those veteran players complimented Kate Cunningham and Assar Thompson and um Jaylen Duran and Jaden Ivy who was got who I wound up getting hurt who eventually will be back. Your core is there. Ron Holland who didn’t play much, Marcus Sasser, Isaiah Stewart who was hurt, but there are nice pieces there with this roster here. Um, and they have an identity. Um, I said, um, I I felt bad when I tweeted this because I said JB Bicker Staff and I, he’s a heck of a coach, man. I said he’s like that crazy uncle that comes to Christmas or that your uncle at Christmas dinner who just kind of sits in a corner and just complains. And so, he does wear on you a little bit here, but man, does he get the most out of rosters. And they’ve got a defensive identity of who he is and who they are. similar to where Houston is. They they fit the identity of their of their head coach. Um Cade is going to hit all NBA and there’s going to be some financial ramifications there. It’s going to be similar to what happened with Evan Mobley who won defensive player of the year. It’s about a a $45 million cap hit total. His number is going to go from 224 to 269. Um, they made a strong priority to complement Cunningham with three-point shooting. They went from last to 17th. I know it’s like, wow, big deal, 17th. But you could see the difference there. Now, how do you build off this momentum, right? Cunningham, Doran, Thompson, Ivy, um, all under contract next year, but you gota you have decision with your your veterans. Shruder, Beasley, Hardaway Jr. How much do you rely on continuity? I always go back to that Atlanta team that went to the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to Philadelphia, I think, in uh I think in six games. No, they lost in to Milwaukee in uh in five or six. They beat Philadelphia, excuse me. That was the Ben Simmons game where he was afraid to shoot a layup. I always go back to that Atlanta team and I remember writing about it and I said, “Bring this group back. Like, run it back.” And they did. And then I remember Travis Schlank who was their GM and and basically said like we we made a mistake. It was a little bit of fool’s gold. So now you have to decide as far as if it’s fool’s gold or you run this group back. You have early bird rights on Shruder, you can uh bring him back. You have a non you have bird rights on Hardway Jr. You can bring him back. Malik Beasley is an interesting study and we’re going to talk about him in a minute. Uh because of his contract you have non bird rights and we’re going to explain that in a minute. your um your cap space is going to be interesting. It’s it’s it’s going to likely shrink. So, uh if Cade hits uh AllNBA, you will see that $28 million number down go down to $19 million in cap space. And then it’s like, well, do we act as a team over the cap? And if we do, we’ll have our non-t taxment level exception, which is at 14 million. and our bianual which is at five and change or do we act as a team under the cap? So what does under the cap meaning mean? Basically you would have to renounce all your free agents and that would put you at excuse me God I got this like cough roughly $19 million and you would have your room mid-level exception. So basically $27 million in spending. Um, if you don’t if you want to act, as I said, over the cap, you can still bring back Hardaway and Shruder because you’ve got Early Bird and Bird Rights that allows you to exceed the cap and then you can earmark your near non-tax mid-level exception for Beasley. I think the market for Beasley will be interesting. Um, he’s not a $6 million player. He’s not a minimum player anymore. Is he a mid non-tax midle, which is at $14 million? Well, there’ll be offers for him because you need, as we’ve said, you need shooting in the playoffs. You need shooting off your bench. What finish second and six man of the year? So, that is kind of like your financial window. Basically, you have two choices. You have the cap space direction, but it c it will cost you L Hardaway and uh Shruder, or you can go uh the c the um the over the cap, which you could bring the whole group back if um Beasley does not get more than the $14 million non-tax mid-level exception. Remember, there’s only really one team with cap space, and that is uh that is Brooklyn. Front office priority is basically weighing your own free agents. the continuity factor. How much does continuity matter as far as uh with this? And certainly Beasley Shruder and Hardaway is that guy. You’ve got two extension candidates. Last year it was Kate Cunningham. Cunningham had all NBA language. He’s going to earn AllNBA. His number will go from 224 to 269. Now you’ve got Ivy and Doran. Two players. One was hurt and Ivy. The other finished the season strong. What number are you comfortable? I think there’s they’re worthy of extension candidates, but these two guys, it will go down to October 21st. And as we know in extension candidates, when you’re not a Max player, there always has to be a compromise. Ivy had the leg injury. He had surgery, had was having a career year. Duran played 78 games, second highest field goal percentage in the NBA. Um, one of five players to record 100 double doubles before turning 22. Pretty interesting. team needs. I think a lot depends on what happens with your free agents. Certainly, shooting is a priority if those guys leave. And as we said, we talked about the draft assets with having all your first round picks. They got 15 seconds, which is remarkable. That is it in a nutshell with Detroit. Be positive in Detroit. I know it’s not how you wanted to end and you thought that you had a chance to get out of this series and you certainly did, especially if you got to game seven. But compared to where you were and where you are today, there was a lot of strong momentum building for this organization. They did a heck of a job. It was fun to root for. I don’t care who wins and who who loses. I root for good success stories. And these guys had one of the great success stories of any team in NBA history. That is it for Detroit. We will talk soon. Have a great night. What I look like I pull up Jimmy with the heat. I’m on fire on ESPN.

ESPN NBA Insider Bobby Marks gives his offseason guide for the Detroit Pistons after they were eliminated from the 2025 NBA Playoffs in the first round by the New York Knicks.

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