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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.
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.
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.
Langlois: Get her a job on the Pistons’ dance team, Automotion. That way, her Junes will be booked, too.
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.
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.
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.
Langlois: They don’t. They get their own rooms.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Patrick (Battle Creek, Mich.): Is Allen Iverson happy here in Detroit? He looks like he is not enjoying his new situation here during timeouts and throughout the game when the camera is on him.
Langlois: Iverson hasn’t given any indication that he’s unhappy here. He’s talked expansively about this team being the most talented group of which he’s been a part. Iverson strikes me as a guileless person. If something is bothering him, it would be impossible for him to hide it. This is also a case where the enormous respect NBA players have for Joe Dumars, especially ones of Iverson’s age who recall Dumars the player firsthand, carries enormous weight. Iverson was truly humbled and appreciative that Dumars traded for him.
Langlois: One or the other, Cam. Odom is a versatile player, but I don’t think he’s physical enough to be a team’s primary interior defender. Boozer is one of the game’s elite scoring post players, but he, too, wouldn’t be an ideal candidate to guard bigger post scorers. If Joe Dumars spends the full $22 million he’ll have in cap space, I suspect he’d break it over two players and probably spread it out – one big, one perimeter.
Langlois: It’s a good question, Tom. I did ask Joe Dumars if, when he and Michael Curry were discussing the change to the small lineup, if the fact that the two teams the Pistons most likely would have to go through to get out of the Eastern Conference – Boston and Cleveland – were big and physical gave him pause, he said it would concern him if he had to play them that way for 48 minutes. As vulnerable as the Pistons might be in certain areas to powerful teams, they present as many problems the other way – at least theoretically. We’ll just have to see how it plays out. But if it requires a “solution,” the Pistons can always alter their lineup for a particular playoff matchup.
Langlois: The only one that I’d have any real concerns about at this point, about one-third of the way into the season, is Rasheed Wallace, who is averaging about 34 minutes a game. That should start creeping downward. The return of Antonio McDyess helps Michael Curry accomplish that. So would consistent play from Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell or Kwame Brown, but those guys have had a tough time because the trade and lineup upheavals have affected them most directly. Tayshaun Prince’s minutes are higher than most expected at 37, but he’s 28 years old. That’s really not an exceedingly heavily load for him. He’s gotten worn down in the playoffs in years past, but I don’t know that there’s been much of a link between that and the minutes he’s logged in the season’s middle months. The last few years, they’ve cut back his minutes significantly heading into the playoffs, so it just doesn’t strike me as rational that there’s a link between his regular-season minutes and his postseason endurance.
Langlois: Hamilton is going to get his 35 minutes a night no matter if he’s starting or coming off of the bench, and a good chunk of those minutes are going to be spent in the game alongside both Rodney Stuckey and Allen Iverson. But Michael Curry might decide that he should always have two of those three on the floor, and one way to ensure it happens is to bring one of them off of the bench so they’re not all on the floor together to start the first and third quarters. I would still be pretty surprised if Hamilton isn’t on the floor to end games, no matter if the Pistons are going big or small. Johnson has some of the same traits that made both Rodman and Ben Wallace tremendously effective players for the Pistons without needing the basketball in their hands.
Langlois: The contract the Pistons and FS Detroit signed was for 10 years, Steven. While it does limit the opportunities for viewers without cable or satellite TV to see the Pistons, it does give the Pistons a broader reach. The games that were shown over the air in seasons past were just not available to Pistons fans in many pockets of their coverage area because it was difficult to cobble together a network that would provide universal coverage.
Langlois: I see a little more consistency at both ends, Jason. The way they let Oklahoma City back in the game was a little troubling, but that one might be less a continuation of a pattern than an aberration coming off of a two-day Christmas break. The defense has definitely been stingier since the Pistons went back to their big lineup. I don’t know if that’s so much a reflection on the efficacy of one lineup vs. the other as it is a statement on how much Amir Johnson brings to the first unit defensively and how well Antonio McDyess is playing.
Langlois: Iverson played 39 minutes in that game, Serge, and he’s averaging a team-high 37.7. That might be about four or five minutes off of his career average, but he’s 33 and, even if he was 25, when you’re sharing a backcourt with Rodney Stuckey, Rip Hamilton and Arron Afflalo, it would be foolish to play anyone 48 minutes. Iverson reiterated after the game – on a night he took 14 shots and scored 15 points, but also had six rebounds, four assists and three steals – that he has a higher goal in mind than individual stats now. He wants to win a championship. Curry is going to play Afflalo some situationally in the fourth quarter for Iverson because Afflalo is emerging as one of the NBA’s top perimeter defenders. Stuckey is emerging as a tremendous penetrating playmaker. Iverson remains a terrific and prolific clutch scorer, but the Pistons are going to need to use the strengths of their many weapons to wring the most out of their potential. Teams that have had to rely on Iverson for the bulk of their scoring just haven’t had great team success very often – as most teams that have to rely that heavily on one player learn.
Langlois: G’day back at you, Tom, and Happy New Year to our friends and Pistons fans Down Under. Getting out of the East this year is going to be as tough as it’s been since the Pistons have been on their streak of six straight conference finals.
Langlois: The first signs of a team that’s learning how to make the best use out of all its parts. That starts with the coaching staff figuring out what combinations work best together and extends to the players beginning to figure out the strengths and tendencies of their teammates. Allen Iverson is a great player, but he’s such an unconventional player that it takes time to understand how to play off of him. There are never good times for injuries, but it has to be disheartening at this time to see Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess all nursing aches and pains that have caused them to miss time just as things were coming together – especially with next week’s daunting four-game road trip staring at them.
Langlois: From your lips to Joe Dumars’ ears, Ron. Somewhat surprisingly, the Pistons shipped Sharpe and Alex Acker both to Fort Wayne of the D-League Friday morning. They’d said all along that they thought it best to keep Sharpe, who played so sparingly in college and then was diagnosed with narcolepsy just about one year ago at this time, with them in a more structured environment. They must now feel Sharpe has his condition and the effects of the medication to treat it under control well enough to be in Fort Wayne. It will be interesting to follow his progress in the D-League.
Langlois: He had huge red flags on character when he was part of the 2007 draft class and the fact he hasn’t been able to dent a New Jersey frontcourt rotation that could have used help really diminishes his value. He’ll have to show something before New Jersey can hope to get anything for him. Right now, it would require taking back a bad contract, I would think, to dump him.
Langlois: I’m pretty sure he’s intent on signing a long-term deal for significant money, Cory. He’s 33 and, because of the way the collective-bargaining agreement is written, teams are severely penalized for signing a player to a contract that carries him past age 36, so Iverson is probably looking at a three-year deal. How high the dollar value goes is anyone’s guess at this point, but I would expect him to get a three-year deal with somebody.
Langlois: Teams have a foul to give if they have fewer than four team fouls for a quarter and have not committed a foul in the last two minutes of a quarter. The Pistons hadn’t picked up even one team foul by the time New Jersey had its final possession of the half with 20 seconds left. The idea is to foul with as little time remaining as possible so the other team has to inbound the ball with just a few seconds left and won’t have time to get off a very good shot. Afflalo played the strategy perfectly by waiting until Harris began to go to the basket, fouling with 4.9 seconds left. New Jersey inbounded the ball to Harris, who drove to the basket and forced Afflalo to foul him again as he was going up to shoot. So the fact Afflalo fouled Harris with 4.9 seconds left didn’t really cost the Pistons points. The foul that sent Harris to the line was a shooting foul, which meant it didn’t matter if the Pistons still weren’t at five team fouls or had already fouled once inside of two minutes – a shooting foul yields free throws no matter when or under what circumstances it occurs. The only risk to giving a foul when you have one to give is committing a second foul on a player not in the act of shooting; under those circumstances, the fouling team would be giving up two free throws it wouldn’t otherwise be giving up. That wasn’t the case in the example you cite.
Langlois: The growth potential of their young players – Stuckey, Johnson and Arron Afflalo, in particular – coupled with the X factor Iverson brings gives them the chance to be a more dangerous playoff opponent, Derek. The last few weeks, we’ve seen some signs that it will play out that way. But it’s still too soon to say they’re better than the last few years with great confidence, and we probably won’t know conclusively one way or the other until we see what happens in the postseason.
