New Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon said he’s willing to use a chunk of his cap space to take on unwanted contracts from teams looking to shed salary. He’ll look for sweeteners as he tries to build assets during the franchise’s latest rebuild.
“One thing we are looking for with the cap space we do have is bringing in contracts maybe from other teams and gathering assets as well,” Langdon said. “Hopefully, with the players that come in, they can bolster the growth (of the younger players). If we can interweave those two things, that would make our summer successful.”
The Pistons could have more than $60MM in cap space to utilize. However, Langdon isn’t looking for a quick fix, even if the team’s fan base is weary of losing. Detroit hasn’t won a playoff series since 2008.
“I don’t think there’s a timeframe for us to get to the playoffs,” he said.
We have more on the Pistons:
- Owner Tom Gores gave the green light to Langdon to dismiss head coach Monty Williams, even though Williams had five years and $65MM remaining on his contract. Gores had no qualms about eating that much money in order for a fresh start. “When you have to adjust, you adjust,” Gores said, per Omari Sankofa II of theDetroit Free Press . “This franchise means everything to me. It’s not like I didn’t think about it for a second, but the right thing has to survive. I think it was the right move for all of us, including for Monty, but it’s not like I didn’t think about it at all. It’s significant. We’ve just always got to do the best thing for the franchise.”
- They’ll be picking fifth in this week’s draft, though Langdon is willing to move the pick if the right offer comes along, Sankofa writes in a separate story . “We like five a lot,” he said. “Obviously we’re going to look to be strategic. If someone comes along and blows us away for that fifth pick, I think we have to understand and analyze what’s the best decision. Do we pick at five, or do we move back? We’re not looking at moving out of the draft, but again, if decisions come and offers come that we think will make us better as an organization going forward, we’re going to have to look at everything. If we stay at five, we’ll find a good player.”
- Langdon spoke about punctuality during Friday’s press conference, expecting players and employees to be on time and return phone calls and texts promptly. Those words rang hollow to the media, who waited for over an hour after the scheduled start of the press conference due to Gores being stuck in traffic, Shawn Windsor of the Free Press notes. It fed into the notion that Gores is disconnected from the franchise, something he denies. “I know some people think I’m not attached enough to the organization, that I’m detached. But I want to give this organization everything I can,” he said.