LeVert’s two-year deal will absorb all of the mid-level exception
The Detroit Pistons made what is expected to be their biggest offseason acquisition, using the full mid-level exception to sign wing Caris LeVert to a two-year, $29 million deal. The news was first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN.
LeVert is basically this year’s version of the Tobias Harris addition last offseason—a completely whelming move. LeVert, like Harris, is a veteran with nearly a decade in the league who obviously helps in several respects on the floor. He does a lot of things well, but he doesn’t really have anything that makes him special.
If you’re looking at what the Pistons’ glaring deficiencies were, the first things that come to mind were a lack of beef at power forward, some two-way ability among their bench players, and dedicated 3-point shooting. I’m not sure LeVert really addresses any of those things.
LeVert split last year between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks , averaging 12.1 points, 3.4 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 turnovers. He shot 37% from deep on 4.4 attempts per game last season.
The positive take on LeVert is that the dude can still score at several levels and in several ways on the floor. Last season, he had a career-high 58% true shooting percentage. Nearly 30% of his shots were at the rim and 47% of his shots from deep. He also shot better than 40% from the mid-range area.
He has legitimate size that should allow him to play small forward and enough scoring chops to be the “adult in the room” within largely bench lineups. That should help the Pistons’ offense stay afloat while the team has players like Ron Holland and Ausar Thompson on the floor.
The signing is certainly not sexy. I’m not particularly enthused it will work at a high level. But he’s a scorer, a reliable veteran on a young team, and perhaps most importantly, he’s on a reasonable, short-term deal.