Stan Van Gundy isn’t just the coach and president of the Detroit Pistons.
He’s a certified O.G.
The Pistons absolutely fleeced the Orlando Magic in Tuesday’s Tobias Harris trade, relinquishing only Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova. Jennings is on an expiring contract and was good as gone from Detroit, and Ilyasova’s salary for next season is non-guaranteed and he likely would have been waived as part of Van Gundy’s free-agency approach.
So, you know, wow. The Pistons got away with highway robbery.
And, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, they tried to get away with even more:
The issue for the Pistons – and several teams around the league interested in Anderson – remains this: How much will it cost to re-sign Anderson this summer in free agency? With Harris, the Pistons have cost-certainty on the three-years, $48 million on his deal through the 2018-’19 season.
There were discussions recently where Detroit could’ve ended up with Anderson, and New Orleans with Harris, but those discussions dissolved in recent days, league sources said.
Detroit had been pursuing a bigger deal with Harris and Orlando guard Evan Fournier, but Orlando didn’t want to move Fournier, sources said.
Evan. Freaking. Fournier.
Yes, he’s going to be a restricted free agency this summer, but he can play shooting guard or small forward and would have advanced Detroit’s floor-spacing movements. Other players and some picks would have likely been included as part of this expanded deal that wasn’t. But the ending framework suggests there’s no way the Pistons could have overpaid for both Harris and Fournier, because they snagged Harris for almost nothing.
Unfortunately for the Pistons, Van Gundy didn’t have enough magic to stage the coup. Detroit and its fans will jsut have to settle for acquiring a potentially devastating playmaking 4 for pennies on the dollar.
