Well, Boban Marjanovic’s reign as the San Antonio Spurs’ most obscure celebrity will end up lasting all of one year.
The human novelty/7’3″ monster agreed to a modest offer sheet with the Detroit Pistons, according to ESPN.com’s Stein:
Detroit is signing Spurs restricted free agent Boban Marjanovic to a three-year, $21 million offer sheet, according to league sources
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 7, 2016
Three years and $21 million is nothing in this cap climate. But, alas, the Spurs will not exercise their right to match Boban’s offer, according to Stein:
The Spurs, league sources say, are resigned to losing fan favorite Boban Marjanovic, unable to match Detroit's offer sheet
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 7, 2016
Marjanovic’s fit in Detroit is weird. The Pistons already have bigs in Jon Leuer and Aron Baynes, not to mention Andre Drummond. Unless they plan on dealing Baynes and playing Leuer at power forward, a mistake in today’s NBA, Marjanovic doesn’t figure to get a ton of playing time.
Which, for the record, kind of stinks. He was a garbage time superhero in his rookie season with the Spurs.
No other first year player in NBA history has ever matched Marjanovic’s playing time and per-36-minute benchmarks of 21.0 points, 13.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks, according to Basketball-Reference. That’s a true story. Marjanovic might be a novelty, but he isn’t a fad. The guy deserves court time he probably won’t get in Detroit.
Nevertheless, Andre Drummond seemed pretty stoked about the signing:
Thank the lord we have you, tired of you dunking on me without jumping ?……….. Welcome to the family fella? pic.twitter.com/8npDDsCSdz
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummond) July 7, 2016
Ahhh damn I forgot I still have to defend him in practice…?hmmm (begins plotting frequent bathroom breaks till the drill is over) ??
— Andre Drummond (@AndreDrummond) July 8, 2016
So yeah, there’s that. And there’s also the fact that Boban shot better than 57 percent between 16 feet and just inside the three-point line. That might be enough space for Pistons coach and president Stan Van Gundy to run out a Drummond-Boban frontcourt from time to time.
Offensive issues aside, that would be absolutely terrifying.
