If paying the luxury tax is what it takes to keep the Detroit Pistons’ core together, then that’s what owner Tom Gores is prepared to do.
No, seriously, that’s what he told the Detroit Free Press’ Vince Ellis:
Q: With a possible KCP extension, you could threaten the luxury tax line (an NBA mechanism to curtail teams’ spending). Thoughts on being a luxury taxpayer?
Gores: “Look, if we weren’t building a core, there’s really no point in paying the luxury tax. Because we are building a core, would I do it? Yeah, absolutely. This is a tremendous team. If you go down the line, player by player, and especially our young folks, these are real players. You look at KCP as a very diverse player. He keeps working at his game and you look at his improvement and just like anybody else, he will improve in other areas. Part of Stan’s coaching philosophy obviously is defense. So you say go into the luxury tax for nothing, then that would be silly because then we’re putting the franchise behind. But given that we have such a good core, if that’s what it took, and we feel we’ve made such progress this year, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it because we want to keep getting better.”
That’s a pretty big commitment to a core that won just 44 games last season. But, at the same time, the Pistons are still pretty young. Marcus Morris is the old head of their core, and he’s only going to turn 27 in September. Kentavioius Caldwell-Pope, Andre Drummond, Stanley Johnson and Tobias Harris are all under the age of 25.
Plus, there’s a chance the Pistons can shirk the luxury tax next season. They have $91.9 million in guaranteed contracts on the books as of now. KCP’s extension will likely cost upwards of $20 million per year on average, but the luxury tax is expected to hit $122 million. And that number could rise.
Indeed, if the Pistons add even more talent, they’ll soar past that $122 million. But the entirety of their core is under contract long term after KCP. Reggie Jackson is one season through a five-year deal; Drummond is about to kick off a five-year pact; Harris and Morris won’t be free agents until 2019; and Johnson’s next deal, assuming he signs one, won’t kick in until 2020 at the earliest.
The Pistons may eventually have to exceed the luxury tax, but looking immediately ahead, they can avoid it. More importantly, if they decide to pay it, they can do so without seeming reckless. Their core is that talented.
