Space Bat

July 1st, 2016 at 9:51 AM ^

That's actually a great deal. 6mil for a good upgrade at backup point guard is pretty great with the new cap. Gonna be night and day between him and Steve Blake slogging his way up the court. 

Everyone Murders

July 1st, 2016 at 9:51 AM ^

A bit expensive for a guy to come off the bench, but he's a very good backup guard.

Also, reminds me of the one-sentence summary of Moby Dick:

A man joins a whaling crew led by a monomaniacal captain, and at the end all that's left is Ish and the fish.

EastCoast Esq.

July 1st, 2016 at 9:58 AM ^

Not a terrible move. He was OK with us. The stats, though, are misleading. Everybody on the 76ers has had inflated statistics over the last couple years.

ijohnb

July 1st, 2016 at 10:09 AM ^

just needed a dude.  Someone to play 12-15 minutes per game and contribute something.  The Pistons had Reggie Jackson and nothing at point.  To get somebody with even the capability go around 15 per game on any team for 6 million per year is a win for us.

Bambi

July 1st, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^

The NBA cap this year jumped massively. From $70M last year (2015-2016) to at least $94M this upcoming year (2016-2017). So this year players in FA are getting a shit ton more money, especially since the salary floor is somewhere around $85M.

It's why Lebron has signed a 1 year deal with Cleveland the last two years and will again this year, instead of a 3 year deal. A max contract for a player with 10+ years of experience is 35% of the salary cap, so Lebron has been signing one year deals, waiting for the massive cap jump everyone knew was coming this year. Now he can a long term max contract and have a higher salary each year. (Theoretically. He won't actually sign a long term deal this year because there's going to be another massive cap jump next year, so he'll probably sign another one year deal and then wait for next year to sign a long term deal. It's part of why people Durant might do the same thing with OKC.)

Teams have a lot more money to play with now so a player like Ish at $6M a year is a pretty good deal for the Pistons, and I say this as a non Pistons fan. Most deals that seem like an over pay this summer are actually solid deals under the new cap, and some old deals from past offseasons that looked like overpays (Tristan Thompson for example) are much better now. The one exception is the Lakers 4 year $64M deal for Mozgov today. Under any salary cap that was an idiotic deal for LA.

ChiCityWolverine

July 1st, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^

NBA rosters are currently capped at 15, most teams hold 14-15. The bottom 5 or so are generally on rookie, minimum, and/or non-guaranteed deals. The big winners in the $$ boom aren't necessarily the stars, but the rotation guys. The 4-10 guys are getting major raises in the new CBA, especially because nearly every team has a ton of cap space and needs to reach the cap floor anyway. 

nerv

July 1st, 2016 at 10:40 AM ^

Well were going to need him more than 15 minutes a game. We really don't have much of anything off the bench.

This contract is a steal though. Contracts are hyper inflated right now. There is just simply more money available than there are quality free agents. I thought we were going to have to spend 10 mil a year to get a competent backup PG in this market.

If youre really prepared to cringe go look at the deal the Lakers gave Mozgov. Yikes.

ijohnb

July 1st, 2016 at 10:52 AM ^

where?  Both Jackson and KCP are going to end up being 38 minute per game players.  Tobias Harris and Stanley Jackson are both going to get substantial minutes as wing-slash players as well. 

Maybe a little more than 12-15 but not a whole lot more I don't think.

nerv

July 1st, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^

I think SVG would prefer to cut Jackson & KCP down from those numbers a bit. There was really no choice last year, the reserves came in and games slipped away. Jennings averaged a little under 20 a game and was working his way back from a torn achilles. So, no, I dont see Ish coming here to play 28 minutes a game but if the transition isn't brutal 20-25 wouldnt surprise me.

Id personally like to see our starters minutes a little further south from 40; we were overall pretty fortunate with injuries last year.

EastCoast Esq.

July 1st, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^

Our team actually hasn't been all that turnover prone. We aren't great at holding on to the ball, but our main weakness is we just can't shoot.

His A/T looks good because Brett Brown runs a fast paced style of play. That means a ton of opportunities for scores (even if the team isn't shooting well). Even if you may have more turnovers than usual (which he did), it's going to be outweighed by volume of chances.

JBE

July 1st, 2016 at 10:02 AM ^

They also signed Andre to a new max deal, and are in the running for Horford. That would be a great starting five. Things looking up for the Pistons.

ijohnb

July 1st, 2016 at 1:08 PM ^

Drummond cannot do anything to improve his free throw shooting, that could be one of the worst deals in NBA history.  Right now - Hey, you need to stop a Pistons run?  Foul Drummond, that is all you gotta do.

In reply to by ijohnb

Michigan4Life

July 1st, 2016 at 2:20 PM ^

Lol, a guy who basically averaged 16 ppg and 15 rpg and is only 22. He's worth the max deal. Not even close to being the worst deal in history even with FT issue

Blue_In_Texas

July 1st, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^

Love this move. 

1. Smith is one of the fastest players in the league with the ball. Adds an element to help transition game. Given the work SVG has done with Jackson, I'm sure he can maximize Smith's abilities. 

2. As mentioned above, not having Blake on the court is a huge boon by itself 

3. This deal leaves flexibility to go get shooting/a stretch 4. 

TheCool

July 1st, 2016 at 10:36 AM ^

He'll play more than the average backup PG minutes. Smith will allow SVG to rest KCP and Jackson more so they don't wear down toward the end of the season.

Lanknows

July 1st, 2016 at 6:21 PM ^

As SVG said, the Pistons want 3 PG and Gbinjie needs to prove himself in summer league to take on that role.  The Pistons may still sign a 3rd.  It's unlikely to be Trey Burke, but who knows what happens once things shake out.