Mason Plumlee: 3 years, $25 million (Detroit Pistons)
…. What? At this point the Detroit Pistons have roughly 1/4 of all the centers in the NBA after signing Mason Plumlee to a three-year, $25 million contract. Perhaps new Pistons general manager Troy Weaver is prepared for the next revolution in ultra-modern NBA basketball by stocking up on anybody and everybody over the height of 6’10”.
Plumlee’s signing comes on the heels of a curious trade to acquire Dewayne Dedmon on Thursday in exchange for Tony Snell and Khyri Thomas. Not that those players are particularly essential to anything any team is trying to do, but going out of your way to sign Mason Plumlee (on purpose!) just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
The Pistons should expect to be bad next season, no doubt about it, so it probably doesn’t really matter that much what they do in free agency this season, but a three-year deal for Plumlee is confusing. Why tie up longer-term salary than is necessary? Do they really think they need to outbid other teams with dollars AND years?
I don’t know, maybe this will make sense as time goes on, or maybe this is just one of the most mind-boggling moves the Pistons have made in a long time. At this point, we can only give this signing one grade.