Detroit Pistons: 5 takeaways from their chaotic and bizarre offseason
By Duncan Smith
Is Mason Plumlee actually that much better than Dewayne Dedmon?
When it comes to backup big men, in many cases one is as good as the next. Especially when you already have a few on your roster, it makes more sense to go with the one you’ve got rather than to bend over backward to get rid of the one you have who you can’t find a taker for just in order to add another backup big man, who is probably just not that much better than the one you just got rid of.
Well, your Detroit Pistons disagree.
They traded Tony Snell and Khyri Thomas to the Atlanta Hawks for Dewayne Dedmon, ostensibly for the purposes of trading him again. This alone is puzzling because why could a team interested in him simply not trade for him themselves? Or better yet, knowing that YOU won’t be able to trade him, wait for you to stretch and waive him, and then just sign him for the veteran minimum? This way a team that was interested in him could get him for no assets and practically no money while YOU do all the hard work and take on the dead money for waiving him.
Anyway, several minutes after free agency opened the Pistons signed Mason Plumlee to one of the biggest deals any center received at three years and $25 million. In order to make this and the Grant deal work, the Pistons would have to waive and stretch Dedmon’s remaining two years.
It’s worth remembering that Dedmon was due $13.3 million this season and next, but his 2021-22 salary was guaranteed for just $1 million, which means the Pistons could have just played it out this season and paid him his money and then cut him for $1 million next season. Instead, they have him on their dead cap for $2,866,667 every season until 2024-25.
At a certain point, when you have to add five years of dead salary to sign Mason Plumlee, you should consider not signing Mason Plumlee.
This is especially true when the difference in the quality of play that Plumlee can provide over Dedmon is likely negligible. If the Pistons want to have veterans around for their young newcomers, they still have Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose and likely will until at least the trade deadline.