The Detroit Pistons really need to worry about this free agent season. Not because you woke up and it’s 2016 again and they’re going to blow all their cap space all at once - It is 2019, and they have no cap space to blow. However, other teams, teams WITH cap space, could set market precedents that portend ill for the Pistons.
It was all good just a year ago.
The 2018 free agency period was cruel to upper-level starting big men, with Clint Capela signing for “only” $90 million over five years ($18 million Average Annual Value), Myles Turner taking $20 million AAV, and Jusuf Nurkic securing a mere $12 million AAV after putting his head down and trucking the Blazers into the playoffs.