Pistons Get their Men
Amir will be on the Pistons for the next 3 years;
hopefully he gets some PT
Image: Need4Sheed
Joe Dumars has completed his two biggest offseason moves by signing Chauncey Billups and Amir Johnson to new contracts. There were rumors there was considerable interest from other teams for both players, but no real threats materialized to throw ridiculous money at either player. That was the case last season when the Chicago Bulls overpaid to sign Ben Wallace away from Detroit.
I’ll give Chris McCosky the final word on the Billups deal given the controversy that brewed up when he reported the structure for the deal was in place.
Chauncey Billups officially signed his five-year contract that could pay him as much as $60 million.
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The first four years and $46 million of the deal are guaranteed. The $11.5 million annual average is the highest ever paid by the Pistons. The fifth year of the deal is partially guaranteed ($3 million) and is a team option.
A. Sherrod Blakely has a short article on Amir Johnson’s deal:
The 6-foot-9 forward will receive a three-year deal worth about $11 million, which is an impressive sum considering the 20-year-old has played in just 11 NBA games.
Despite limited playing time, the Pistons believe Johnson can be an impact player in the NBA. He’s expected to compete for minutes off the bench this season at the power forward position.
The Pistons have suggested they’ll play their younger players more next season. The latest guarantee came from Flip Saunders in this article from Krista Jahnke from the Free Press.
Saunders said he believes the young corps of Afflalo, Stuckey and third-year forwards Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson — a restricted free agent who could re-sign with the team as early as today — will be ready to put the pressure on the starters.
“When your other guys are playing every day at a high level, a very competitive level,” Saunders said, “they don’t have a choice as far as to learn to bring it.”
Most of those young players have looked good during the summer league. Stuckey has gotten off to a good start, Maxiell scored 21 points the other day and Arron Afflalo also scored 21 points in the same game.
The one question is whether the younger players will actually get more PT this year than they did the previous two seasons. It’s easy to pencil those players in for playing time in July, but it has proven difficult to actually get it done during the season. For two offseasons the plan has been to get the younger players more playing time but it really hasn’t happened.
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