Pistons 'have too many needs' to chase one big-name free agent with cap space

The Detroit Pistons are set up to potentially be players in free agency this summer, with only $37.9 million in guaranteed salary committed for next season.

However, part of that space could be earmarked for restricted free agent Greg Monroe, and even if they had substantial cap space, they would not be chasing one of the marquee free agents.

At least, that's what Stan Van Gundy told the Detroit Free Press recently:

Guys that aren’t going to be the big names, but we think have a chance to make a big contribution, those are guys that will be our main focus.
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We have too many needs — even at $13.5 million (cap space) — with what’s on the list, we think spending that kind of money on one guy and leaving all the other things for minimum guys based on who’s on the list, we think that would be a mistake.

The better approach for us is take three or four spots we want to fill, trying to spread the money around, certainly more money in certain areas, but trying to spread the money around and see if we can improve three or four areas a little bit, rather than improving one area a lot.

In short, the Pistons have a lot of holes they need to plug, so adding a star doesn't really solve the team's problems. They may also think that in Monroe, Andre Drummond, Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings, they have adequate talent and need to build a better team to leverage those talents.

So, apologies, Pistons fans, but your free agent haul is likely to be based around depth instead of making a splash. It's less fun, but it might be better in the long run.