After acquiring Avery Bradley from the Boston Celtics on Friday morning, the Detroit Pistons knew they didn’t have enough financial capital to retain restricted free agent guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Within hours, the team made that pretty clear by renouncing his rights, making the former lottery pick an unrestricted free agent.
Detroit is renouncing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2017
Prior to acquiring Bradley from Boston, Pistons head coach and president Stan Van Gundy received harsh criticism for his handling of free agency. Here’s a team that had hard-capped itself, even with Caldwell-Pope still on the restricted free agent market.
While picking up someone of Bradley’s ilk could quiet naysayers, losing Caldwell-Pope after just four seasons is still a rather tough blow.
The former top-10 pick averaged 13.8 points while shooting at a 35 percent clip from three-point range this past season. His offensive numbers might not have improved like most had hoped, but KCP remains one of the best on-ball perimeter defenders in the game. That’s surely going to help him land a lucrative contract as an unrestricted free agent.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski went on to indicate that the Brooklyn Nets are a prime potential landing spot for KCP. Brooklyn signed Washington Wizards restricted free agent Otto Porter Jr. to a max offer sheet earlier this week.
If Washington decides to match said offer, look for the team to make a big-time play for Caldwell-Pope.
As it is, KCP is now the top unrestricted free agent in what has become a watered-down market with the plethora of moves we’ve seen over the past several days.