Last summer, instead of taking the deal offered by the Detroit Pistons, Greg Monroe bet on himself and instead signed the qualifying offer, hoping to get a better contract offer the next season. That gamble paid off, as he signed a max contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. While Stan Van Gundy wasn’t a part of the Pistons’ negotiations with Monroe last summer, he nevertheless wanted to avoid a similar situation this year with Reggie Jackson. That’s a big reason why, as he told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, the Pistons signed Jackson to a max contract.
Stan Van Gundy says the fear of Reggie Jackson signing the one-year qualifying offer played a big role in the five-year max Detroit offered.
— Airport Eats (@AirportEating) July 19, 2015
Van Gundy’s fear is certainly validated by what happened with Monroe last year, but that doesn’t make the deal any less of a questionable gamble. Since his sophomore season, Monroe averaged at least 15 points and nine rebounds. There were, and still are, legitimate questions about his defense. But he’s not on the same perpetual sieve level of, say, Enes Kanter. Jackson’s production, meanwhile, was as topsy-turvy as the reaction to his max deal. He broke out when he was traded to the Pistons, averaging 17.6 points and 9.2 assists per game (but also a whopping 3.5 turnovers), and the Pistons are hoping that wasn’t an outlier, but a forecast of things to come.
It’s understandable the Pistons didn’t want to lose Jackson in the same manner they lost Monroe. If a max contract was the only way to prevent that from happening, it’s apparently a price the Pistons were willing to pay.
