Thus, the Pistons reacted on Sunday by signing guard Javante McCoy out of the G League; no salary figures have leaked yet, but it seems likely it’s for exactly $1.42 million.
The key here is that waiving Reed and signing a minimum contract on Sunday allowed the Pistons to slow their roll toward using too much of their $12 million in cap space before the trade deadline. Reed’s contract chewed up about $45,000 in cap room per day; the newly signed McCoy does so at just under $8,000 a day.
Sunday was also the first day that replacing Reed with a pro-rated veteran minimum deal would keep Detroit just above the salary floor. Detroit ended up $1.42 million below the floor after waiving Reed; the pro-rated veteran minimum is $1.44 million. (Note that it’s also possible Detroit could waive McCoy after two days and then re-sign Reed to a minimum deal once he clears waivers; the fact they signed one of their own G Leaguers rather than promoting a two-way player makes me think this is at least somewhat possible.)
By operating this way, Detroit heads into the trade deadline with $14 million in cap space rather than the $10 million it had with Reed on the books and still keeps itself above the salary floor.
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