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New Detroit Pistons Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (left) and Tony Mitchell check out the practice facility at their introductory press conference Friday.

(The Associated Press)

AUBURN HILLS -- Let the spending begin.

Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores told the assembled media in April to "tell the world we're ready to spend," and in an atmospere of big advantages for buyers as the NBA's free-agency and trade markets re-open in July, few will spend like the Pistons.

One team, the Brooklyn Nets, just doesn't seem to care what it spends. But the Nets are playing a different game than the rest of the league right now.

For 29 other teams, the effort to stay under the punitive luxury-tax threshold -- which begins at something in the range of $73 million in total salaries next season, with that figure to be finalized in July -- is paramount to this offseason's plans.

For the Pistons, who enter free agency and trades with about half that amount in committed salaries in 2013-14 -- and perhaps much less than half by mid-July, when a key roster decision whether to amnesty Charlie Villanueva comes due -- their precious financial freedom was what two years of losing and purging in the Gores era was about.

The summer's first step was the 2013 NBA Draft, when the amoeba-like concept of transforming the Pistons from doormats to playoff team within three months began to take some form.

The Pistons took shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope at No. 8 overall, and power forward Tony Mitchell and point guard Peyton Siva in the second round.

But with something in the range of $21 million to $25 million to spend this summer and still remain comfortably under the soft base salary cap of about $59 million, the draft was just the beginning of the Pistons' overhaul.

It also provided some tacit acknowledgment of which direction they might go next.

Free agency opens Monday, which also begins the 10-day league moratorium when NBA teams officially are closed for business. There will be talk aplenty about trades and free agency but nothing can become official until July 10.

In the interim, the Pistons have several administrative moves to make on the business side this weekend.

They faced two buyout deadlines, neither of which they planned to exercise. Rodney Stuckey could be bought out through Saturday for $4 million of his $8.5 million salary. Slava Kravtsov can be bought out through today for $500,000 of his $1.5 million salary. The Pistons would keep Stuckey before buying him out and he remains a valuable potential trade piece. Not drafting a center kept Kravtsov safe.

The Pistons also formally will renounce their holdovers who don't have contracts for next season, Jose Calderon, Will Bynum, Jason Maxiell and Corey Maggette, making those players unrestricted free agents and clearing some $29 million off the books.

Of that group, Maggette won't be re-signed and drafting Mitchell ended what shred of possibility existed of Maxiell, the senior Piston, remaining with the team.

One of Calderon or Bynum could be back, though with Brandon Knight likely returning to more time at point guard with the draft of Caldwell-Pope and Stuckey's expiring contract a valuable trade piece, the Pistons aren't likely to spend $7 million or more per year to pursue Calderon, who never gave any indication he wanted to stay after he was acquired in a midseason trade.

The Pistons need a veteran point guard to share the load with Knight. Bynum could be a possibility but the Pistons also intend to look at trades and other free agents to fill that slot.

For all of Gores' stated willingness to spend, his only wasted money in Pistons salaries came via inherited contracts. Paying fired coach Lawrence Frank next season will be the first major instance of Gores spending money without return in an effort to improve.

The next such possibility comes July 10-16, the window for eating Villanueva's $8.6 million contract for next season (minus the amount his next team pays him), and eliminating his salary for cap purposes under the one-time-only amnesty provision in the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Amnesty generally is bad business and few players are even eligible under CBA restrictions (Greg Monroe is the only other amnesty-eligible Piston), and one of few reasons to use it is when a team identifies a big-contract player and needs financial space to sign him.

In the Pistons' case, they still would prefer not to pay Villanueva to play for another team, but if a stunning development drops a big-name free agent in their laps, amnesty remains in play.

The Pistons also have one power forward too many after drafting Mitchell, with Villanueva, Monroe and Jonas Jerebko also at the position.

"For now," Dumars said of the surplus, "for now."

The only other decision to be made is on Kim English's non-guaranteed contract for $788,000 next season. The Pistons have until July 12 to keep English or allow him to become an unrestricted free agent. He intends to play in the Orlando Pro Summer League, with practices beginning this week and games from July 7-12, so his performance there could be key in his audition for new head coach Maurice Cheeks.

Cheeks has some work to do in assembling his coaching staff, too, with an announcement expected soon. The Pistons seem serious about pursuing Rasheed Wallace to coach big men. They will retain John Loyer, a Frank assistant who still is under contract next year. Cheeks plans to bring in other assistants with whom he has worked previously.

However the Pistons approach free agency financially, they want at least one more high-energy wing to complement Caldwell-Pope in the effort to close a wide gap between themselves and some well-defined targets.

The Eastern Conference is ruled by Miami and the four nearest contenders, Indiana, New York, Chicago with Derrick Rose healthy again, and Brooklyn after the win-at-all-costs dictum from owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who is on target to spend a staggering $200 million in salaries and luxury taxes next season.

Of the other playoff teams from last season, Atlanta has a roster full of free agents, Boston is in full-fledged purge, and Milwaukee wasn't that much better than Detroit last year.

There is no perfect confluence but the Pistons are as close as they've been in a while, with an open wallet, open roster spots and a fairly open conference.

The only variables in their spending decisions are prudence and coaxing the right people to take it.

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