We are officially in the dog days of the NBA calendar. With the free agency craze now over and rosters largely built for the 2025-26 campaign, fans are already looking ahead. With the regular-season opener less than two months away, teams, including the Detroit Pistons, are making their plans for next season and beyond.
The deadline for one of the most important inflection points for the Pistons and the rest of the league will come on Oct. 31. This is when rookie-scale team option decisions have to be made. The Pistons have Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland's third-year options coming up, but picking those up will be a no-brainer.
The more complicated one will be regarding guard Marcus Sasser and his fourth-year option worth $5.2 million, per Luke Adams of HoopsRumors.
Pistons Have Until Oct. 31 to Make a Marcus Sasser Decision
Sasser is entering his third season in the league. While having shown flashes in his first two years in Detroit, he hasn't fully established himself as a reliable rotation player. With the October 31 deadline coming only a week after the start of the regular season, the Pistons will unfortunately not have too much more to go off when making the decision.
On one hand, $5.2 million for a backup point guard is reasonable in today's cap environment. On the other hand, the Pistons have Cade Cunningham beginning his max contract this season and looming extensions for Jalen Duren and Jaden Ivey. This team could get expensive relatively quickly, forcing GM Trajan Langdon to look for cap savings anywhere he could find.
The Pistons could presumably find a reliable backup point guard for a veteran's minimum deal or something less than Sasser's 2026-27 salary. Yet, this means that Detroit would be punting on a recent first-round selection and a 24-year-old who could have some untapped potential. Sasser is undersized and underathletic, but can shoot and has solid pick-and-roll chops.
Giving up on that for a few million dollars for a season may not be the wisest move.
Another option would be picking up that option to later trade Sasser. Not exercising the team option could potentially reduce Sasser's trade value, so even if the Pistons don't see a future for Sasser in Detroit, it could make some sense to pick up his option to use him as a trade chip.
This is not the most straightforward decision to make for the Pistons front office. Which direction Langdon will go will be one of the intriguing storylines of the Pistons' season.