The Detroit Pistons are going to enter the new NBA season with a different roster than last year. Two important players from the starting lineup, forward Marcus Morris and guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, are gone. However, the latter was replaced by a seemingly better player, guard Avery Bradley.

Pistons head coach and team president Stan Van Gundy made the decision to move on from Caldwell-Pope, and speculation rose that they just did not want to pay KCP what he wanted.

However, Van Gundy told Ansar Khan from MLive that Pope's worth was not the issue.

“What we had to weigh there is Avery comes in, he's only got one year on his contract, against where KCP's contract could potentially go, and if you sign him you are well into the tax and now have significantly less flexibility going forward,” Van Gundy said. “There was never a point where it was a matter of what KCP was worth. It was a matter of balancing; we can get Avery Bradley and manage our luxury tax situation a lot better, which allows us to do some other things and to keep flexibility. It was not a strategy at the beginning of the summer that we don't want to pay KCP.”

Caldwell-Pope reportedly demanded the maximum possible contract, which would put Detroit in a rough financial position for the next few years. Bradley, on the other hand, will earn $8.8 million for next season. After that, he is a restricted free agent and the Pistons will need to make another tough decision.

However, Bradley is, at least now, a better player than Pope. Along with that, Bradley has only risen since coming into the league, improving a ton each season. This past year was his best in terms of his offensive game, averaging career highs across the board. It is really intriguing to think about how much more Bradley can improve, especially under coach Van Gundy.