National Basketball Association

Gregg Popovich urged Boban to take the Pistons' offer

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Detroit Pistons extended a three-year $21 million offer sheet to Boban Marjanovic this offseason, and Gregg Popovich needed to urge him to accept.

The Detroit Pistons have gotten into the habit of bringing in former San Antonio Spurs` centers. An offseason ago, the Pistons signed Aron Baynes away from the Spurs, and this offseason they repeated the feat.

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The Pistons used most of their remaining cap space to extend an offer sheet worth $21 million over three years to Boban Marjanovic in July.

Players are often loathe to leave Gregg Popovich and the Spurs organization, so it doesn`t come as much of a surprise that Marjanovic needed a bit of a nudge out the door.

According to the San Antonio Express News, Popovich himself had to give him the nudge.

Per the Express News:

“He’s such a good kid, at some point I had to work to get him to understand that $21 million was different than $3 million,” Popovich said. “I said, ‘Get your ass out of here. Go. You’ve got to do it.’ But he felt bad.”

No doubt, the Pistons paid Boban much more than the Spurs could have. Not only that, but his role should be greater in Detroit than it would have been in San Antonio. He`ll likely be the third string center, unless he beats out Aron Baynes for that spot, and next season will be the backup center if Baynes opts out as expected.

Pop was right, Detroit will be a better spot for Boban Marjanovic than San Antonio was, both from an opportunity and a financial standpoint.

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