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Summary

Henson will hit free agency for the first time, as he signed a rookie extension back in 2015 before he could hit restricted free agency in 2016. Henson has struggled to develop reliable offensive skills, making it tough for him to get consistent playing time. While he has tested the waters of being a stretch big, it has not worked well. Henson has hit 26% of his threes over the past two seasons, on only 60 attempts.

 

Henson does finish well at the rim, as he has shot better than average in that area for the majority of his career, according to Cleaning the Glass. Despite having a good block rate, Henson does not have the discipline on defense to be a valuable contributor on that end. Henson's time in the NBA might be coming to an end, but there may be teams wiling to give him a fully-guaranteed minimum contract.

Cap Considerations

Henson will be an unrestricted free agent with full Bird rights. As his cap hold ($18.5 million) greatly exceeds the salary he will get in free agency, his cap hold is not really relevant. The Pistons will almost certainly go into the summer prepared to renounce Henson and remove his cap hold in order to maximize their cap space.

 

If the Pistons want to bring Henson back, they can certainly do so with the potential $34 million in cap space (not including their first round pick) they will have available. If Henson is brought back by the Pistons on a multi-year contract (which is unlikely), they should frontload his contract as much as possible, given they have the excess cap space now.

 

Teams other than the Pistons will have multiple ways to sign Henson as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer, Taxpayer, or Room Mid-Level Exceptions to sign him. There's also the possibility that Henson does not get any offers above the minimum next summer.

Potential Teams: Thunder, Rockets, Timberwolves, Pistons, Hornets

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.3 million ($1.6 million cap hit) with the Thunder

Actual Contract: N/A

As of the start of the regular season, Henson remains unsigned.

Last updated: 12/31/2020

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