It’s time for Andre Drummond to roll the dice

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

PREVIEW COMING: SB Nation’s 2015-16 NBA preview is coming soon. Like, in a couple hours if you read GMIB immediately upon waking up, or now if you like to let GMIB simmer a little bit before reading. Roughly 11 a.m. ET, 10 a.m. CT, 9 a.m. MT, 8 a.m. PT and 5 a.m. in Hawaii. Catch it at SBNation.com/NBA. Spoiler alert: it’s dope. You can trust me. I am completely unbiased.

A PARADIGM SHIFT: Wow. In the annual NBA GM survey undertaken by the league, 25 of the 29 GMs who answered said they’d start their team with Anthony Davis over anyone else. Last season, half the GMs chose LeBron. And LeBron had a really fantastic season that culminated in a finals run. Everyone believes in Ant-Man.

The second-most interesting item in the GM survey is a new question about what rule change or NBA reform is most important. I was very glad to see three of my pet items finish at the top! No. 1 was fixing lottery odds, No. 2 was adding a third round to the draft and expanding D-League rights and No. 3 was seeding the playoffs 1-16 without regard for conference. Let’s do this, NBA GMs! (I really enjoyed “remove coaches’ mic” as a suggestion, too.)

HOLD THE DRUMMS: Andre Drummond will wait a year to sign an extension with the Pistons. This is being dubbed a “Kawhi plan deal” -- by waiting until he actually hit restricted free agency, Kawhi Leonard helped San Antonio capture the flexibility to land LaMarcus Aldridge. So, Detroit wants to be in the mix in 2016, apparently. It feels like this is going to happen with Bradley Beal, too. To me, the risk is that Kawhi and the Spurs seem pretty unique in pulling it off. Does Stan Van Gundy have the same level of pull here?

The other concern is injury. Drummond has been healthy his whole career. Beal has not. Will the team hold up their end of the bargain if there’s a major injury? That’s why we have contracts! There is a risk here for the players and a much smaller one (the chance at losing the player if things go sour) for the teams. In that fashion I’m skeptical this becomes a trend for max or near-max early extension candidates.

EXPANDED THOUGHTS ON JIM BUSS AND LAKERS EXCEPTIONALISM: I think Buss does get an important point about his modern Lakers right, and that’s worth exploring in a bit more depth than I did in Tuesday’s newsletter.

PAUL GEORGE IS READY: How are you going to use a dunk like that in preseason, man?

CP3 IS READY: He got ejected during Warriors-Clippers.

THEY REALLY BADGERED HIM: The Bucks and Wolves played in Madison. Former Duke star Tyus Jones plays for the Wolves. Duke nor Tyus Jones are loved by Wisconsin fans. Ergo, Tyus Jones got booed a lot in Madison.

WATCHABILITY: Part 1 of Zach Lowe’s League Pass Rankings. I’m stunned the Nets aren’t dead last, to be honest.

YOU’RE WELCOME: A guide to potential generic basketball terms that can be used to title your basketball podcast.

BILLY KING IS SAFE! In a (funny) video response to questions from NetsDaily, Mikhail Prokhorov says he enjoys working with Billy King. That’s good news for Billy King ... until Prokhorov sells the team.

A WEIRD THING: No one knows what to make of the Kings, but the media members who pay closest attention to the team all seem to think they’ll be right around .500. Weird.

LIBERTY LOST: Bob Silverman on the scummy characterization of Isiah Thomas’ New York tenure on offer from Thomas and James Dolan.

Happy Wednesday. Check out the preview around 11 a.m. ET! SBNation.com/NBA! See you next time.