As of 7-30 here are some remaining FA's. Do we like any of these for Detroit?

(borrowed from Sportsline.com)

1. Anderson Varejao: Darko Milicic wound up taking the contract offer Varejao would've received from Memphis, leaving the Brazilian power forward with little bargaining position for a lucrative long-term deal with the Cavaliers. He must decide whether to take Cleveland's best offer now or play at a bargain rate for a year and sample next season's market.

2. Brevin Knight: He's currently the top free-agent point guard, so don't be surprised if Knight starts the majority of the games for whatever team he ends up signing with. The Clippers are the leaders in the chase, but Miami also needs someone to push Jason Williams.

3. P.J. Brown: Retirement is calling, but championship contenders Phoenix and Dallas are hoping he'll reconsider. The lure of a ring always brings you back if your body allows it, so I'd expect to see him back.

4. Chris Webber: He's also an option in Dallas, but ideally, you know he'd prefer to remain with Detroit. Although he faded late, Webber enjoyed his teammates and could be effective averaging 15-20 minutes a night. It doesn't look like the Pistons are seeing it that way though, because they haven't tendered an offer. Retirement could be forced upon him.

5. Earl Boykins: After foregoing $3 million to test the market, it doesn't look like his gamble is going to pay off. Boykins, a 5-foot-5 Cleveland native, has made no secret that he'd love to play for the Cavs, but it doesn't appear the feeling is mutual. Considering there are a bunch of teams that need point guards, he'll definitely find a home. It will be his third stop in the past 12 months.

6. James Posey: Miami appears set on going in another direction, and that might be the best thing for his game, too. He seems to have gotten bogged down with the Heat and could benefit from playing in an up-tempo pace.

7. Eddie Jones: The Heat don't want him back, either, and he's only interested in joining a title contender. Dallas has been rumored to be a possibility. Utah could provide an ideal fit. The Jazz need another positive veteran influence now that Derek Fisher is gone and have a vacancy at shooting guard.

8. Mickael Pietrus: It looks like he's going to have to take the one-year, $3.4 million qualifying offer the Warriors have already made, dashing his hopes of a long-term deal. Ideally, the Heat would love to find a way to pick him up.

9. Sasha Pavlovic: As with his teammate Varejao, the Cavs have made their qualifying offer and then sat back waiting for an offer to match. He has to weigh all those open looks LeBron James gets him against that mean Mike Brown requiring to play some defense. Expect him back in the King's court.

10. Jarvis Hayes: The shooter couldn't stay healthy enough for Washington's liking, so he's available. A former lottery pick, he could be a high-reward guy for a team willing to take the risk that he can stay off IR.

11. Andray Blatche: Because of his upside, he's liable to earn a far larger payday than he currently deserves. The Wizards are hoping no one will bid outside their range, because they're very interested in retaining him.

12. Ruben Patterson: When Desmond Mason and Bucks GM Larry Harris kissed and made up, it spelled the end of Patterson's stint in Milwaukee. Given how hard he hustles and his strength as a defender, he could be an asset in the right situation.

13. Matt Barnes: Decision makers around the league are worried that his big numbers last season might have been a product of the Warriors system, which is why he hasn't drawn the offers he expected. He'll land somewhere, and next season will be key for his reputation.

14. Ime Udoka: The defensive specialist has drawn interest from the Spurs and Grizzlies after a breakthrough season in Portland. If he chooses San Antonio, he could learn a thing or two from Bruce Bowen and eventually become that type of stopper.

15. Charlie Bell: His versatility is his best asset, and the Bucks are very interested in retaining his services. It's surprising he hasn't gotten much attention from other teams.

16. Jannero Pargo: Constantly overlooked, Pargo may ultimately be a steal for Miami, who whiffed on Mo Williams, Steve Blake and Steve Francis. He works hard on defense and can really shoot.

17. Corliss Williamson: He's finally out of Sacramento and is looking for an opportunity to win. He's a steady locker room presence and can bang inside for 10-15 minutes a night.

18. Jake Tsakalidis: His size is a commodity; expect a team to add him to its arsenal of big men.

Corliss might be a cheap fix at the back-up SF spot. I'd love to have Barnes or Pietrus. Blatche and Bell would be nice too.

There is a guy by the name of "Cash" that is my favorite.

Honestly, at this point, if Ruben Patterson would take the $2m that we have available under the threshold, that would probably be the best FA move left.

Interesting that Charlie Bell is floating around doing nothing and was never seemingly considered here. It's too late now, given the hoard of guards we drafted, but still interesting.

Varejao is a Piston killer.

You also have to look at who are we going to cut in order to make room for one of these guys? We already have 15 under contract.

I think Lindsey retiring is the obvious solution if we need a roster slot, although Murray could be dealt/given away.

If we had a quality back up SF, Dupree could be gone too, but he seems pretty safe right now.

I think Meija would be gone before Dupree. He's a non guaranteed contract.

Here's what I WISH would happen:

Trade Murray for something like a second rounder (unless we can get a decent SF for a package of him and Hunter/Nazr or something along those lines)
Trade Nazr for someone who better fits our system. He's not bad, but I still don't think he's right for us.
Hunter retires.
Give Meija a chance unless we need his roster spot, otherwise he's the first to be cut.


Edit: I forgot to mention we then use the open roster spot to sign someone like Matt Barnes to backup Tay (unless we make that trade with Murray)

I'd like to trade Murray for basically nothing. Then sign one of those SF's to a reasonable contract.

I think it's a low chance that we get any of those up there. There are no rumors of Detroit even being interested in any of them.

Pietrus loves the Heat but may end up just staying in GS.

We do not need and guards and the lack of quality big men makes the forward market look plentiful.

If we can screw on patterson's head straight, and give him 15 minutes off the bench, we'd be set...except at the 5 spot.

I'd like to trade Murray for basically nothing. Then sign one of those SF's to a reasonable contract.
I'd love to turn Flip and the rights to Alex Acker into a lottery-protected 1st round pick, then sign one of those SFs...

I'd love to come home to Jessica Biel every night. We all have our dreams.

I'd love to come on Jessica Biel every night.
Fixed

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Re-fixed

OK, this is not exactly how I had predicted this thread to go!!!

Zekyl, get your mind out of the gutter and let's talk about free agents.

My bad, my bad. I still want us to grab a backup SF to compete with SuperDupe, but I'm hoping that maybe he's developed enough that he can handle it. I don't think we'll pick anyone up though.

Watching all of these free agents get signed with some of them to pretty reasonable contracts makes it hard to stay a happy Pistons fan. Everyone keeps saying that the Pistons are past it or that this is their last shot and we have our wonderful GM sitting there holding his dick in his hand. Or is Davidson holding it? Either way, I'm starting to get a little pissed off. We all questioned Joe in picking up three smalls in the draft but now that he hasn't done anything to solve our problems at SF (back-up) or C (Nazr...really?) we look like an underachieveing team with mis-matched pieces while other teams around us get stronger.

What are the options at C though? Really? Aside from a trade, there isn't anything we can do to upgrade from Nazr. The SF thing does bother me though. Unless Dupree has shown enough or Mejia has shown something that makes them think they don't need to go get someone. Maybe they're waiting on training camp and preseason to see where they're at and then going for a trade.

Actually there are a bunch of stiffs/space eaters that I'd rather have than Lindsey.

These guys are mostly garbage, but they'd be serviceable and cheap (do I have your attention now, Mr. D?).

Deke
Jake Tsakalidis (to victory)
Melvin Ely
Rafael Araujo
Lampe
Dale Davis
Calvin Booth
and even Greg Ostertag is talking about making a comeback.

What is Shawn Kemp up to?

Ely isn't a C, is he? I thought he was like 6'9" or something. And I'd love to have someone like Deke but I don't think he's coming our way anytime soon. Davis is probably sick of us by now. I'd rather have him here and starting than Nazr. The other guys are all about even with Nazr, but better than nothing.

I'm talking about Nazr's back up, basically.

Well in that case, I'd take any of them. None are going to be taking time from the young guys because none of them can really play PF, other than Ely and maybe Lampe.

When it comes to playing the teams that we will likely see in the playoffs, we will need some real C's. You look at guys like Shaq, Big Z, and others, we really don't have th size to handle them. As for Dupree, the guy wasn't good enough to get any PT last season and there were complaints that Prince played too much (which he did). How is that problem even close to fixed? I don't see Mejia being any better than Dupree. Barnes even at one seaso for 4 mil. would have been perfect.

Dupree doesn't have the support of Flip. That's probably a lot of the problem. Joe probably will step in and say "give this kid some run and see how it goes, because he's your option". Just like Joe is saying "play the young guys". We all know Flip can't handle the bench, which could be part of the reason Dup never played. Also, isn't there a possibility that a young guy kept developing and can now be good enough to play a backup role?

It's possible but not looking very likely. The only reason that I mention that is because Detroit had given up on him before, plus he was also with Chicago and Minnesota and didn't stick with either. He didn't get a ton of minutes on any team so he could still surprise us and I'm hoping that he really does.

It's possible but not looking very likely. The only reason that I mention that is because Detroit had given up on him before, plus he was also with Chicago and Minnesota and didn't stick with either. He didn't get a ton of minutes on any team so he could still surprise us and I'm hoping that he really does.

Don't kid yourself about Dupree. He's just about as useless as it gets and will never be more than he is right now which is just about nothing. People don't figure things out in their 5th NBA season, especially a guy that couldn't play with a perimeter starved team like the pistons have been in the seasons he's been on the roster and when he couldn't find the floor playing for crappy teams like the bulls and t-wolves were.

Sammy Mejia is already, right now, without playing one second in a NBA game, a better player than Ronald Dupree. He can do many more things than Ronald Dupree will ever be able to do except maybe rebound and even that's debatable. I think the only place dupree excels is in the layup line. I can't wait to see him not take up a roster spot.

Yargs, I was just trying to give Dupree the benefit of a doubt. There were guys like Simmons (with Mil.) , Ben Walace, and others who didn't get good for several seasons. A guy can hope right???? My main point id that Joe needs to make some kind of move for a back-up SF!!

time to bring back

http://www.detroitbadboys.com/images/moEvans.jpg

i think he's available for a 2nd round pick :D

time to bring back

http://www.detroitbadboys.com/images/moEvans.jpg

i think he's available for a 2nd round pick :D
Actually, he fit in their system pretty well if I'm remembering correctly. I don't think they'd give him up for a second rounder. He's much more valuable to them than us.

yeah i love dupree but in all honesty he's a horrible ball handler and does not really fit well in our half court system. if he could ever have success, it would have to be on a team that pushes the ball on the break and has a great PG who can throw alley-oops.