Pistons clean out lockers and wonder who’s going, staying
Splitting Up
by Keith Langlois
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. –
Chauncey Billups wants to be back. So does Antonio McDyess. Ditto for Flip Murray. And maybe even for Dale Davis.
The Pistons cleaned out their lockers on Monday – well, all but Rip Hamilton and Chris Webber, who didn’t show for the usual day-after meeting, which is informal and not mandatory – but won’t so easily leave another near-miss season behind them after the upstart Cleveland Cavaliers advance to the NBA Finals by overcoming a 2-0 deficit to sweep four straight games.
The sting was still in their words and the disappointment dominated their thoughts, but soon it will be sharing space with curiosity and doubt about what the future might hold for many of them.
“There’s always the possibility of a lot of things happening, always,” said Billups, who will opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent on July 1, hopeful of finishing his career with the Pistons but mindful of that fact that other teams might set his value high enough to make Joe Dumars squirm at matching or exceeding the offer – as happened a year when Chicago broke the bank for Ben Wallace.
“You come up a little short two years in a row, but we’re an elite team, we’re still an elite team,” he said, several times during his three-minute conversation reiterating his desire to stay with the Pistons. “We got to a point every year since I’ve been here where there’s only four teams playing, conference finals, so we’ve had some great years and we can have some more good years.”
Dumars has maintained since training camp that securing Billups’ future with the Pistons will be his foremost off-season task. But it won’t be the only one. Webber will also become a free agent and the Pistons don’t hold his “Bird rights,” which means they can’t exceed the salary cap to sign him. Webber might also choose to retire.
Antonio McDyess, like Billups, can opt out of the final year of his contract. Chances are McDyess will return to the Pistons. He said at mid-season when a proposed trade with Toronto was on the table that he would have strongly considered immediate retirement rather than leave the Pistons. It’s likely that the Pistons and McDyess will agree to a deal that keeps him here for two more seasons, perhaps three.
Andy Miller, the agent for both Billups and McDyess, stopped by the team’s practice facility shortly after noon on Monday and left about 30 minutes later with Billups. But he didn’t engage Dumars in contract talks; Miller said he was in town on the expectation that there would be a Game 7 and took the opportunity to visit his clients.
McDyess, who wears his heart on his sleeve like no other Piston, took elimination very hard.
“I’m embarrassed to show my face,” he said. “I felt we had the best chance to get to where we wanted to be this year and it didn’t come out that way. My career is at the end and I felt this was the time and that if it didn’t happen this year it’s not going to happen. We came up, both years, short at the same point. It’s like we try to fight back from down in a series, we can’t do it anymore. I don’t know what’s going to happen next year.
“We’re still a good team. We just lose focus. Whether we need some help or what, we just need to get back to where we need to be.”
Asked if changes needed to be made or if the Pistons could bring the same team back next year, McDyess said, “You can, but if we come back with the same mentality, it ain’t going to work. But if we come back with a different mentality, ready to work and ready to win, we’ll be OK. Getting down in a series, we would stay positive, but it wasn’t there.”
Murray, who signed a two-year contract last summer with a player option for the second year, said he is intent on returning to the Pistons next season despite falling out of the rotation in January.
Davis, a 16-year veteran who signed with the Pistons two summers ago, had indicated he would seriously ponder retirement, but Monday said he would “probably, more than likely, definitely play. I still feel like I can help contribute to this game and help a team win. I’m still short of that goal of winning a championship, as well. I look to be back in action.”
Asked if he would consider re-signing with the Pistons, Davis hesitated and said, “It’s not out of the question, but I want to get in a situation that’s comfortable for me and somewhere I can contribute. If that’s here, that’s definitely a possibility.”
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