How is an Iverson/Hamilton/Prince/Johnson/Wallace lineup better than the one they have now, especially considering they need to find minutes for Stuckey? Unless they’re planning to let Iverson’s contract expire at season’s end to pursue a 2009 free agent, this deal makes no sense.

Wait. I think I just answered my own question.

Who cares if it makes sense, no more Chauncey BBBBBBBillup sin the playoffs! No longer will we see Jameer being pushed around on defense. Jameer and AI play together in Philly, Jameer has had extra practice guarding him. I’m not saying he’ll stop Iverson but I’d rather see him than Billups. Great move for the Pistons!

From Ghostface Ziller:

If Dumars lets A.I. flee and fails to re-sign aging forward Rasheed Wallace, the Pistons will be looking at upwards of $20 million in cap space in the summer of 2009. The free agent crop is solid — not replete with superstars, but solid. Lamar Odom, Shawn Marion, Hedo Turkoglu, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Ben Gordon … there’s a chance Dumars could pick up two of those guys with all his space.

Or — and here’s the scary thought for non-Pistons fans — Dumars could let the freedom ride til the summer of ’10, when Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire hit the market. Atonement for the ’03 draft debacle, perhaps?

Yeah, we should be scared now.

And I was trying to figure out why Detroit would make this trade, but thanks for explaining the logic of it to us, Ben. It makes more sense now.

Well, thats not important right now. What is important is that for 2 years running Billups has burned us in the playoffs. I my eyes these two teams even more without Billups in the eqaution.

I like a Jameer/AI matchup in a playoff series because they are very similar players and they know each other well. With McDyess gone it’s one less body in the middle to hack Dwight. This deal is good for us right now. Who cares what happens in 2010.

This trade brings Detroit back down to the pack. No more elite status, no more 55 + wins. They are officially rebuilding, and the future is bright.

And WOW for Denver! I think Billups/J.R. Smith/Carmelo/K-Mart/Nene is a lineup that can get it done. The Western Conference playoffs are now set, though in no particular order.

Not so bad, even if the Pistons do pick up Amare, Bosh or even LBJ in 2010…
My reasoning being, their current lineup of stars (Hamilton, Wallace, Prince) will be 2 years older by then, or possibly even gone from the team. Pistons look like they are accepting the current squad can’t get it done and the time to rebuild is now.

So in 2010, is a Pistons line up of LeBron (or Wade or Bosh for that matter) and either 4 old guys any worse for the Magic than a current Cavs, Heat or Raps? seems unless the pistons have plans to put other big names around such stars, its same game, just a different city name on the LeBron’s (Wade’s, Bosh’s etc) jersey.

Good for the Magic now, bad for the future.

Helps us now because obviously we don’t have to deal with Billups anymore in the playoffs for this year potentially. However, we WILL have to deal with Stuckey now for the foreseeable, which will be a problem because he’s just as big as Billups and has the potential to be ever better than Chauncey.

Also, as some of you have already mentioned, the Pistons do themselves a favor by clearing up cap space for a crazy Free Agent class coming up in 2009 & 2010.

3 years, $34 million, although the third year is only partially guaranteed. ESPN story.

“Yeah, that’s going to change them because that’s ‘Big Shot Chauncey’ and he always set the tempo for that team,” Magic center Dwight Howard said. “Obviously their young point guard, (Rodney) Stuckey, is excellent and they believe in him. Detroit is still going to have a great team regardless of what changes they make.”

(Denton)