THURSDAY, 3:23pm: While the Pistons say they're not shopping Prince, Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio says the team has made exploratory calls (Twitter link). There hasn't been much interest so far, according to Amico.
SUNDAY, 10:58pm: Tayshaun Prince is the lone holdover from Detroit's glory days in the aughts and one might think that the Pistons would look to move him for assets to help the club build for the future. However, neither Prince nor the Pistons front office are pushing for a trade, writes RealGM's Shams Charania.
Agent Bill Duffy says that Prince has been assured the Pistons won’t field trade offers for him and the two sides have “never” discussed a deal for the forward. The 32-year-old is averaging 12.1 points and 4.7 rebounds this season. Prince says that he's committed to helping the Pistons, even though the losing bothers him.
“I know there are a lot of contending teams that I can help,” Prince said. “But right now, this is the team I have to help. Everybody wants to be in the position where they have a chance of winning a championship every year, but obviously it doesn’t work that way.”
Prince has two more years on his contract beyond 2012/13 worth nearly $15MM.
Makes very little sense on the Pistons end, you’d think they’d want to clear at least some of his salary as well.
This makes sense because? If they moved prince, even for an expiring contract and a late draft pick, it would be great for the Pistons. They could move Singler to his natural position at SF, and break the rotation open more so players like Daye, Middleton and English can get some PT.
I think this stupidity is propelled by Detroit’s vain belief that they’re going to crack the playoffs this season. Maybe they can, but they’re going to have to start playing Drummond more than 18 minutes a game to do that, and find a point guard who knows how to pass. Brandon Knight is just a shorter Rodney Stuckey.