Chauncey Billups might not be headed for the Hall of Fame, as a majority of Hoops Rumors readers who voted in Tuesday’s poll believe, but he’ll remain a Pistons icon, and his retirement serves as further notice of the changing times in Detroit. The 2013/14 season was the last with the organization for Billups, Joe Dumars, and a host of others. Greg Monroe is the only one among the team’s six signees to have played for the team last year, and it seems more likely than not that he’ll depart after his one-year qualifying offer expires next summer. Here’s more from a different-looking Motown:
- GM Jeff Bower tells MLive’s Peter J. Wallner that he doesn’t see it as a threat to his job that the Pistons hired Otis Smith as the new D-League coach, even though Smith was a candidate to fill the GM job before Bower came aboard. “When Stan [Van Gundy] talked to me, I thought [Smith] was the perfect guy because he embodies everything that the developmental league is all about,” Bower said. “He’s great for this. [The D-League] is about getting the best out of guys.”
- The chance for plenty of playing time and the promise that the team will be competitive sooner rather than later helped convince Caron Butler to spurn other suitors and sign with the Pistons, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.
- Playing time was also a key to securing fellow free agent Jodie Meeks after a season in which he saw plenty of it with the Lakers, as Langlois notes in a separate piece.