Nothing A Slam Dunk When There's Playoff Disappointment

The Pistons will offer Chauncey Billups a fat contract, he'll hem and haw for a few days, then he'll sign it. Rasheed Wallace will be brought back, as many in the organization close their eyes. Tayshaun Prince returning is a no-brainer. Chris Webber returning isn't. Rip Hamilton can be used as trade bait. So could the draft picks. Antonio McDyess will never see a championship -- in Detroit. Jason Maxiell is the real deal -- keep him for sure. Sign Grant Hill. Give Lindsey Hunter a job in the front office.

Right?

The above scenario, or a combination thereof, will be bantied about for the next few weeks, while the sting of the Pistons' loss to Cleveland in the conference finals dissipates. It's anybody's guess how much of that first paragraph will come to fruition.

We can debate all of that till the cows come home, but the only real move that matters is whether Billups returns to the Pistons. And that's no slam dunk.

Don't snicker. How many of us believed Ben Wallace would flee last summer?

It's the same question as was handled last year, when the pros and cons of bringing Wallace back were being weighed.

I may be in the minority, but I'm not one who believes bringing Chauncey Billups back to the Pistons is necessarily the best thing for the team.

That doesn't mean I'm AGAINST bringing him back, either. Far from it. If the Pistons ink Billups, then that's just fine. But consider for a moment if he flees. The Pistons will be forced, then, to go into a different direction, and with a point guard who isn't shackled to the past, and who seems to be in denial that the team needs overhauling. They will have lost two big stars in two consecutive summers, but they will perhaps have gained a future.

It's clear, of the crystal variety, that the Pistons need a makeover. Jettisoning their star point gaurd may seem like an awfully drastic way of doing it, but the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne Gretzky, for goodness sakes, and two seasons later they won another Stanley Cup.

The Pistons need to get younger, quicker, and they need, most of all, a mindset transfusion. Letting Chauncey Billups go might not guarantee the fulfillment of such needs. But signing him is no certainty of it, either. Not at all.