All the i's are dotted and the t's crossed - Antonio McDyess has signed with the Pistons in time to be in uniform for tonight's game at Washington. And Michael Curry said that "if he signs Tuesday, we'll use him Tuesday" - so look for McDyess probably in the late first or early second quarter, subbing for Rasheed Wallace.
It's exactly the dose of good news the Pistons could use coming off of two disheartening losses. After squandering a 15-point lead late in the third quarter to lose at home against Philadelphia, the Pistons went to New York on Sunday and dug a 29-point hole in the first half, rallied to within five points late but lost to the Knicks.
That game prompted Curry to change his starting lineup, inserting Rodney Stuckey at point guard and moving center Kwame Brown to the bench. The ripple effect moves Allen Iverson to shooting guard, Rip Hamilton to small forward, Tayshaun Prince to power forward and Rasheed Wallace to center.
But the return of McDyess enabled the move, too. With McDyess available, there is less need to protect Wallace from early foul trouble that he now risks by always starting games guarding the opposition's top post scoring threat.
McDyess was the premium the Pistons had to give up to make the salaries match in the Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade for cap purposes. But McDyess negotiated a buyout with Denver four days after the trade was announced. He had to wait 30 days before being allowed to re-sign with the Pistons. He could have signed with any other NBA team in the interim, but his agent, Andy Miller, announced after the Pistons' Nov. 23 game with Minnesota that he was passing on other offers to return to Detroit.
And some of those other offers had the potential, at least, to be far more lucrative. The Pistons were limited to offering McDyess their $1.9 million binannual exception, while other teams - Cleveland, for one - had the full mid-level exception of roughly $5.6 million to offer. McDyess was signed through the 2009-10 season with the Pistons, but his new deal is only for the remainder of this season, meaning McDyess will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.
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Award-winning journalist Keith Langlois, most recently lead sports columnist at The Oakland Press, joined Pistons.com as the web site editor on October 2, 2006. Langlois, who brings over 27 years of professional sports journalism experience to Palace Sports & Entertainment, serves as Pistons.com's official beat writer and covers the team on a daily basis.