Looking at the team contracts... it's likely the team could have at least 50% personel turnover in 07/08.

Ben, Dice & Sheed will be 33.
Chauncey will be 31 and looking at a new high priced deal.

Only Sheed, Ben(?), Rip and Prince will have more years on their contract.

The team will have team options on Delfino & Jmax

Darko will have a qualifying offer which could be his last year in Detroit.

Dice, & Chauncey will have player options and could opt out. Dice will likely exercise his option to stay (6.8M)

There will be valuable expiring contracts in Arroyo & Dice which can be traded to revamp the teams youth.

The point being that this group has a very short window together... three of the players will be starting the downside of their careers.

Joe will face one of his biggest challanges to retool...
kinda puts a new light on how fortunate we've been to enjoy this title contending roster while it lasts.

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With politicians the future lies ahead

Last summer Hanners said something about tough choices in the future and the possibility of trading a core Pistons.

Realistically most of realized back in 04 that we had about a 4 year window to rack up a couple of titles. It would have been nice if that 2nd pick could have fit the bill for the future but hope for that is dimishing as the months go by. Hopefully in 07/08 we can get lucky and find the next 26 year old version of Ben Wallace to help revamp the front court.

I do have some outside hope that Amir Johnson can develope into a quality PF.

Kind of a personal guess. Watch for Bosh in 07/08 when his rookie contract is up. I believe Bosh may not be happy in TOR and possibly the Pistons will put together a decent sign and trade for him involving the mystery vet Hanners referred to.

Nobodies buying it Merc. If the Pistons are anything they are loyal and want to be here. The anti Toronto. No real problems with contracts, re: Tay P. BBen wants no part of the hype, doesn't even have an agent. As for that 2 pick that got away, it'll be coming back in one form or another.

I'm worried about that, too. The neext season shouldn't be a problem but in 2007/08, our frontcourt is going to be too old to carry the team.
Sheed, Ben and Mc Dyess are all going to be 33 years old.
Joe D. will have stressfull days to put up a team like that and not to make the same mistakes the staff did at the beginning of the 90's (keeping the vets too long while not getting young players to carry the load).
It's going to be interesting and hopefully, it won't end up like back in 95 or so...

I don't see that, those old Celtic teams played until they 37. And then we blew them out. How long did K.A.Jabbar play?

Bruddah TFD, you are missing that the NBA is a money league. Pay for play. The only two exceptions are Detroit and San Antonio.

KGREG mentioned in game chat a couple of weeks ago that if you sit down and look at the numbers honestly, we can't afford to re-up our #2 pick from the '04 draft without breaking up the core. REALITY. Someone has to go to keep Darko.

My take, in a way winning helps JD because our lower draft position means he can reload for the future with guys on 4 year (2+1+1) deals at around $1~$1.5 million a year. Delfino, Jmax, and Evans are all very affordable. Incredibly so. If Acker can be a 12th man next year, he'll be another bargain.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

Who's this #2 pick you guys keep mentioning? Is he still around?

Should you acquire Jameer Nelson (with others), ya gotta love the change there and with that rookie contract to boot. Move the number two pick. JMO.

Joe's going to have to do some magic, just been crunching some numbers:
Sheed 12.5
Rip 9.75
Ben 11 (guess)
Darko 7
CA 4
Delfino 2
Tay 10

Equals about 56 mil, plus Chauncey needs to be signed. And that doesn't count whoever would be occupying the last 4 to 7 roster spots.

Now CA wont be arround, and Darko, who knows, but their salaries will be around, because I don't think Joe will trade them for future picks, or flat out cut them. So if CA and Darko are both gone, we'll have new guys making there 11 mil combined.

So here's the question, Does Joe sign CB to a Max deal, and have the Pistons push 80 mil for the roster? Does he let Ben go? My guess, if we win again this year, they let Joe break the bank, if not, one of the untouchables is gone, most likely Ben or Sheed.

I don't think there's too much to worry about. If Joe has his way, Darko and Arroyo will be traded for an expiring contract. That money will go to Ben. After that, the next one to "resign" is Billups. The bulk of the money will go to the starting six (with Dice as the trade bait). The rest of the team will be role players and their contracts will reflect it. Acker, Max and Johnson should all be ready to contribute. Add Delfino and Evans you're sitting with twelve players. Add a couple of minimum contract and a draft pick and you have fifteen contract and your price tag is about 63. We're over but I think Mr. D will roll with that.

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