The Pistons' most valuable trading chip may very well be Tayshaun Prince and his expiring $11 million contract. He's having one of his best seasons offensively and he'd be a valuable asset to any contending team. The only problem is that the Pistons ownership situation prevents Dumars from taking on any long-term contracts, which makes trading Prince, or anyone else for that matter, harder to do.
And according to Tayshaun Prince he knows he's not getting traded:
Tayshaun Prince: "I'm not going anywhere". Q: So you are not being traded? Prince: "No". Q: How do you know? Prince: "Cuz I know".
Terry Foster at The Detroit News says that Joe Dumars would actually like to re-sign the veteran small forward once his contract expires:
Prince, 30, has said he wants to remain a Piston but would not be opposed to being traded to an NBA title contender. But Dumars hopes Prince remains with the Pistons and said he will trade him only if presented with an unbelievable deal. [...]
"I would," Dumars said when asked if he would like Prince to return next season. "And we've talked about that. Tayshaun has been good here for a long time so I absolutely want to have that conversation at some point."
Prince has butted heads with head coach John Kuester, made questionable public comments about the team's inability to win, and has generally been very openly frustrated with how things have gone in Detroit the past couple of years. Factor into the mix rising wings Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko and it doesn't make much sense for the Pistons to at all explore the possibility of re-signing Prince, unless of course he can be had on a mid-level exception type deal.
With all that has gone down with the Pistons recently (literally), there's nothing at all to suggest Prince would even be on board with returning. That's likely to be true especially if nothing changes with the current make up of the team. Should the Pistons re-sign Stuckey (expected), Prince (desired by Dumars), McGrady (desired by Dumars) and retain Kuester as coach (who knows, but Dumars has said he would be extending the leash on this coach when he was hired), Prince would be walking right back into the situation he's been so adamantly, and publicly, against.
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