The NBA trade deadline was pretty active to say the least. One of the most active in recent memory, if not ever. But, while -- what seemed like -- the rest of the league was wheelin' and dealin', Joe Dumars refused to make any moves to alter his lottery-bound team.
It wasn't for a lack of trying, though. Dumars worked the phones all the way through the deadline, but told Detroit Free Press' Vince Ellis, ultimately, there was nothing worth pulling the trigger on:
E-mail from Dumars: "We worked right through the deadline and there was simply not a deal that we felt good enough to execute."
Just hours before the deadline, rumors started to surface that the Dallas Mavericks were interested in sending the Pistons Caron Butler, the expiring contract that goes with him, and a first round pick for Tayshaun Prince and his expiring contract. The deal was supposedly on the table, but the Pistons obviously turned it down. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! suggested that the Pistons felt Prince is the more valuable expiring contract and will be more valuable than Butler as a sign-and-trade commodity. Plus, Dumars has intimated he wants Prince to re-sign, anyway.
Around the time a Prince deal became all but officially dead, reports emerged that the Pistons had a deal set up with the Cleveland Cavaliers involving Richard Hamilton. The man with all the NBA scoops, Wojnarowski, said that the deal fell apart when Hamilton wouldn't agree on a buy out price tag.
Hamilton is owed $25 million over the next three years, so Hamilton clearly felt sitting on the bench and being unhappy in Detroit would be literally more worth it to him than accepting significantly less to become a free agent and potentially sign on with a contender. That's the bed Joe Dumars made when he extended Rip before last season. And the result is another trade deadline come and gone with the Pistons making zero transactions.