27-year old power forward Chris Wilcox has exercised his player option for the 2010-11 season. He played in 34 games (10 starts) for the Pistons last year and he averaged 13.0 minutes, 4.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game. Wilcox has now played in 482 games (221 starts) in his NBA career and he is averaging 21.1 minutes, 9.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. The Pistons probably would have liked Wilcox to leave as a free agent but at the same time he’ll likely get more P.T. than he got last season.

It will be interesting to see what the Pistons do with their four free agents this summer. Will Bynum is a restricted free agent and he might get a nice offer on the open market. It will be interesting to see if the Pistons ante up for Bynum or let him walk away. Personally I think they should keep him if the price is reasonable. Backup forward Chris Wilcox has a player option for 2010-11 and I tend to think he will pick it up because there are a lot of power forwards better than him in the free agent market. Ben Wallace will likely want to come back if the Pistons will have him and he appears to have something left in the gas tank based on how he played last year. The Pistons should just say no to Kwame Brown even if he offers to play for the league minimum.

The Pistons would be smart to continue rebuilding by moving Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince at the trade deadline in a couple of weeks. Hamilton has played in 20 games (all starts) for the Pistons this season and he is averaging 36.0 minutes, 18.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. But he is only shooting 39.9% from the floor and 25% from three point range as he is starting to be a little more selfish with the basketball. Tayshaun Prince has played in 15 games (all starts) for the Pistons this season and he is averaging 32.1 minutes, 9.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. He is only shooting 41.2% from the floor, 26.7% from three point range and 64% from the free throw line this year. Lucky for the Pistons that Prince is still playing solid defense which has been his calling card his whole career. The Pistons will likely be looking for young players and draft picks as well as expiring contracts in return for this pair of veterans.

The Detroit Pistons’ season has been a disappointment thus far, but things have been looking better lately.  They have won 4 of their last 5 games, including a 92-86 victory over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.  One of the few consistent players for the Pistons has been Charlie Villanueva, who is a key reason why they have been winning some games lately.  In the past 5 games, Villanueva is averaging 18.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 0.8 blocks on 47% shooting.  At 6′11″, 235 lbs and with the ability to work both the inside and outside game, Villanueva can be a matchup nightmare.  He is only averaging 27 minutes per game on the season, but in the past 5 games he has been averaging 32 minutes per game, so the Pistons should continue to give him some more playing time.

Former Detroit Pistons forward Antonio McDyess returned to Detroit tonight as a member of the San Antonio Spurs, where the Spurs won 112-92 to hand Detroit their 11th straight loss.  McDyess was with the Pistons for 5 years and he said the Pistons’ current situation “is sad.”  McDyess, along with most, blame it on the November 4, 2008 trade that sent Chauncey Billups to Denver for the past-his-prime, shoot-first Allen Iverson.  With Billups as their team leader the Pistons had great chemistry and won the 2004 NBA Championship.  They also made it six straight Eastern Conference Finals, winning it twice.  For some odd reason, Pistons’ team president Joe Dumars thought that the Pistons needed to rebuild, despite their success, and the Pistons have been going downhill ever since.  They lost all of their chemistry and their winning ways, with McDyess speculating that he and Rasheed Wallace would probably still be Pistons if Billups had never been traded.  Their current 11-game winning streak is the worst since the 1993-94 season.