McDyess' eyeing Cavs or Pistons

Is Antonio McDyess necessarily returning to the Detroit Pistons? His agent says it isn't a sure thing. "There are three other situations we're discussing right

Ian Thomsen | Nov 18, 2008

McDyess' eyeing Cavs or Pistons /

Is Antonio McDyess necessarily returning to the Detroit Pistons? His agent says it isn't a sure thing.

"There are three other situations we're discussing right now and sifting through,'' says Andy Miller. "All are teams that have significant midlevel space, either partial or in total for him.''

League sources believe the three bidders to be Cleveland, San Antonio and Boston. The team offering the most money to McDyess is the Cavaliers, according to one league source. They could offer McDyess multiple years starting at more than $5 million this season.

The Cavaliers can make the case that landing McDyess would elevate their second unit while wounding their chief divisional rival, the Pistons. That relative improvement, in combination with the need to build a championship contender before LeBron James becomes a free agent in 2010, has driven up McDyess' value in Cleveland. (It doesn't hurt either that the Cavaliers owners have Michigan ties and no doubt would enjoy luring an asset away from the Pistons.)

These contenders are taking a run at McDyess because he sacrificed close to $9 million in his buyout with the Nuggets, after they acquired him in the Nov. 3 trade that also sent Chauncey Billups and Cheikh Samb to Denver for Allen Iverson.

No NBA player has ever left so much money on the table in a contract buyout. The question is whether McDyess is looking to recoup that loss immediately.

Is McDyess better served by signing an extended contract now? "Or is the transition going into [free agency] in '09 going to be smoother and better for him in Detroit?'' asks Miller. "If we're going to bypass [free agency in] '09, then we're considering these other options.

"If we were to take a minimum offer, it would be with Detroit. There is no other offer for the minimum that we would consider. His comfort level, his familiarity -- there are many factors that would make him want to go back to Detroit.''

McDyess must wait 30 days after the trade became official to re-sign with the Pistons, but that restriction exists with no other team. If he was going to commit to Cleveland or another contender, wouldn't he have done so already? Rivals view his patience as another indicator that McDyess is waiting until he can re-sign with the Pistons.

Published Nov 18, 2008

IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.