Rip Hamilton was let go by the Pistons; they negotiated a buyout rather than use the one-use-only amnesty clause. Da Bulls are lusting after Rip; I could see him fitting in as an additional piece to the puzzle there rather than being the alpha dog in Detroit.
Chauncey Billups has been visited by Santa's brother Amnesty Claus, where the Knicks let him go in order to be on the receiving end of a Tyson Chandler sign-and-trade. This might be a bit sacrilegious, but would that Melo-Amare-Chandler front line be one of the best frontcourts in my lifetime? It's a notch behind the Celtics Bird-McHale-Parish package, but not by much.
Meanwhile, it would be interesting to see if the Pistons might take a flyer and put in a low-ball offer on Billups in the amnesty auction; the team offering to take on the largest chunk of his contract gets him, with the old team stuck with the rest of the contract (for cash-only purposes-it gets zeroed for salary cap purposes). He has a good history in Detroit and would be welcome by the fans there with open arms and let Joe Dumars atone for the largest blunder in his tenure as GM of trading Billups for AI (no, picking Darko over Melo wasn't the worst; with Anthony at the three, Tayshawn Prince doesn't emerge as a defensive stopper and the chemistry of that championship crew would be altered badly). It would also allow Stuckey to slide to the 2 and give Brandon Knight a mentor at the point.
Stuckey is still not under contract, so even that is an open question. The waving of Rip makes signing him more likely, but Stuckey could get signed-and-traded for a big man as well.
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