A fire is a brewing.
After a week filled with numerous reports that the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons were working on a deal to send the perennial NBA All-Star to Detroit, Tracy McGrady gave some interesting thoughts to ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.
"It's certainly not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. It's not as if Houston and Detroit has even talked yet. But is Detroit interested? Definitely," Smith said.
"Is Tracy McGrady interested? Yes he is. I spoke to Tracy McGrady earlier. His basic thing is he's very happy in Houston but he wants to win. So whatever is a winning situation for him is something he is more than willing to entertain."
McGrady went on to say he has "all the faith in the world" in Joe Dumars, the Pistons President of Basketball Operations, who almost two months ago proclaimed he had seen enough of the same complacency out of the core of current Pistons.
A day later, Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey responded in the Dallas Morning News.
"He said he wanted to win and they (the media) ran with it," Morey said. "He said he's happy in Houston. He just was surprised how it all came out."
He also went on to say that the Pistons and Rockets had preliminary talks a few weeks ago, which ended with Houston turning down Detroit's offer.
Morey refused to state what the deal consisted of and if the two sides are even still talking about a possible trade.
The Pistons have been involved in trade rumors with stars such as Carmelo Anthony and Baron Davis as well.
Nothing happened, obviously.
These rumors must be taken with a grain of salt. But this time, you have a quiet Pistons organization, not talking much about this McGrady deal, just stating no trades are imminent.
And you have both McGrady and Morey making public statements, not denying something's possibly in the works.
One thing is for certain through all this.
Joe Dumars wants some change to that Detroit Pistons roster.
It may not happen today, tomorrow, or even by game one of the NBA season. But it will come.
And the rumors aren't going to be going away anytime soon.
Rumors might not always end up becoming reality. But when there's this much smoke, a fire is around, waiting to pop up somewhere.
13 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Ryan Ward 11 months ago
If a deal went down with T-Mac going to Detroit the Pistons would be a force to be reckoned with even more so than they are now.
If you put a scorer like that would will do anything to win in this stage in his career with all the role players in Detroit, nothing but good things can happen for Billups, Hamilton and company!
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Tyler Jones 11 months ago
I'm sure Billups would have had to have been part of this offer. Him or 'Sheed.
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Tony Wichowski 11 months ago
If you are thinking Billups and Hamilton would both still be here, who do you believe Detroit would send Houston? To get a superstar, Detroit would need to give up something significant.
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Jake Perper 11 months ago
this will not happened
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Tyler Jones 11 months ago
I'm a huge Detroit fan. If they pulled that off it'd be awesome! I'm sure we'd have some of our seasoned vets on the way out, but like you said, that's gonna happen soon. Just how soon. I'm with Dumars too. It's time for change and if anyone knows how to change a team and prepare another title contender, it's Joe Dumars.
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Khalid Shakran 11 months ago
Interesting. The only way Houston might accept will be having Billups and Sheed involved in the trade. But like you said, the change will be done to the Pistons' roster this summer. But I'm not really sure what Detroit can do without Billups, or in this case, without an elite point guard. Rodney Stuckey is a really promising point guard, but needs some more coaching obviously. If this trade is carried out, it's gonna be the point guard position that's a concern for Joe Dumars and company. I enjoyed the article though. Nice job.
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Eric Rutter 11 months ago
I'm not sold on McGrady coming to Detroit. The Pistons have built their run with very good, yet under appreciated players. There is not one viable superstar on the Pistons roster. Once you add McGrady, the philosophy with the Pistons will be bound to change. Detroit has a good sense of play and are one role player away from potentially reaching the NBA Finals. McGrady is not a role player.
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Kevin Paul 11 months ago
I thought Detroit liked winning in the playoffs? Just kidding. McGrady will break that slump eventually.
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yungCaucasoid ... 11 months ago
McGrady's back, and it's unpredictability, makes this a very poor consideration. I'll be very surprised if Dumars is pursuing such a dumb deal.
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yungCaucasoid ... 11 months ago
Then again, trading Chauncey's hurt hamstring, for McGrady's bad back...might be an even trade. But, what then happens to RIP Hamilton? It just makes no sense.
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Robert Kleeman 11 months ago
Why do these rumors have to be true? Says who?
If I make up a trade to send Steve Nash to the Rockets for Carl Landry, Donte Green, Bobby Jackson's expiring contract and a future first rounder, does that mean it has to be true?
This whole mess started with a Detroit Free Press writer crafting a trade proposal in a column. He said in his column that this was purely HIS idea and that it should be taken that way. Some idiot who doesn't understand how this stuff works took that proposal to mean that talks were ongoing and posted it as news.
For the millionth time--Daryl Morey is not trading Tracy McGrady!!!! He said after the Rockets lost to the Jazz, the team's second straight first round ouster, that the team would stick with the Yao-McGrady pairing for one more season.
Why must people keep forgetting that?
Would I like to see the Rockets trade McGrady? Hell yes, but it's not happening!
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Albert Bowsprit 11 months ago
Couldn't agree more. People/fans don't seem to understand that the reporters make this stuff up. They are usually very upfront about it, the responsible ones, and say it's pure speculation. Then the fans go ballistic and then other reporters, like S A Smith, jump on the bandwagon. Hey, they're all looking for something to write or interview about - even if it's something purely made up with no basis in fact. There's no real NBA news this week, but let's make something up!
This has been going on in Detroit ever since Joe Dumars said he was open to trading anyone (which isn't really true, we all know). It was a Denver Post writer who started the Carmelo Anthony to the Pistons trade rumor before the T-Mac to Detroit rumor. In between, we had Chauncey for Baron Davis. True, people are even matching up unrestricted free agents with players under contract to propose impossible trades.
I'm not saying there couldn't be a blockbuster deal out there waiting to happen. Just that most of the rumors have had no basis in reality.
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Anthony Orlando 11 months ago
i don't normally feel it is appropriate to comment on an article you write, however, i just do want to point out that all those "rumors" involving Anthony, Davis and McGrady, never said that those players were going to Detroit, just that a deal was being discussed.
And, the Pistons have confirmed that indeed, talks did occur involving Anthony, Davis, and McGrady. Doesn't mean they are going to happen, actually, most likely they won't, but the talks did happen.
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