Goodwill’s article states that the team is more interested in the trade market but I am not excited about the team trading a player like Hamilton if it means they also have to give up a first-round draft pick. Detroit looks like a team bound for the lottery again and I don’t want them to miss their chance at an impact player because they wanted to move a disgrunted veteran and didn’t want to use the amnesty clause.

But just because the team won’t be exercising the amnesty option now, it doesn’t mean the team won’t do so in the future.

Goodwill says “the team doesn’t plan on using the clause — at this time” and that is informative.

Remember, under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, teams do not have a deadline to use the amnesty clause. In the previous amnesty clause in 2004, teams only had a matter of weeks to decide whether to waive a player.  The only stipulation in the new agreement is that for eligible players must be signed to contracts agreed to prior to the inception of the new CBA.

This could open up the possibility that the team could juggle its roster by trading bad contract for bad contract with the idea that if things don’t work out they could waive the new player under the amnesty clause. Perhaps a trade of Hamilton’s approximate $21 million contract or Charlie Villanueva’s $23 million contract for Brendan Haywood’s $45 million deal (only $35 million is guaranteed as the last season is a team option). I’m not saying that is a great trade, but as reported earlier, the Pistons have interest in Haywood and that would be one avenue to try and add him to the team.

Haywood would not complement the players on the roster, only inhibit them. The Pistons would begin to stack the Center position, which is already pleasantly filled with both Ben Wallace (who is expendable at best) and Greg Monroe (a young basketball star on the rise). They would be left with one more player who they would have to find a way to wheel and deal next offseason.

Brendan Haywood would not even be such a prize to move, because he is not the man he used to be. The Pistons should strongly reconsider chasing the aging center before they add to the long list of mistakes that Joe Dumars is trying to stray away from.