Billups opts out of contract

[Cry Havoc]

This has probably been posted already, but here goes anyway:

Chauncey Billups officially opted out of his contract Monday, making him an unrestricted free agent as of July 1.

"Chauncey's first intention is to come back to Detroit, and we'll continute to explore that as an option, but if we're unable to make a deal with the Pistons my obligation is to look at other possibilities that will provide long-term security for Chauncey and his family," agent Andy Miller told ESPN.com.

Billups was due to make $6,819,000 next season in the final year of his contract, which had an early termination option.

Pistons president Joe Dumars has consistently said he is confident the Pistons will be able to re-sign Billups, whose negotiating leverage will be impacted by the small number of teams with significant salary cap space.

Milwaukee and Memphis are two teams with cap space and a need for a point guard, but neither team is expected to have enough space to make a better offer than the one Billups will get from Detroit.

Chris Sheridan covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2915747

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Say o to Milwaukee's new starting PG.

[BacktoBasics]

Even Billups isn't stupid enough to take that big of a step backwards.

[BillsCarnage]

Could Kobe and Chauncy coexist??

[dallaskd]

Mo Williams is better.

[jacobdrj]

Honest question: Does Mo play defense... if so, I would agree...