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Detroit has been rumored to be interested in a few power forwards to back up big free-agent signing Charlie Villanueva, all odd ducks with some flavor of a wacky game. There was "Big Baby" Glen Davis, a thick shooter with a personality vacillating between child and swag. Or Drew Gooden, the ultra-confident post player with a million bizarre hair decisions.

But according to ESPN's Chad Ford, the Pistons went with 26-year-old dunker Chris Wilcox, who spent last season between Oklahoma City and New York. Ford reports Detroit will pay Wilcox $6 million over two seasons, which tells me the Pistons don't really want to wait around on Eastern contention, despite the relatively young core of the team.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Vinny Del Negro needs to stop watching X-Files before games. How little does the Notorious V.D.N. trust his bench? He basically played a six-man rotation Tuesday against the Pistons, with seventh man Lindsey Hunter and burning man Tim Thomas each getting four minutes off the bench beyond Brad Miller's 23.

Derrick Rose missed his first game of the season with a bruised wrist. Kirk Hinrich filled in well, scoring 24 points (on 23 FGAs) and totaling eight assists. Tyrus Thomas was a beast for Chicago, with 18 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, a block and a steal.

Anyone who's followed the Pistons on a regular basis couldn't possibly have been surprised by Sunday's embarrassing blowout in Cleveland. (You know things are bad when you lose by 21 and a note on the team's official Twitter feed still admits "it wasn't as close as the final score.")

The Cavs have made a lot of teams look silly this year, but the loss was Detroit's sixth in a row and their 15th in 20 games. Forget the Pistons' streak of six consecutive appearances in the Conference Finals -- at their current pace, they're in very real danger of missing the playoffs completely.

If you were of the opinion that the league was somehow cracking down on flagrant fouls this season, then the events of the past week or so might go a long way to change your mind.

Andrew Bynum, as you may recall, partially collapsed Gerald Wallace's lung during the Lakers' loss to the Bobcats, and received neither a fine nor a suspension for the flagrant foul that caused the damage. Although the injury sustained by Wallace was a serious one, most thought that Bynum's play was reckless, but not intentionally meant to hurt anybody.

The same cannot be said however, for Kendrick Perkins' hit on Jason Maxiell.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- As Kevin Garnett described it after the game, playing the Pistons on their home court is like walking into a bar on the wrong side of town. "Everything you gain, you're going to have to fight for it," Garnett said. "Those guys, they play really hard. We know this team like they know us, and every time we meet up it's like an all-out slugfest."

For a few moments, it seemed like Garnett's slugfest analogy might actually come true: Kendrick Perkins fouled Jason Maxiell hard in the fourth quarter, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him to the ground. A brief shoving match ensued, and Perkins was given an automatic ejection. I was in Boston's locker room after the game to hear Perkins' explanation for what happened.

That's Kendrick Perkins headhunting Jason Maxiell, getting himself booted during the fourth quarter of a tight road game against a rival. Smart move, Holmes. More ridiculous than this unnecessary foul were the arguments from Perk's teammates that the Big 'Drick shouldn't have been ejected.

A report from the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons faced the Rockets on January 25.

As the Pistons muddle along trying to figure out how best to use their surplus of perimeter players, an unfortunate consequence has been the mishandling of their talented frontcourt.

Rasheed Wallace's numbers have taken a dive after he's been overused and left on an island defensively, and players like Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell have had their roles change drastically from one game to the next.

A report from the Palace of Auburn Hills, where the Pistons faced the Mavericks on January 23rd.

When Michael Curry went from smallball (featuring three guards and Tayshaun Prince playing out of position at power forward) back to a more traditional lineup, the question on everybody's mind was how Rip Hamilton or Allen Iverson would handle being bumped to the bench.

Everyone, that is, except Curry himself. "I wasn't worried about if Rip wanted to come off the bench or Allen wanted to come off the bench. We just made a decision on what gives us the chance to be at our best," Curry said while announcing the move earlier this week.

The Pistons came into Monday's game with a five-game losing streak, their longest since the 2003-04 season. Fortunately, there's nothing like a game against the Grizzlies to help an ailing team get right -- the Pistons held Memphis to just 10 points in the final quarter while pulling out the win.

So everything is golden again in Detroit, right? Not quite.

Despite a respectable eight-point margin of victory, this game was closer than it appeared; the Grizzlies actually led by two after three, and the score was still tied with fewer than five minutes left. As it happened, the Grizzlies played like you'd expect an 11-29 team to play down the stretch, but against a more competent foe this game would have been a coin-flip.

The Pistons have known for two weeks that Antonio McDyess wanted to return, but NBA rules prevented him from making his intentions official until today.

Assuming Detroit's putrid performance of late (they've lost three of their last four, including their last two against teams with losing records) hasn't given him cold feet, he should sign his new contract today and be in uniform and available to play Tuesday in Washington.

While the Pistons are still figuring out how best to utilize their backcourt with Allen Iverson in the mix, Michael Curry indicated before Friday's game that he doesn't think McDyess' return will require any type of transition.

"I think the biggest adjustment is when you have guys that are dominant scorers as far as [having] a lot of plays that are ran for them while the ball is in their hands," Curry said. "I don't think that's the case for Dyess. He'll pick right back up what we're doing defensively and offensively. He's just going to play his role. It doesn't take a lot of time adjusting with a guy like that."