FanHouse Joe Dumars

ORLANDO -- Pistons general manager Joe Dumars signed broken-down Ben Wallace this summer to be a figure-head, to serve as a low-budget example for his young, talented guys to see where hard work could take them.

Dumars never expected this kind of start.

Wallace, 35, is one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises of this young season. In the first five games, he has averaged 10 rebounds in 31 minutes while also playing the kind of hard-nosed interior defense that once helped him anchor Detroit's NBA championship team in 2004.

"I just thought he'd be great for the young guys to be around, an undrafted guy who worked his way up without any shortcuts. Just for the young guys to see him every day. That's why I got him,'' Dumars said Friday before the Pistons played in Orlando. "But he's been better than I ever imagined. It's like an added bonus.''

John Kuester has agreed to terms to become the next coach of the Detroit Pistons.

Kuester wasn't Joe Dumars' first choice. (That'd be Doug Collins, who kept his hat in the ring just long enough to know that he was wanted.)

And while we're being frank, Kuester clearly wasn't Dumars' second choice, either. (That'd be Avery Johnson, who used the leverage of being owed $8 million over the next two years by the Mavericks to demand more than Dumars was willing to give.)

But at the end of the day, there's still a good chance that Kuester was still the right choice.

The Pistons' head coaching search has narrowed, with the former favorite to secure the job now apparently out of the running.

Avery Johnson was perceived as the leading candidate for the position, considering the fact that Joe Dumars had said that after the Michael Curry debacle, he wanted someone with more experience to run the team this time around. But after two days of negotiations, ESPN is reporting that contract talks have broken off, and now two assistant coaches are believed to be the front-runners for the job in Detroit.

Well, that was fast. Free agents can't officially sign with new teams until July 8, but that doesn't mean they can't make verbal commitments before then. And so, after Joe Dumars had both Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva in town to discuss the possibility of joining his team, it appears that he was able to convince them both to agree to terms with the Detroit Pistons.

The deal is said to be in the neighborhood of five years and $55 million for Gordon, and the one for Villanueva is for five years and $35 million.

While there are plenty of NBA followers out there who don't think that Gordon plus Villanueva will turn out to be all that great for the Pistons in terms of a full-fledged rebuilding, it is possible that these two could pay dividends in the more immediate future.

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The Pistons have been tied to Bulls gunner Ben Gordon for ages, it seems, with pundits constantly bickering about how little or much sense a pairing made. Detroit, after all, traded All-World champ Chauncey Billups precisely to free up time for buckin' Rodney Stuckey while also inking former All-Star Rip Hamilton to an extension.

The assumed pursuit of Charlie Villanueva -- now confirmed by Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski -- makes more immediate sense. Rasheed Wallace is gone, Amir Johnson will vie for Villanueva's old job in Milwaukee, Antonio McDyess can probably find greener pastures.

But regardless of how it looks now, these are two pursuits that make bundles of sense together.

The news out of Detroit is that the Pistons have decided to part ways with their head coach of this past season, Michael Curry. The move was an obvious if unexpected one, as Curry made some huge mistakes in his first year in charge -- including alienating the team's number one star, Rip Hamilton, with the way he handled the Allen Iverson situation.

There's a little NBA trading spice coming out of Woj's internet-making machine recently, in the form of (another?) rumor involving Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. This time, they were reportedly offered to Detroit in a deal that would have sent Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey to Beantown.

(Quick aside: Is it just me or is the NBA offseason easily the most fun of any sport?) Anyway, it appears, based on Woj's sources, that this rumor is likely to gain very little steam, primarily because Danny Ainge is dealing with "Bring in Rasheed Wallace to win a championship" Joe Dumars, as opposed to "Draft Darko, Trade Chauncey for Iverson" Joe Dumars.

TEQUESTA, Fla. -- This looked like a Bad Boys reunion.

The NBA came from around the country Wednesday to celebrate the life and mourn the death of Chuck Daly, but nothing was more impressive than his collection of pallbearers.

It was the nucleus of his two championship teams in Detroit, the ones that transformed him from just another coaching lifer into a Hall of Famer and Olympic Gold Medalist revered by all.

Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Vinnie Johnson, Rick Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer were at his side. The Bad Boy Pistons and their leader one final time.

"I think when you go through the things we did together, there is a bond that never breaks,'' said Laimbeer. "This was a sad time, but a time to celebrate who he was, and what he did, and how loved he was.''

For the first time in seven years, the Pistons will not make an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals -- and it's only fitting that Ben Wallace was present to witness the dismantling. He was the foundation of Detroit's first four appearances, the face of the franchise up until the moment he left as a free agent three summers ago before ultimately landing with the Cavaliers at the 2007 trade deadline.

Even though a lot of Detroit fans haven't forgiven him for leaving, he clearly enjoys coming back. After seeing him roam the hallways behind the scenes this weekend, I can understand why: he's still greeted warmly by former teammates, locker room attendants, Pistons front office staff and even members of Detroit's media. It may be easy for jilted fans to switch allegiances on a dime, but as explained this weekend, the bonds he formed during six long years in Detroit will always be there.

Isiah Thomas once cornered me in a hallway and issued a warning, mob-boss-like. "If you squeeze me again, you'll be sorry," he said. I'm not certain what warranted the threat -- and it's nice to know I haven't awakened to a horse's head in my bed -- but it was a classic snapshot of what King Isiah was like when he ruled the world, when he was a two-time NBA champion, when he was the best little man who ever played the game.

Now, years later, he is humbled, deleting the mountains of scandalous cache in his personal hard drive and rebooting himself amid the smallest of templates. He is escaping New York, where his dreadful tenure as boss and coach of the Knicks was exacerbated by a sexual-harassment case against him, and attempting to salvage his career and life at Florida International University, where a basketball team that hasn't had a winning season in 10 years played to average crowds of 693 fans last season.