Detroit Pistons Links: Mr. Big Shot in Cleveland?

Every Morning, Pistons Palace brings you the reading material you need on your Detroit Pistons before you start your day at the office. We bring you the morning’s Palace Picks across the web to get you ready for the day.

Since when did Thursday become the eventful news day of the week? Here at Pistons Palace we spend most of our Thursday looking ahead to the weekend.

Just don’t tell our boss.

For Pistons, Celtic, Laker, and Kings fans, today is all about the two day draft lottery hangover.

Champions fight through the pain though. It’s time to take our aspirin and squint through today’s Palace Picks.

Could Mr. Big Shot truly be a head coaching candidate in Cleveland? Chauncey Billups has yet to retire as a Piston but according to the Plain Dealer’s Mary Schmitt Boyer, it’s a possibility.

"Cavs owner Dan Gilbert loves Billups, and with Jason Kidd having success in his first season as a coach after retiring as a point guard, there could be some consideration for Billups, who hasn’t yet retired. But sources in Detroit say Billups always has wanted to become a general manager, not a coach."

It would seem Billups is still a fit for the Pistons front office. His playing style matches up well with Stan Van Gundy’s coaching philosophy. You’d also think Cleveland would want some type of experience at head coach, especially after garnering the first pick in the NBA draft.

According to Basketball Insiders, the GM David Griffin is already “fielding phone calls” about trading the first pick. Kevin Love anyone?

"“I actually got calls right afterward, while I was standing there doing media,” Griffin said Wednesday during an interview on ESPN Cleveland’s “The Really Big Show.” “Teams were already reaching out and texting, so I think it will be an active period of time.”“I’ve said many times that I’d trade me if it made us better,” he told “The Really Big Show.”"

If thinking about the Cavaliers getting better isn’t enough, how about about this kick in the stomach this Thursday. Vincent Ellis of the Detroit Free Press said that the Hornets and Pistons talked about a deal where the Pistons would have retained their draft pick in the 2014 draft.

Huh? Why would you use future picks to try and redeem another bad move? There is enough depth in this draft to get a solid player at #38. Pistons.com beat writer Keith Langlois tweets a couple of players the Pistons could target.

You could add a ton more to that list.

From the draft, back to the front office. Grantland.com’s Zach Lowe has some good nuggets for Pistons fans.

"Van Gundy hopes to hire a GM before the start of free agency on July 1, and he says he’s limiting the pool to guys who have held a full-time GM job before. He and the team’s owners have 50-50 say in the final hiring decision, he says: “I’m not just picking someone I want, and they are not forcing anyone on me.”"

According to Lowe, Van Gundy is going to be staring at a video monitor for quite some time. Van Gundy is watching every single game from last year, so he doesn’t go into the evaluation process with any per-conceived notions.

"Van Gundy wants his key coaching hires to do the same, and in jotting down notes to himself over the weekend, he zeroed in on one phrase, he says: “Avoid groupthink.” He wants to delay all roster-evaluation talk until all his key new hires have watched those 82 games, so that no one goes into the film room with preconceived notions about any player. “I don’t even want to talk about things before that,” Van Gundy says, “because if I mention, ‘Hey, this guy is really great at that,’ some guys may start looking for examples of that guy being great.”"

And Finally Lowe wraps up with some thoughts on Joe Dumars eventually working his way into the New Orleans front office if the Pelicans part ways with current GM Dell Demps.

"Two names to watch if the Pellies eventually part ways with Demps: Joe Dumars and Bobby Marks, the Nets’ assistant GM. Dumars is from Louisiana and tight with higher-ups from the New Orleans Saints, a relationship that dates to well before any real possibility Tom Benson would ever own an NBA team. Marks is well respected and could become a candidate for the New Orleans job."

But neither has had any direct conversations about the job or lobbied for it at all with Demps still on board.

Good luck with that.