The Pistons’ roster is now set after Ray McCallum is waived

The Detroit Pistons have made the last of their roster moves following the signing of Beno Udrih and the surprise waiving of Ray McCallum.

The Detroit Pistons had a busy final few hours before the NBA roster deadline. After a training camp and preseason battle between Lorenzo Brown and Ray McCallum, things came to a surprising finish.

Brown and McCallum were playing for the backup point guard spot behind Ish Smith, which would become the third point guard role after starter Reggie Jackson returns from knee tendinitis about 15-20 games into the season. They were also playing for the final roster spot.

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Brown was waived Saturday afternoon, leaving McCallum as the presumptive winner. When in doubt, head coach and president Stan Van Gundy defers to experience.

Per MLive’s Aaron McMann:

"“At the end of the day, Ray had played about three times as many NBA games as Lorenzo (Brown) had and we need a guy to play right now,” Van Gundy said. “That was a huge decision, to be honest.”McCallum has played in 154 games — starting 46 of them — with three NBA teams over the course of three seasons. Brown had only 63.Brown was waived.“That was really the biggest factor separating them,” Van Gundy said. “You could go back and forth and knit pick on strengths and weaknesses, but at the end of the day, that to me was the biggest gap between the two of them.”"

The Detroit native McCallum had a big advantage in NBA experience over Brown, but everything was thrown into disarray when the Miami Heat waived Beno Udrih and the Pistons had the chance to pick him up.

Just like that, everything changed. McCallum was waived, most likely to join Brown with the Grand Rapids Drive, the Pistons NBA D-League affiliate. Udrih will take the backup spot and third string role upon Jackson’s return.

Barring any other surprise developments, the Pistons opening night 15-man roster is now set, and this is the group that will take the floor against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.