Ric Bucher recently used his Twitter account to answer Piston fans questions about the proposed 3-way deal that would have sent Carlos Boozer to Detroit.

So in essence the Pistons would be trading Tayshaun Prince for Carlos Boozer, with Prince winding up in Portland and Bayless and cap relief going to the Jazz. I'm not sure which team turned that deal down, there have been claims that the Blazers don't want to part with Bayless in a trade, while there also being reports that Joe Dumars is hesitant to trade Tayshaun Prince.

There are Piston fans on both sides of the issue here. Many look at the current Piston roster and cannot understand why Joe Dumars wouldn't make a trade for a big man, using one of his many wing players, if he is able to.

Others don't want Carlos Boozer because of his injury history and the fact the Pistons just signed power forward Charlie Villanueva to a 5-year $35 million dollar contract, and Boozer would be forced to play the center position. The Deseret News is reporting that talks between the Pistons and the Jazz may be revisited.

July 13, Deseret News: The Boston Globe on Sunday reported that Detroit turned down a trade proposal that would have sent Boozer to the Pistons for Tayshaun Prince, but the newspaper didn't time-reference the rejected deal.

Utah also spoke earlier this offseason with Detroit about swapping Boozer for guard Rip Hamilton, as has been widely reported, but that didn't happen either.

With the Jazz now anxious to move Boozer, it remains to be seen if discussions with Detroit will be revisited.

One can understand why Joe might be hesitant to trade Tayshaun Prince in order to land Carlos Boozer. It would result in a very small lineup that might have a lot of trouble matching up against bigger teams. One would assume if Prince was traded for Boozer that Rip Hamilton would then slide over to play small forward and the lineup would be, Stuckey (6'5), Gordon (6'3), Hamilton (6'7), Villanueva (6'11) and Boozer (6'9).

YOUR COMMENTS

From jvjr2007: If there is any way to make a Rip/Boozer trade, Joe D needs to do it. The salary implications alone are sufficient motivation, but the mere fact that we are without a starting big makes even more sense for this trade to be pursued. I wonder if there is somebody else we could throw into the mix to sweeten this deal for Utah?

From retnep: I think Detroit has better options than trading Rip or Tay. Boozer has proven to be unreliable and his 1 year contract would almost prevent rebuilding from taking place.