Josh Smith had strong words for Kenneth Faried to Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News on Thursday.

Smith was responding to a quote from Faried in which he said that Smith "shot them out of the game."

The Denver Nuggets defeated the Detroit Pistons by a final score of 89-79. Smith scored 25 points on 9-for-22 shooting.

"He's a clown, quote me on that," said Smith.

"He fears me. He's scared of me. He knows it's coming."

Aaron Gray was waived by the Detroit Pistons on Sunday, the team announced.

Gray had reportedly signed a two-year contract with the Pistons during free agency.

The Pistons' roster stands at 15.

The Detroit Pistons released Hasheem Thabeet, Brian Cook, Lorenzo Brown and Josh Bostic on Monday, the team announced.

All four players were on non-guaranteed deals for training camp.

In this two-part episode, host Daniel Leroux (@DannyLeroux) and Arturo Galletti of BoxScoreGeeks.com (@ArturoGalletti) go through the over-unders for all 30 NBA teams for the 14-15 season. 

Timestamps for the discussion on each team:

Part One

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Part Two

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The Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons have traded Joel Anthony for Will Bynum.

The Celtics appear to be making the move with roster flexibility in mind. The Celtics have 16 fully guaranteed contracts on their books and must trim that down to 15 before the start of the regular season.

If the Celtics ultimately elect to waive Bynum, the $900,000 savings from the trade would give them additional flexibility with the goal of staying under the tax line this season.

Chase Budinger has been made available in trade talks by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets have shown an interest in Budinger, among several other teams.

Houston and Detroit are reluctant to take on the $5 million player option on Budinger's contract.

The Wolves have an excess of forwards and minutes may be limited for Budinger.

Chauncey Billups has been hired by ESPN to work as a studio analyst for the upcoming NBA season. Billups will appear on NBA Tonight, SportsCenter, NBA Coast to Coast and ESPN Radio, among other ESPN properties.
 
“With my experience and passion for the game, I think I can spark interest with viewers,” Billups said in an interview with Sports Illustrated on Tuesday. “I think I have a unique perspective.”

Billups was limited to just 61 games over the past three seasons.

“I’m the kind of guy who has to be two feet in if I am going to give my best effort so broadcasting is something I looking at long-term,” said Billups, 37. “This is what I want to do and the avenue I want to take. At the moment, I’m not thinking about working in an NBA front office or coaching or anything else. I’m thinking about being the best I can be at ESPN in the studio.”

Jodie Meeks has a stress reaction in his lower back and will be out eight weeks.

Meeks signed with the Detroit Pistons in the offseason.

The Pistons will be forced to play Josh Smith more at small forward while Meeks is out.

Jeff Bower can openly discuss trades with other teams as part of his job duties as general manager of the Detroit Pistons.

Bower consults daily with Stan Van Gundy about ways in which the Pistons can improve their roster.

"That question is asked a lot," Bower said, referring to his trade empowerment. "But no matter what the structure is, the G.M. isn't going to make a trade without his head coach, his understanding of it, his involvement, his buy-in with it, because it won't work without that. In this case, we all have ideas about things. I'll have ideas that I'll take to Stan; Stan will give ideas to me, and scenarios that he'd like to look into. It's a constant exchange, back and forth."

Van Gundy and Bower oversaw the biggest front-office expansion in Pistons history this offseason, with 43 employees in basketball operations, up from 33 last season.

Bower said he and Van Gundy started by identifying the jobs they felt were necessary, then catered the structure to it, "as opposed to working with the flow chart first."

Bower embraced analytics with New Orleans, particularly during his second stint as the team's general manager from 2005-10.

"We really put a lot of weight into measuring things, and into tracking things, and into gauging what we were getting back in return for what we were spending," Bower said. "It's a spotlight is how I look at it. You bring things to the table that have some patterns and traits, that maybe would take longer to identify without the use of numbers. But it has to always be partnered with evaluation and observation."

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s MRI results on his left knee showed no structural damage, the Detroit Pistons announced Monday.

The injury has been re-classified as a left knee strain. Caldwell-Pope will miss this week’s preseason games at Charlotte, Orlando and Atlanta and will be re-evaluated upon the club’s return to Detroit next week.

Caldwell-Pope suffered the injury during the third quarter of Sunday's 91-89 preseason loss at Washington.