Detroit Pistons second round draft choice guard Rickey Paulding, a Highland Park native who attended Missouri, is living in his childhood bedroom again while working out with the Pistons.

?Everything is going well so far, I sometimes have to pinch myself that the Pistons are really where I work now,? Paulding, 21, said. ?I grew up loving the Pistons, watching all those guys like Isiah (Thomas), and Joe Dumars playing on TV. They were my team.

?Now, I see Joe walking around at the practice facility and it gives me like a thrill to see him in person. I?m working for him now. He?s really my boss.?

Paulding was drafted at No. 54 by the Pistons, picked because the team liked his hustle and athletic ability from his days playing at Missouri.

The Pistons had until Thursday to match Utah's offer but officially let nothing else stand in the way yesterday when they waived their right to match the six-year, $50-million offer sheet Okur signed with the Jazz this month, leaving Okur free to play at Utah next season. The move became a foregone conclusion when the Pistons agreed to contracts with forwards Antonio McDyess and Rasheed Wallace.

"It was nothing more than a formality," team vice president John Hammond said Monday. "After signing Rasheed and Antonio, we had no room to sign Mehmet."

Last week, Okur told the Zaman newspaper in Turkey that he was happy to be going to the Jazz.

"I had a really hard term last year with the Detroit uniform," he said.

The Jazz's losing streak has been broken in the free-agent market.

Mehmet Okur, one of four restricted free agents from another team to sign with Utah over the past two summers, will become the first one to actually join the Jazz on Tuesday. The Detroit Pistons have waived their right to match Utah's six-year, $50-million contract offer to Okur, an NBA source said Sunday, allowing the Jazz to add the 6-foot-11 center to their roster a couple of days early.

The Pistons' 15-day matching period would have lapsed at 10 p.m. MDT Thursday, and Detroit president Joe Dumars had made it clear that he had no intention of trying to slash his payroll in order to free up the salary-cap space necessary to retain Okur. Allowing the Jazz to sign the Turkish center before the deadline is apparently a courtesy being extended by Dumars to Okur, agent Marc Fleisher and the Jazz. Pistons coach Larry Brown is a close friend and former   boss to Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations.

'Ronald Dupree signed a two-year contract with the NBA champion Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.'

'The 6-foot-7, 209-pound forward averaged 6.2 points and 3.6 rebounds in 47 games with the Chicago Bulls last season.'

Dupree started 8 games for the Bulls and had 18 points in his debut game.

``Ronald is the type of young talent we're looking to add to our team,'' Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said. ``Ronald played well for the Bulls last year, and we took notice of that during the year. He's another guy that fits the profile of a Detroit Piston.''

'Dupree was cut by the Pistons in October last year, before the season started. The former Louisiana State star was added to Detroit's training camp as an undrafted rookie.'

Rasheed Wallace who pushed the Detroit Pistons to championship level is coming back.

He is reprted to have agreed to a 5 year deal worth 57 million dollars.

'The league source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, expected Wallace to sign the deal on Thursday. Wallace is to meet with reporters at a news conference Friday morning at The Palace of Auburn Hills.'

'Wallace, who made $17 million last season, was acquired in a three-team deal Feb. 19 to put the Pistons over the top. And he did.'

'Wallace's statistics were not always impressive -- he averaged 13 points, 7.8 rebounds and two blocks in the playoffs -- but his impact almost always was.'

The 6-foot-11, 230-pounder made a stingy defense one of the best in league history and an average offense better.

The Detroit Pistons will take home ESPY awards from sports network ESPN for Best Team, Best Upset and Best Coach/Manager (Larry Brown) when the July 14 show is broadcast across the nation July 18 at 9 pm. Eastern Time.

Other NBA related awards will go to Charlotte Bobcats forward Emeka Okafor (Best Male College Athlete), Cleveland Cavaliers guard LeBron James (Best Breakthrough), Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett (Best NBA Player) and Seattle Storm center Lauren Jackson (Best WNBA Player).

The Pistons have just signed another player to their roster.  

No, it isn?t Rasheed Wallace or Antonio McDyess, rather Carlos Delfino, the 25th pick in the 2003 draft.  The Pistons are excited to have Delfino, who spent last year playing in Italy, and will most likely back up Prince and Hamilton.  

?We are really excited that Carlos is finally part of our team,? said John Hammond, Pistons vice president of basketball. ?This is a guy we thought could have helped us last season. But things worked out well for both us and him. We won a championship and he had a very productive year in Italy and is probably even more ready now to be an NBA player.?

By 12:01 AM tomorrow morning, the Los Angeles Lakers could be without the league's most dominant big man and its most deadly perimeter threat.

Shaquille O'Neal could be a member of the Miami Heat and Kobe Bryant may change teams (though not arenas) and sign with the Los Angeles Clippers.

But all of this is speculation and observers of the NBA world won't know until the official announcements are made.

These answers will come sooner rather than later now that the NBA's moratorium on player movement is about to be lifted.

"It's going to go down," Mark Bartelstein, the agent for Miami's Brian Grant, said yesterday of the Heat's trade to acquire O'Neal. "I think it will be announced tomorrow."

Rasheed Wallace is also expected to sign a long contract to stay with the Detroit Pistons, but Joe Dumars called reports that a deal was already done "very premature."

"We're close," Dumars wrote in an e-mail. "We're going to get it done. But the report that it's actually done is inaccurate."

Miami is ready to send Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Grant and a first-round draft pick to the Lakers for Shaq.  Team officials confirmed that the deal is likely but not finished.  The Lakers will only make the deal if Bryant goes ahead and signs a seven-year offer for about $130 million from the Lakers.

Meanwhile, Rob Pelinka of SFX has resigned as the agent of Carlos Boozer because Boozer apparently broker his verbal agreement to stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"I didn't make a prior agreement," Boozer said. "And if I did, I would've stayed here. For them taking shots at my character is incredibly wrong, and I don't understand that. I thought I had a great relationship with them. Maybe they're trying to save face or trying to make up stuff and kill my character."

Carlos Delfino, Detroit's first-round pick in the 2003 draft, has agreed to a contract, agent David Bauman told ESPN Insider Chad Ford.

Delfino signed an agreement for a buyout with his former club, Fortitudo Bologna of the Italian League. He is expected to sign his NBA contract within the next 24 hours, pending the transfer of his rights from Fortitudo to Detroit.

"Playing in the NBA has been a dream of mine," Delfino said. "I look forward to joining the Pistons as they prepare to defend their NBA title. I've gained a lot of experience playing in Italy and I hope to make the Detroit fans, as well as my supporters in Argentina and Italy, proud of me."

The 6-foot-6 Delfino led Fortitudo Bologna to the 2004 EuroLeague Final Four championship game. He began playing professionally in Argentina in 1998-99, moving to Italy in 2000. He spent two seasons with Reggio Calabria before joining Fortitudo Bologna. In 2003-04 Euroleague play, he averaged 12.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

Antonio McDyess played for Larry Brown as an Olympian and now he'll play for him as a Detroit Piston.

McDyess agreed Monday to a four-year, $23-million offer.  A fifth year will be triggered if he plays at least 60 games in the fourth year of his contract.

McDyess was once one of the top young power forwards in the NBA but has suffered from chronic knee problems since.  He cannot sign the contract until Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Pistons will announce the signing of free-agent Rasheed Wallace, who will agree to a five- or six-year deal paying $10 million the first year with a 12.5 percent raise each season.  The total value of the contract would be in the range of $48 million to $64 million.

The signing of McDyess and Wallace, the Pistons will not match the six-year, $50 million offer sheet that Memhet Okur received last week from Utah.  Technically the Pistons will have until July 29 to decide whether to match Okur's offer sheet, but because of salary cap rules and the value of their present contracts, that will not be impossible.