Antonio McDyess has decided to return to the Pistons.
After considering interest from 18 NBA teams, including Cleveland, Boston, San Antonio and Charlotte, McDyess decided Sunday to return to the team that traded him to the Nuggets about three weeks ago. McDyess will re-sign with the Pistons on Dec. 3, after a league- mandated 30-day waiting period expires. He will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.
"It was a very difficult decision for him. He was weighing good offers financially, along with other variables he thought were important," agent Andy Miller told
ESPN.com. "But going into the year, he had a team goal set, and to not finish up with it, he didn't want to do that."
McDyess negotiated a buyout with the Nuggets after they obtained him along with Chauncey Billups and Cheikh Samb from Detroit for Allen Iverson.
The Nuggets bought out McDyess for about $6 million of the more than $13 million remaining on his contract, which would have expired next season.
In choosing Detroit, McDyess will be leaving more money on the table, since the Pistons can only offer their biannual $1.9 million salary-cap exception, less than half the midlevel exception of more than $5 million available to teams such as Cleveland.
"He gave up a lot of money," Miller said. "He felt a strong sense of responsibility to finishing out the goal."
KNEE TROUBLE: Jermaine O'Neal left the Raptors' game against the Celtics in the second quarter Sunday after falling following a missed jump shot.
The forward had started despite having strained his surgically repaired left knee against New Jersey on Friday.
O'Neal scored six points Sunday before falling backward on a missed jumper at 7:36 of the second quarter. He left the game one possession later, according to The Associated Press. He did not return.
O'Neal missed 40 games last season because of lingering pain from a torn ligament in his left knee, which was surgically repaired the previous summer.
PHYSICAL FIRST: Golden State guard Jamal Crawford, who was acquired from the Knicks on Friday for forward Al Harrington, is scheduled to take his physical today and then join the Warriors for their game Tuesday at Washington.
ETC.: Toronto's Jose Calderon made all eight of his free throws against the Celtics and is 40- for-40 from the line this season. . . . The Pistons are 0-3 on Sundays this season, having lost those games by an average of 18.7 points. They are 8-2 the other six days of the week.
