Bynum Says Trade Deadline Makes Many Players Anxious - But Not Him
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
AUBURN HILLS (CBS DETROIT) - In his sixth year in the NBA, his fifth with the Detroit Pistons, guard Will Bynum did not seem concerned in the least Tuesday about the league's rapidly approaching trade deadline.
"It doesn't really matter to me," said Bynum, who started his pro career in the NBA's developmental league, then spent time with the Golden State Warriors, then went overseas and competed for Maccabi Tel-Aviv before signing on with the Pistons. "I can play basketball anywhere. I've played everywhere, been successful everywhere. It doesn't really matter to me. It's part of the business side of basketball. If it happens, it happens. If it don't, it don't.
"The emotion comes with family, with just your family," Bynum added later. "This part is business. We're here to work every day and get better every day. Whatever happens, it's a business move. You have to move on and adjust."
Bynum's cut-and-dried perspective on the nature of the business, however, is sometimes easier to talk about than to actually put into practice. While Bynum said that is his approach, he knows plenty of other players do not share it.
"It worries a lot of people," Bynum said. "People have family here, and a situation, and they kind of tend to emotionally get involved in a situation when [they] probably shouldn't be. It should be strictly business. That's how I approach it. Whatever I had to do, I would do it. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. It has nothing to do with anything else, my family or nothing else. It's just strictly me."
Bynum said he does not call his agent to check on various scenarios, but he also said he does not particularly follow the rumors in the first place.
"If I hear it, it'd have to be from somebody that's close to me," Bynum said. "Other than that, I don't even really follow, read that. You hear a lot of stuff, but half the stuff you hear is not true."
Granted, most current trade scenarios that mention the Pistons revolve around forward Greg Monroe, a strong and productive big man for whom Detroit might not have the floor space (see Josh Smith, Andre Drummond) nor the cap space (see Josh Smith, Brandon Jennings) to accommodate going forward. Monroe is a restricted free agent at the end of the year, so if the Pistons want to say goodbye, now would be the time to do it and get something in return.
Bynum could conceivably be moved, though there seems to be much less conversation about his travels. A perennial role player, Bynum averages 7.8 points and 2.8 assists in 17.7 minutes per game. At 31, he has one more year left on his contract and is due $2.79 million for the 2013-2014 season and $2.91 million in the 2014-2015 season.
If Bynum seemed nonchalant about the possibility of moving on from the Pistons, it could be that he figures other situations could hardly be more turbulent. Detroit has failed to make the playoffs the past four seasons after losing in the first round of the postseason in Bynum's first season. Bynum has played for four different head coaches in his time in Detroit, not including current interim coach John Loyer.
