The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly trying to offer a deal to a free-agent center in an effort to complete their playoff puzzle, a source close to situation reported on Thursday.
The Cavs, who recently signed former Los Angeles Lakers forward Earl Clark, are pursuing restricted free-agent center Nikola Pekovic.
Pekovic played three seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, averaging 11.6 points and 6.2 rebounds. With Kevin Love out with a broken hand, Pekovic emerged as the T-Wolves premier bigman by averaging 16.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.
At age 27, Pekovic is still expected to command a lucrative deal and the Cavs are willing to unload some contracts to get their center.
One possible scenario is to pull off a sign-and-trade deal with the Cavs sending Anderson Verajao to the Wolves for Pekovic, who's a restricted free-agent.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons are trying to bring back former starting point guard and 2004 NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups this season.
Billups spent majority of last season rehabbing his surgically repaired Achilles tendon. Still, the veteran point guard averaged 8.4 points and 2.2 assists for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars has been aggressive since the start of the free-agency period but hasn't found his luck so far. Dumars proposed to trade the expiring contracts of Charlie Villanueva and Rodney Stuckey in exchange for Rudy Gay, but the Toronto Raptors rejected it right away.
The Pistons have a nice collection of young talents such as Brandon Knight, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond and Billups, who believes he can still play two year at a high level, can be a nice leader for this ball club.
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