Detroit Pistons top priority for this summer is the resigning of its point guard Chauncey Billups. The 31-year-old has opted out of the final year of his six-year contact with the Pistons, thus becoming a unrestricted free agent.

Pistons officials said that this is no surprise for them. Joe Dumars, Pistons’ president of basketball operations, will also have to deal with a few other issues as veteran guard Lindsey Hunter will probably retire, center Chris Webber is a free agent and it looks like he’s going to retire as well and Dumars might want to trade the little-used center Nazr Mohammed.

"He informed the team this morning that he was opting out of his final year with the Pistons and that makes him a free agent – which we expected," team spokesman Matt Dobek said Monday.

"We certainly hope we will be" able to re-sign him, the spokesman added.

Billups played college basketball at the University of Colorado. He was honored by the university in 2004 as the fifth player to have his jersey retired. His nickname is "Mr. Big Shot."

He made his debut in NBA after being drafted by the Boston Celtics, who traded him to Toronto Raptors midway through his first season. Billups continued his career playing for a number of teams which included the Denver Nuggets, the Orlando Magic and the Minnesota Timberwolves where he replaced the often-injured Brandon and had a breakthrough 2001-2002 season.

In June 2002 Billups signed with the Detroit Pistons as a free agent to be the team's new starting point guard. He helped lead the Pistons to the 2004 NBA championship, averaging 21 points per game and 5.2 assists in the NBA Finals to earn the Finals MVP.