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Villanueva Still Around, But Pistons Have Good Reason

By taking advantage of the amnesty clause, the Pistons could have ended one of the darkest stretches in team history. They chose instead to keep much maligned forward Charlie Villanueva, making some fans very unhappy but giving the club more roster flexibility next summer.

Villanueva has become a symbol of everything that has gone wrong with the franchise since its run of six consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference final. He's an offense-minded, finesse player in an organization that has traditionally succeeded on physical defense and toughness.

Following two seasons as a rotation player in which he often surrendered as many or more points than he scored, Villanueva was sidelined two months with an ankle injury last season and couldn't crack coach Lawrence Frank's rotation when he returned.

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