It's hard to imagine I've been alone in trying to let the Antonio McDyess dream die as quick a death as possible since it is so tantalizing to think about him in green yet so unlikely that he will be making his way to Boston as anything but an opponent.  Yet it just can't seem to go away.

As reported by ESPN's Chris Sheridan:

The odds still favor Antonio McDyess returning to the Detroit Pistons once his 30-day waiting period has expired, but the odds aren't as short as they were just 48 or 72 hours ago.

McDyess planned to speak with his agent, Andy Miller, on Friday to begin whittling down the list of 18 teams that have expressed interest in signing the former Olympian and one-time All-Star.

"It's not a foregone conclusion that he'll go back to Detroit," Miller told ESPN.com Thursday night. "We're sifting through everything that has transpired. I don't think 'hurt' would be the way to characterize how he felt about being traded, but he was caught off guard."

Bah.

There are just too many ways in which McDyess would make perfect sense for this team: veteran player who can moonlight at both the four and the five, good defender, solid on the glass, can play with his back to the basket or shoot from midrange, renowned locker room presence and leader, comes to work every time out.  Ring-chasing or otherwise (since he claims he doesn't want to do that), I'd take this guy in a second.

Sadly, though I'm not sure about how much flexibility Detroit has in making their pitch to McDyess, it's hard to imagine this is anything other than typical agent-speak designed to drive prices up.  Most sources close to the McDyess have been claiming for the last few weeks that he has made it clear that his only desire is to be in Detroit, so its hard to get too excited about one report to the maybe-kind-of-possibly contrary.

But there is still the smallest glimmer of hope on the Dice front.