Pistons Links: Will Aron Baynes be able to sleep well enough in Rio to then have the energy to take the Olympics down?

A Michael Gbinije pre-Olympics update

From the Detroit Free Press (via Associated Press) on Monday:

Carmelo Anthony scored 19 points and the U.S. wrapped up its unbeaten exhibition tour with a 110-66 victory over Nigeria on Monday night.

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Detroit Pistons 2016 second-round draft pick Michael Gbinije -- playing for Nigeria -- had two points on 1-for-5 shooting, including 0-for-4 from three, with three turnovers, a steal and a block in 17 minutes.

Our Aron Baynesie Boots Please Be Safe And Comfy In Rio

So far the 2016 Rio Olympics are slowly but kind of surely turning out to be a joke, and no competitions have even taken place yet (yes, the whole Olympics concept is a big joke nowadays anyway). Oh, sure, I'm a hypocrite -- I will still watch the USA basketball team play as much as possible. First go at it is bright and early for me, 6:30AM Sunday, China time! And against China no less!

But back to Baynesie Buns in Rio and those important Olympic Village matters. Seems Andrew Bogut is leading the charge:

Bogut and his Boomers teammates have just arrived in Rio and it's fair to say the 213-cm NBA star wasn't too impressed with the accommodation he will have to put up for the best part of the next three weeks.

The 31-year-old is not one to shy away from stirring the pot on social media and once again he has voiced his opinion, albeit sarcastically, on his room.

His first tweet read: "In the OLY village. Upon first looks its (sic) only fitting I will be posting pics with the hashtag #IOCLuxuryLodging #rio2016."

Those on Twitter could sense Bogut wasn't too pleased with what had greeted him when he opened his door, and that was confirmed with his next tweet accompanied by a picture of him, taken by teammate Chris Goulding, sitting on a small white chair holding a shower curtain.

"Putting together a shower curtain so we can shower and not flood the place," Bogut wrote in a tweet.

Then when one social media user said he could not believe Olympians were sleeping in single beds, Bogut replied with: "At #IOCLuxuryLodging we believe a bed is not vital for sleep. Fine tuned athletes can sleep standing up."

No word yet on if our Baynesie Bubble has (fill in the blank here).

Chauncey Billups chooses family over Magic coaching opportunity -- Detroit Free Press

He was linked to the Orlando Magic staff when former Pacers coach Frank Vogel was hired, but he turned down the offer to be the top assistant.

Billups revealed details on The Vertical's podcast this past week, hosted by veteran NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski.

He cited his longtime relationship with Vogel and Magic assistant general manager Scott Perry, a former Pistons front-office executive.

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Billups, 39, said he declined the job for family reasons.

"My second daughter has a couple more years of high school, so I didn't really want to move away," Billups said. "It became more of a personal thing than just a coaching job. But it was a great opportunity."

Nikola Vucevic: I should start over Bismack Biyombo -- Pro Basketball Talk

I'm trying to sneak in a non-Pistons related link because I think the Orlando Magic have set themselves up for a highly entertaining and perhaps combustible season.

Ok Nikola, the mic is yours:

"I believe I will be the starter — the best player on the team, and the guy who has been here the longest," Vucevic said. "I'm not taking anything away from Bismack. I just believe I should start."

What the above means is...Nikola doesn't really seem willing to embrace a role off the bench (my best guess) -- he'd rather team with new big man Serge Ibaka in the starting lineup. Here's what Pro Basketball Talk has to add:

But what about Biyombo? He's being paid like a starter, and he probably doesn't want to come off the bench. His performance with the Raptors -€” especially in the playoffs after Jonas Valanciunas got hurt -€” suggests he's ready for a bigger role.

The "what about Biyombo?" line got me thinking: WHAT ABOUT BOB?

Remember Ryan Boatright?

You all remember the Boatright in Detroit era, yeah? No? Then, at least you may remember the factoid that Boatright and Andre Drummond were teammates for a season at the University of Connecticut.

Boatright, formerly of the Grand Rapids Drive for twenty games last season before voluntarily leaving for Italy's top league, has just recently signed with a team in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He'll likely put up a sexy 25-30 points per game (or more), as all of the foreign import guards are prone to do in the CBA.

You know who also is going to play in China starting in 2016? Carlos Boozer, that's who. He will join the same Chinese team that Will Bynum played for just last season.

In news you probably really, really don't care about

Ben Gordon, playing for Great Britain, is eyeing an NBA comeback. Via ESPN:

Ben Gordon will spend the next few weeks playing for Great Britain's men's national basketball team -- with an eye on an NBA return.

Gordon, 33, will suit up for Britain for the first time during qualifiers for Eurobasket 2017 next month. The 11-year NBA veteran hopes to help the British qualify for Europe's biggest tournament while showing talent evaluators that he can still play at an elite level.

Gordon, who did not play last season after appearing in training camp with the Golden State Warriors, spoke recently with ESPN.com about his decision to suit up for Great Britain and his hopes to land back in the NBA.

If you care about Gordon's quest to suit up again for an NBA team when the games count, read the whole interview. Or just have a look at this particular part here about Gordon's training camp experience with the Warriors following their 2015 title.

Q: How was being in camp with the Golden State Warriors?

A: Getting a chance to see how a team coming off a championship prepared, it was rather different. I think that their team in general had probably the best chemistry I'd ever seen. I know that might sound cliché on a championship team. But just to see how well all of those guys got along and how well their games complemented each other was really, really interesting. Also, just seeing how carefree they were, how much joy they practiced and played with every day. That was different as well. Just how effortless their practices were. That was different to see. I didn't really know what to expect. It was kind of like a bunch of guys who played pick-up for years together and knew each others' games really well and they just were coming out to compete. That was something that was cool to see.

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You guys probably know about Draymond Green's "button" pushing mishap over the weekend. So let me remind all you young and old types reading here:  Be extra careful when using all these young kid tech gizmo things.  My motto is rightly 'be careful when you want to press to impress'.