Who worried a year ago that Big Ben would really leave? He had become the face of the franchise. The town loved him, the team loved him and he seemed to love both right back. That whole “Goin’ to Work” marketing theme that fit this team like a glove? It all started with Big Ben. When he took that sledgehammer to the other team’s logo on the PalaceVision board in the pulsating chaos before every tipoff, it looked like that’s what he was born to do.

Swing a sledgehammer.

In Detroit.

He’ll instead be swinging it in Chicago, city of broad shoulders. Detroit’s posture took on a little slouch when Big Ben took the Amtrak west out of town, but the city would positively curl up into the fetal position if another icon leaves next summer.

Chauncey Billups becomes the face of the franchise now. He’d pretty much muscled his way into equal billing on the Pistons’ marquee with Big Ben, anyhow.

It was Billups who established himself as an MVP candidate early last season and maintained the pace throughout, after all. It was Billups the city had embraced as “Mr. Big Shot.” It is Billups who remains as captain of a team that’s pushed itself to the conference finals four years running – a stretch that coincides with Joe Dumars’ prescient signing of the heretofore vagabond point guard.

And it is Billups whose contract situation hangs like a mushroom cloud over Detroit.

“I’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Billups said before training camp opened. “That’s nothing I’m really thinking about right now. I’m just thinking about trying to lead this team.”

Pressed on it when camp opened, he held his ground: “Right now my focus is not on my next contract. I’m just trying to duplicate what we did last year and get better at the end as a team. I’m not really going to be talking about that all year. It’s really a non-issue for me.”

And it should be for you, too.

I am here to tell you: Relax. This one is not going the way Big Ben’s did. For a lot of reasons.

Start with the fact that free agents who command the type of money Wallace got and Billups will get don’t switch teams all that often. In any given summer, there might be three or four teams who can squeeze those outsized contracts under their salary caps. And they’re usually really bad teams.

Last year Chicago was the only viable alternative for Wallace, unless he wanted to go back near his Alabama roots to play for an Atlanta franchise in tatters, or closer to his college ties to Virginia to play for a Carolina franchise owned by a notoriously tight-fisted owner.

This year’s Chicago is Orlando. The Magic will have gobs of cap room. Ironically enough, they’ll have cap room largely because the contract of Grant Hill – whose departure from Detroit was supposed to be the final nail in the Pistons’ coffin – finally comes off the books.

Beyond cap room, the Magic have a bright future. With Dwight Howard emerging as the dominant big man of his generation, Orlando could make a real playoff push this season and move into title contention not too far down the road, with the series of right complementary moves.

But Orlando has something else, too: A young point guard the franchise really likes, Jameer Nelson. Would Chauncey Billups be an upgrade? A big one. But Orlando has larger needs.

Besides, the Pistons want Billups back, and it’s always more lucrative to sign with your existing franchise, all else being equal. For everything the Pistons and Ben Wallace meant to each other, there were clear signs that the relationship had become strained, and the suddenness of Wallace’s signing with Chicago strongly suggests that both sides felt it in their best interests to move on.

There are no such signs with Billups. So the only real suspense will be in the delicate work of contract negotiations when Billups can exercise his right to opt out of a contract that calls for him to earn $6.8 million for the 2007-08 season and become a free agent, as he is virtually certain to do.

What might a reasonable contract offer entail?

Let’s look for a relevant example. Hmmm. A 30-year-old point guard who factors in the MVP discussion?

How about Steve Nash? That’s how old Nash was two years ago when he hit free agency and Dallas balked at giving him what Phoenix offered – a six-year deal worth $63 million. But the final year at roughly $13 million is at the team’s option, so it’s essentially a five-year, $50 million contract.

Adjust that for the NBA’s rate of inflation and you’ll have something in the five-year, $60 million range.

That seems an eminently fair offer to take to Billups. And as Dumars proved two summers ago, when the Pistons were the only viable option for then-free agent Rasheed Wallace, Dumars is eminently fair.

So that’s the end of that story. Looks like an El Nino winter in Detroit, after all.