DETROIT ? Last summer, the Detroit Pistons could have gutted their roster, and fans probably wouldn’t have minded.

Now the team has so many quality players that it might keep 15 next season, two more than Detroit president Joe Dumars said he wanted.

The Pistons will announce the signing of free-agent point guard Chauncey Billups on today to a six-year contract worth about $33.7 million, and 6-foot-11 forward Mehmet Okur is expected to sign later this month.

That would give the Pistons 15 guaranteed contracts, and they still want a third point guard.

“Maybe that’s something we can’t do as far as having a third point guard,” said John Hammond, the team’s vice president of basketball operations. “I just think having the extra bodies around last year really helped us.

“I can recall when we were really struggling and we had just come back from the West Coast trip, and there were four guys who were unable to practice, and we were still able to have a solid, two-hour practice and work some of the problems out.

“There’s nothing worse for a coach than to come to practice and have only eight or nine guys available and you have to cut practice short. I think our team will be deeper than last year, which will only help. I think we were a team that overachieved last season. We have to continue to be a team that plays hard and unselfish.”

The Pistons finished 50-32 last season after going 32-50 the previous season.

Dumars has said he would like to limit the Pistons to 13 players next season. The NBA roster limit is 12, but teams typically keep extra players by putting them on the injured list.

If the Pistons keep all 15 players they will have under contract, that would mean Ratko Varda, Brian Cardinal and Mikki Moore would anchor the end of a long bench. Varda is a promising 7-foot-1 center from Yugloslavia, Cardinal a feisty forward, and Moore a center in the last year of a three-year contract that will pay him $2.8 million whether the Pistons keep him or cut him.

Even without those three, battles will loom in training camp among the 12 other players, three of whom can become free agents after next season shooting guards Jerry Stackhouse and Jon Barry and center Cliff Robinson.