Longtime NBA veteran Tayshaun Prince is still waiting for the phone to ring. After spending last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 6-foot-9 forward has struggled to draw interest from franchises around the league.

Prince was a model of consistency in his heyday, and an iron man of sorts playing 82 games during six straight seasons as a member of the Detroit Pistons, from 2003-09.

The Kentucky product has a group text set up with his championship team of 2004, consisting of himself, Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and Ben Wallace. The five often throw ideas and comments back and forth about each other's personal happenings.

With the latter four having retired from the game, the talks mainly revolve around a potential landing spot for Prince.

“Obviously, Rip, Rasheed, Ben and Chauncey at this point in their career, they were in a situation where they were trying to go to a contender or at least be in a playoff-type atmosphere,” Prince told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. “So at least when you go out there you have something to play for. They have an idea of what I am going through right now.”

Prince was a double-digit scorer for 10 of his 11 years in Detroit — the exception being his rookie season. His numbers have steeply declines since leaving the Motor City and he just hasn't able to have the effect he had defensively the way he did in his earlier days.

“When I came in, we were trying to win a championship because of the type of team we had,”said the 36-year-old Prince. “To be able to achieve that so early in my career was remarkable. Not a lot of people get a chance to do that. But when I came into the league, we had so many vets, so many older guys who just knew what to do. I just kind of learned from those guys…

“Just the camaraderie I had with those guys was something special. It’s something I never had when I was not playing with them [in Detroit] or I was playing with different teams.”

While his production might not be there the way it was in his earlier year, Prince is a proven winner, who's had an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal with the 2008 “Redeem Team” in Beijing.

“The hardest part about the wait is that there are a lot of teams out there that know what I bring to the game,” Prince said. “I know I have good leadership, and they know I’m a great locker room guy. Obviously, some of the assistant coaches that you’ve played for are dispersed around the league. A lot of them are accustomed to what I do and what I bring to teams…

“Now is the time where teams are checking out their roster with 18 or 19 guys. They are trying to see if some of these guys can make the roster. After all that settles, I hope to hopefully hear something.”