So I’ve hesitated posting about this because I hate when people bring up Darko Milicic and the #2 pick that Joe D. whiffed on (Here is a reminder of what happened in the 2003 NBA Draft). I’ve defended the pick by saying that several NBA GMs had interest in Milicic, it wasn’t only Joe D. that liked him. Add that defense to the rumors of the Denver Nuggets possibly selecting Milicic at #3 if Detroit would have chosen Carmelo Anthony and well, we all see a clearer picture of what kind of potential others around the league thought Milicic had. When LeBron James and Chris Bosh both left their teams last week to go to Miami, to play with Dwyane Wade, it got me thinking:
If Detroit drafted Dwyane Wade, could he or would he have recruited the other 2 guys to Detroit?
The immediate answer is no, because with the way the Pistons managed the contracts of players following the 2004 championship run, Cleveland and Toronto likely would have not wanted to do a sign and trade for anything the Pistons would have had on their roster this offseason. Add that to the fact that Miami tanked a season between their 2006 title run and this offseason, and it allowed for guys with minimum contracts to come and go and contracts to expire while young and underpaid players remain behind.
Sure it would have been nice to see D. Wade bringing the ball up the floor with LeBron on the wing and Bosh working at the high elbow in the paint, all the while wearing the Pistons red, blue and white but… it’s highly doubtful that the chips would have fallen the way they did in Miami, for Detroit.
Don’t get me wrong here guys, this is not me bashing on Joe Dumars. He’s a well respected Executive and one of the better GMs in the league right now. Sure, he might have kept the core group from 2004 together a little longer than I would have liked but, no matter how much respect and experience Dumars has, he’s not as good at being a snake like Pat Riley. Dumars would have never buried it into LeBron’s head that every team in the league should retire Jordan’s #23, only Riley has that much respect for Jordan. If you’ll remember, Dumars was the only one in the league who could slow Jordan down, and there’s no way Dumars would sell himself to LeBron by pushing that idea on him while also playing up to his needs and requirements for him to join the team.
The same goes for Bosh. Bosh, a player who I openly lobbied for Detroit to go after this offseason at the beginning of last season. I saw how dirty he did the Toronto fans by simply reading his twitter feed during the whole process leading up to July 1. Tweets like “alright followers, where should I go next season?” and then at midnight July 1 talking about it was going to be so tough on him even though he had a reality TV crew following him around while he made a mockery of the entire process.
And for all that above? I’m not happy that Detroit likely won’t make the playoffs this season however, I am happy though that the organization did not back down from their experience from previous winning seasons. It’s more about team and making the pieces fit than it is about 1 player and selling your team’s soul just to keep 1 out of 15 players happy. Look at what Dan Gilbert ended up with in Cleveland. Look at what Toronto ended up with. They did all they could to keep their marquee names happy and what happened? Those guys ran away to play 3 on 5 basketball for the next 6 seasons. It will be an alley oop fest next season in South Beach. Miami doesn’t have enough season tickets to satisfy the demands. But at the end of the day, you look at the wreckage of the Raptors and Cavaliers roster and you have to think to yourself “sure, it would have been nice to not give Hamilton such a big contract but really… at least the roster is balanced and not leaning so heavily on 1 guy that just left”.
I’m satisfied that yeah, Joe D. whiffed during the 2003 Draft but they still legitimately competed from 2003-2008, than I am with “well yeah, we got D Wade but we’re worrying about what sort of bit players we can put around him so he won’t get mad at us and leave”. If you want to see what DetroitBadBoys and this site would look like after having D Wade, LeBron or Bosh leave? Check out a Raptors or Cavs blog. Fans are bitter and angry, if they’re even commenting at all anymore. In some cases, it’s like a ghost town on the lesser known blogs.
We all know what the Pistons shortcomings are this season: a lot of money tied up in older players who aren’t going to be a part of the rebuilding process, a small frontcourt, and a coaching staff lead by an inexperienced Head Coach. Those 3 previously mentioned shortcomings are nothing like what the Cavaliers have to go through just to field a competitive team next season. The Cavaliers are in the same position that the 2004-2005 Detroit Tigers were in. They’re going to have to overpay a couple of free agents to come in and show the rest of the league that Cleveland isn’t such a bad place to play. They’re going to have to nail their drafts over the next couple of years to develop their own young talent just to show other players in the league that Cleveland is an up and comer once again.
Call me a hater if you want. I don’t hate any of those 3 guys who are members of the Miami Heat now. Good for them. Maybe they’ll get rings, maybe they won’t. It doesn’t mean 2 of them didn’t do their teams dirty by flirting with the fact they were going to be free agents this summer while their GMs scrambled to acquire guys, with their input, who would make that 1 player happy.
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dam hes good
DUMARS A GOOD GM? YOU MUST BE KIDDING….
1. DRAFTING DARCO INSTEAD OF WADE …. OUCH
2. TRADING CHAUNCEY FOR AN OVER THE HILL AI …. DUMB
@mike1361
You didn’t read what people are discussing here, you just throw your opinion.
But when the boss tells you to do something you can’t be happy with, you better do it instead of your feelings, because you may not have all information by which he made his descision.
You can’t say Joe is dumb, because you have no information he had in the past, that if we’d pick melo, nuggets’ would pick Darko, anyone would pick Darko because he was a great prospect back then. No one knew if Wade had become a player he is now, but everyone had that strong feeling about Darko’s game, becaus it’s Milicic who was No2 in the consensus draft all year long, not melo.
In Chauncey’s trade there were a lot of non-basketball things, and there was AI to throw out and have a lot of cap space.
Say “hi” to Pritchard, he picked Oden who is permanently injured, but Pritchard is dang good, isn’t he? And he is fired now, all NBA world is mad about it.
Joe made a championship team having underdogs all over the place, underachievers in previous clubs, he kept the team together for 6 years and damn that was A GREAT team!
But when he realized, that there’s no chemistry anymore, no chance to get more rings, he pushed rebuilding button immediately.
You’re such a numb guy leaving your replies like an LA bandwagon fan who only knows Kobe in his “greatest” team)))
rashit flawless knows what he is talking about im tired of everyone saying joe is dumb. we signed darco because he has a lot of potential he can run the flow shot with both hands if he had the right attitude he could of been damn good. with the billups trade it was personal and time to rebuild so i dont see why ppl even bring that up. east con finals is not good enough for me if we dont win it all then its time to get back to the drawing board. seriously sometimes i think ppl are cavs fan on here, but we dont see them around anymore after “the decision”
were fucked, miami and the lakers are going to dominate.
pistons should get in a three team trade that can land cp3 in LA and give us a player like lamar odom
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2e4gg2s
just an idea
Yep, after this off-season I don’t see Detroit in conf.finals in the next 5 years or so…
And if BG+CV were a part of a plan, this plan is not equal to what Miami, Boston, Orlando, Chicago have now, not anywhere near if we talk about anything in basketball – chemistry (i think miami will be ok), players’ skills, depth and so on.
But if BG and CV would have played like Joe thought they would, then we could be in a discussion to sign some pieces, but now we have kinda desperate team, someone always injured, on sale, without a good owner and without lots of cap space, and with some huge contracts.
And all this stuff doesn’t work.
I can get what Joe wanted from this team in terms of what the new rules are, but Lakers shown Joe what kind of team you’ve gotta have to be successful.
And now, guys, I want to see a mentality of a true blue pistons, I want them say “we can be better than that, we can be a solid team”, I want them work like no other team in this league. Only this makes sense now for me.
Because I don’t see Joe’s busy trying to add some pieces now
Wade said he would refuse to play in Detroit pre draft. He wouldn’t even work out for us, so this whole this whole idea of us drafting Wade is worthless. The Pistons will definately have a better season this year and make the playoffs. But if there is any team that I would look out for, it is the Celtics, they’re not done like I thought they we’re. I’m not giving anything to the Heat but a 55 win season. I just don’t think they’ll have what it takes in a seven game series against Orlando or Boston. And as much as I think Bosh is a good player, he’s not great and no where close to Wade or Lebron. I’m shocked that they would spend that much money on him. The good thing is that Miami will never be able to afford a fourth guy, it will always be the 3 or really 2 3/4, Bosh isn’t quite a full star in my book.
Are you kidding me? When Dumars picked DARCO I almost fell out of my chair! Wade would have played for anyone who picked him! Especially the defending champions. Carmelo, Bosh, or Wade would have helped the Pistons win multiple championships with the team you had in place.
Now I have SHOWTIME in place again! To Jordan and Magic: You had your version of Lebron, Wade, and Bosh. To Barkley: Shut up! You wish you did!
Yes Really, The day of the draft I remember thinking WOW. We didn’t pick Carmelo Anthony. WTF.
I don’t believe the consensus around the league was to grab DARCO and number two.
really?
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