The Pistons didn’t pull the trigger on any deal before the deadline today. I know many of you are very disappointed. Now, and I can’t say that I blame you, but I saw some crazy trade machine concoctions from a lot of Pistons fans over the last month. I disregarded all of them to be honest, I leave the GM’ng to the GM’s. I didn’t think a trade where Detroit lands Amare, Kaman, and Chris Bosh by only giving up Kwame Brown, Charlie V and a pair of Sheed’s old AF1’s working out.
Let’s be honest people, Detroit isn’t the sexy city that can woo free agents. We need gritty hungry players that will do whatever it takes to win. The stuporstars aren’t waiting in line to come to the D to play and spend their weekends hanging at the local Coney Island (and that’s not a knock on Lafayette or Leo’s by any means). A lot of things would have to fall in place for a player like D Wade or Bosh to want to sign with the Pistons.
Aren’t we used to that by now?
Surely you didn’t want Joe to make a trade for the sake of making a trade did you? It’s not like we are in the hunt for the title. I used to think I had a 
handle on how Joe worked, but after he traded away our rock for the anti Piston, anything could happen. I will say with some kind of certainty that Joe was probably trying to move both Rip and Tay. He had to, but he doesn’t have fire sales.
So we wait this season out, hope for some action around the NBA draft, and hope for the best. The whole organization is in transition, and so are the fans. Hold tight, it’s going to be a bumpy, turbulent filled trip on the Roundball (3), let’s just hope we all make it out one piece.
One last thing, cross your fingers that this never happens again.
leaving the Gming to the Gm: nice post Nat.
I think by this time last year, there was already a firecurry.com site. Since I haven’t really heard many fire Q comments, I guess things might already be getting better.
Fans rarely ever see the big picture, as a gm you have to look at the future. Teams are only interested in dumping salary right now that’s why there aren’t any offers worth taking. Joe already predicted this so I don’t know why people actually expected a trade. Joe wasn’t interested in butting heads with 15 other teams for 5 players so he sat back on this season knowing that the many teams that will lose out the sweepstakes will be more willing to deal later.
what i dont like that joe dumars is doing is he’s comparing the pistons to other teams who are elite but everyone knows doesn’t have a chance to win a championship, teams like the suns, or dallas, or even to the hawks.
If joe wants to sell me on a team he better be comparing to teams who won. (im talking about what he’s trying to sell not what he’s doing so dont misread this) if he honestly thought having cv and ben gordon come in and would make us competetive then he has really lost his eye for talent.
moves should of made
hired avery johnson the first time
signed andre miller in the offseason
realized tayshaun was underperforming 3 yrs ago and either told him to work harder or trade him
put the pieces around here to get antonio mcdyess to stay rather than get crappy players and coach so Dyess realized he couldn’t win a championship here and left.
and much more
I don’t mind at all. No moves available to make us a contender.
The good thing: chemistry is in progress, weve seen more effort since the 2nd Indiana blowout.
The bad thing: I’m starting to realize that CV is the second worst thing next to Darko. I maybe wrong.
There was really no point making a trade. The Pistons aren’t contenders, and are building for the long run. The moves a lot of Pistons fans wanted (Amare, Boozer, Bosh, etc.) would have been short-sighted moves that could have prolonged this rebuilding phase.
The Pistons aren’t in financial troubles (luxury tax) so no cost-cutting trades were needed either.
There was no point having a fire-sale on players whose true value would not have been recognized.
The only thing that made sense was to leave things put, let this lineup play out the rest of the games with a fully healthy lineup. Then we can start to see what moves NEED to be made and what pieces can be parted and added.
Don’t be surprised if our big acquistion of the off-season is a high draft pick and an OK big man for the mid-level.
hey to break it to you but the teal era is back (at least symbolically – we’ve just spent way too much to accomplish it) . but the best part of sucking so bad is that we begin to realize how good we were. also we have an opportunity – to get back to being a legit team. when we made it back to legit in ’02 it felt amazing. heres to the future
DUMARS IS A JOKE AND SO IS THE WHOLE PISTONS ORG.. HELL EVEN THE PRESIDENT JUST JUMPED OFF THE SINKING SHIP.. DETROIT WILL BE BOUGHT AND SENT TO A NEW CITY… RIP PISTONS THANKS DUMARS FOR RUINING THIS TEAM.
I am a piston fan for life.Its hard to watch the last couple seasons, but we have to remember we rule the east for six years, we got a champoinship out out of that. we had players that no one knoew who they were, we had guys playing hard because everyone counted them out. they palyed the ” right way” I see alot of potential in this team . you have some new players and new faces,but there are still some old faces , some games you see the fire we once had , and some games you see what could be, I am sure soon we will all be able to stand proud and shout the calls we are soo excited to shout. and shout it proud once again
DEEEETROIT!! BASSSKETBALL!!!!
ummm, im sorry but i’m gonna disagree with this one. I actually do believe that we could land a big star like d-wade, cb4, etc. I mean, look at our history, i’m sure a lot of stars are attracted to selling out the beautiful palace once again. Also, who wouldnt want to be introduced by the best announcer in the world and hear the crowd go crazy? If we just get one “star” player, then that could turn this whole team around, because it would attract some other minor role players that we can sign to fill in some certain spots. LETS DO THIS JOE D!
Xavier, I hope you’re right on this one.
Why are people suggesting that the only time to make a trade is when you are a contender? This team is awful and they lack direction, do you guys not think a trade could at least settle some of that? There is a looooong way to go before this team is competitive again, why get the ball rolling now and start making moves? This has nothing to do with patience or not being able to see the big picture… it has to do with compacting bad decisions, lacking direction, lacking flexibility, lacking chemistry, ect. I have no problem with this team being bad for a period of time, my problem is that Joe is making decisions that will keep this team hovering around mediocrity for the foreseeable future.
Good Post Nat! Most definitely agree 100%.
i think part of the reason that joe is reluctant to trade, heck, Im sure this is the reason is that he bought both charlie v & ben gordon on “promise” they were the two most expensive free agents on the market at the time.
And now they suck. So he wants to give them time just to make sure. It’s not really fair to the players to dump them after a few months. Let them play the entire season.
Charlie V throws up terrible 3 pointers, he’s a black hole that never saw a shot that he didnt want to make. Ben Gordon never wants to make an easy shot. He’s a talented scorer, of that there is no question but he never seems to have great open looks. And both of them let the other team walk right to the basket.
Both Tay and Rip are far better than both Charlie V & BG. Rip gets great open looks no matter who defends him.
Prince is finally starting to look healthy, Rip is back in shape, and what is best about those two is not that that are better on offense but that both of them can defend. What is more, I have noticed that both of Tay & Rip have changed their game. Back when we had McDyess and Sheed and Chauncey, rip would never play 1 on 1 because sheed was always an option to post up, and Tay was never forced to take the open 3 because chaunchey was there, but now that we suck, Rip has started to play a lot more 1 on 1, Tay has started to step back and throw 3’s not because they want to but because we suck so much they have to.
So Joe D has to do one thing, he’s going to have to give Charlie V and Ben Gordon the rest of this season, they have to step it up, because the pistons have to figure out how many pieces they are missing. We know we will need a replacement for Ben Wallace next year, so we are missing a center. for a shooting/combo guard, we have four options, Stuckey Rip BG and Bynum. At the small forward, we have four options, jerebko, tayshaun, charlie v and austin daye, but Jerebko is growing into playing the power forward.
So we need for sure a center, another power forward, and a point guard, and we have way too many small fowards and way too many shooting guards. I love stuckey, and would be comfortable with him as our point guard, but it’s a bit of a waste to have him at the 1.
Why do you think daye gets no time, why ben gordon never seems to get enough minutes to get his groove back, we have too many players at the 2 & 3 and when that happens, it’s the AI/Rip situation all over again.
The way I see it, our team needs 3 more pieces before we can get our core group of players.
“gritty, hungry, players that will do whatever it takes to win…” sounds like David Lee to me, not to beat a dead horse but this team’s demise was not a result of the Chauncey trade, it’s because of how poorly Joe managed our cap space last summer. Giving away Afflalo and Amir (more gritty, hungry, players), to sign Gordon and Villinueva went against everything Joe had done to make this team succesful the past decade. With players like Caron Butler and Kevin Martin being given away for cap space, makes me question why Joe didn’t sign David Lee, and use the remaining space to get one of these players for next to nothing.
I get the feeling that Joe isn’t hesitant at all to make trades, I think he’s either A) completely delusional when comes to evaluating his own talent or B) decided against cap space and only wanted young players back… which would have been fine, except that when you look at around the league and take the economy into consideration, nobody was willing to take our players back for cheap young parts (which brings me back to A). Why would someone want Rip when they can have Kevin Martin? When would someone want Tay when they can have Butler or Jamison? Why would anyone want Maxiell at all on his current contract?
I won’t argue too hard with the point that their may not have been a move to make, but if that is true, then it’s all Joe’s fault. He’s the one that put these players, these contracts and this talent together…. that’s the reality and Joe deserves the blame for the product on the court.
Hey guys shut up u should stop blaming Joe D its not his fault that all are good players got injured at least once now that we are healthy again u should start to see that are game is improving.
How is the team improving? The last time they beat a winning team was Jan 20 @ home agains the Celtics. Since then they have gone 4-8 with 2 wins over NJ, 1 @ MIL and 1 at home against MIN. The upcoming schedule through the middle of March is brutal too… things aren’t gonna get better.
letsgodetroit, I think that our criticisms of joe dumars is all hindsight. I dont think I could have done any better than him. But in retrospect he made a bunch of mistakes and . . . . well we expect more. Just like we expect rip to hit that mid range jump shot and ben wallace to play amazing defense, we also expect Joe D to make all the amazing trades and building up a championship team. The reason we criticize is because we expect more from a superstar GM like he is supposed to be.
But for 2 years Joe D has been terrible. Not saying I could have done better, but I expect more from Joe D than the product we have right now.
Joe D is underperforming. If he was a player, the coach would sit him down in the locker room and have “the talk” where if you don’t start hustling your ass will be on the bench.
Consider this fan’s criticism of Joe D “the talk” that a superstar gets when he underperforms.
Haha people are so naive. It takes more than one Gm to agree, and thats a hard thing to get accomplished. Im glad that Joe didn’t force a trade for crap.
Right now, seeing as everyone just solidified their spot on the roster. Id like to see more growth.
From Stuck, hes been passing well lately, now if he can give us 15 ppg with a bit more efficiently, while maintaining his recent good ast totals.
Gordon’s making 10mill a year pretty much, for that money he needs to score 18 a night consistently, and efficiently. Also not be so isolationistic, just letting the O come to him instead of forcing the issue.
CV needs to earn his pt back, by playing at least solid D. As a scoring Big, for 6 mill a year, he needs to give 15 ppg. Idk if he can play good enough D to actually get this accomplished.
Jerebko, needs to get more consistent from 3, and long 2’s. Im hoping we can see that Sweeping Hook start dropping more. That can be a huge weapon, and his form actually looks really good with that shot. Also he needs to Box out Tay. Tay has been stealing his rebs in recent games.
None of my criticisms are hindsight. I got in screaming matches with my friends because I hated the BG and CV signings so much. I hated giving away AA and Amir to sign Wilcox. I wasn’t very happy with the draft (I’ll give Dumars credit for Jerebko though), I wanted Ty Lawson or Dujuan Blair instead of Daye… I was thrilled when they took Budinger and furious when they sold him. It was beyond ovbvious that we couldn’t go into the season with Stuckey, Prince, Rip and Stuckey… someone had to go, and yet we’ll still have all of them come June.
I expected a down year (not this bad though), and I was fine with it as long as it meant taking a step forward in the rebuilding process…. that hasn’t happened, this whole season has pretty much been a complete waste.
Piston fans just need to understand that Dumars doesn’t walk on water. Some people seem to want to crown him king him when he does something right, and make excuses for him when screws up. I keep hearing and reading that “Joe was backed into a corner” and thats why he could make a deadline move… fine, but he backed himself into that corner. He is responsible for the spotty drafting over the last 5 years, he is responsible for de-valuing his players with the “sacred cows” speech, he is responsible for the bad contracts, he is responsible for hanging on to assets too long, he is responsible for the coaching carousel….
You can blame injuries if you want, but I think that is lame… every team has injuries, you play through it. Sacramento could have packed it in with out Kevin Martin, what about Portland? Or Houston? Or NO without Paul? There are plenty more examples, the point is that injuries only become an excuse when your team is too mentally weak to fight through it.
we some hard nosed gritty palyers for a champoinship . we had stars like g hil and stackhouse did nothing it was when we moved em out got players like ben wallace, corrliss williamson,mike james,tay, and rip and baba billups. I even loved john barry . he use to pump me up when he would hit a three in your face. big eldon camble. ohkur, i can go on and on these guys wanted to prove something I think we reach that mountain top again. go pistons!!
I don’t think Joe D walks on water or gets a free pass, but how much can a guy do??? The team needed to be rebuilt, we certainly weren’t going to win a championship if we kept Sheed and Chauncey around. Teams have to start losing eventually!
The problem with making a trade now is that the Pistons honestly don’t know how their current product can play at a consistent level. If the Pistons reach their peak by the end of the season and are still losing to Milwaukee and Indiana, then things need to be done.
What I find funny is that people think a trade is the only way a team fixes its problems. What you can’t get better as the rookies develop? You can’t get better by the draft? You can’t get better as you develop chemistry?
Oh and Jesse, the Pistons never selected Chase Budinger. That pick was traded before the selection was made. It has to say the Pistons select Chase Budinger with the 44th pick for technical reasons, but really it was Houston selecting, not Joe D.
James that’s exactly my point, we need to rebuild, so let’s get on with it already!!!! Joe is trying to cut corners on the rebuilding process and jump right back into contention. When you’re rebuilding you cut your loses and collect young players, expiring contracts and draft picks… what you don’t do is use $90 mill and all your flexibility on bench players. Nothing about what Joe is doing says rebuilding, and somehow he has sold his fan base on this as well…. fans say we are still rebuilding, and yet they think if the team were healthy they could win 45-50 games and keep the playoff streak alive. Well, which is it? Are we trying to win now, or are we rebuilding? It can’t be both.
And I don’t want to get bogged down in specifics about Budinger, but the point is he was taken with a pick that belonged to the Pistons, as far as I’m concerned, that means they could have had him.
I hope we will get Monroe. I love this guy play. He is a MONSTER.
I’m new to the site but I’m a long time Piston fan. I agree that it will be hard to land a big time free agent here now that we are a lottery team! We have to build thru the draft and hopefully make a good sign and trade deal. We play with no heart nowadays! It seems like we are not hungry out there on the court. The pistons need to be reminded that that are a blue collar team that goes hard to the basket! I don’t wanna see another mid range jumper from CV or stuckey. I believe Stuckey is still our teams future leader. if we don’t have a post player who can score he has to move to the two guard position. Stuckey has to be used the way the Blazers use Brandon Roy. Please draft Cousins and and make some key trade in the off season!