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.
This post was spot on and it’s gonna feel good to not finish last in the division next season.
I completely agree about LeBron and Bosh doing over their teams. I think LeBron did over his legacy the same way he did over Cleveland, too (and if he’s not concerned about that as much as he is winning, then good for him). But he’s supposed to be one of the best of all-time — the biggest competitor in the game. Him joining forces with other stars to win a ‘ship IS a cop out IMO.
Jordan will always be the best because he wanted to beat these guys, not join them (as he said himself the other day) and he did just that six times. Wade clowned these guys by convincing them to come to Miami so he could keep his Miami legacy in tact and build upon it. LeBron and Bosh were just his puppets.
Is it cool that they’re friends and will play together? Sure. I’ll even go as far as saying I’m excited to watch some Heat games, as a basketball fan. All I’m saying is that if LeBron wanted to be “King” he should have stayed in Cleveland and brought that sorry city something they haven’t seen in forever (a ‘ship). Pistons bias aside, seeing LeBron win in Cleveland or anywhere else for that matter without the help of two other superstars would have been cool to watch. A legacy really growing before our eyes. Now, if/when Miami wins a ship, I’ll shrug my shoulders and think “meh, whatever.”
Good stuff, Boney.
On the bright side, at least we can feel better about the fact that David Kahn would have picked Darko with the number one pick of that draft if he had the chance…
nice to see you come over, Shinons.
man i cant take it when does the season start? im too spoiled im not used to this much time off in between seasons (i guess thats a good thing though) going crazy with all this baseball on tv, i cant stand that sport.
did you hear michael jordon on how lebron wasn’t testing himself against the greatest, what a hypocrite, remember how michael jordon assembled his team, do you think he would have gotten his 3-peat without pippen and rodman?
How about when kobe bryant was playing with Kwame Brown? Bryant was disgusted with his teammate, and he couldn’t get a win until he got the awesome Pau Gasol
If anything, Pippen, Rodman, and Gasol are the ones be under-rated here. When you talk about Lebron playing with Wade & Bosh, you need to compare Pippen, Rodman and Gasol to Wade & Bosh.
Michael Jordan, like Kobe and now like Lebron needs a supporting cast.
Kevin Garnett never would have won without Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.
Charles Barkley never had the supporting cast he needed. Nor did Chris Webber.
Karl Malone on the other hand, had his chances with John Stockton, but there is nobody who was gonna beat the Bulls with Michael Jordan.
Just talking about all these great teams makes me realize how little talent our Pistons have.
Last year our best player was Ben Wallace.
Next year the Celtics will have a cast full of aging stars but also the young rondo, Denver has melo & chauncey, fan favorite birdman, the heat has the dream trio, lakers has kobe and Pau, and our best player is 35 year old Ben Wallace.
Greg Monroe is a skilled young player who will get better every year, but he’s a bit soft, reminds me of Charlie V in a way, prefers a left jump hook or a midrange jumper to dunking it. In fact much of our team suffers from Charmin squeezable softness, which is weird for the detroit pistons known for our blue collar toughness.
Too many of our youngsters play like a slow finesse team, like it or not. Ben Gordon with the 3 pointers, but unable to move his feet quickly enough to defend fast guards, Charlie V able to catch and shoot from any position but a bit of a matador on defense, Greg Monroe excellent passing out of the post and a nice short range left handed jump hook but gets pushed around by big guys, Austin Daye, able to shoot over anyone and with an excellent 3 point shot, but awfully slow. Jerebko is our fiercest young player.
Toward the end of Barkley’s career he had Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
In the middle of his career he was part of a very good Suns team that couldn’t get past the Bulls.
Playing with Kwame, Kobe didn’t have much talent around him. Derek Fisher had left to go to Utah, so Kobe was left doing everything himself. The offense flowed through him 100% of the time and it just wasn’t working.
Michael is the only “superstar” that has ever been able to win without having some sort of post presence on his team. Ho Grant was like the Pistons version of Antonio McDyess, a junkyard dog type of player who resorted to elbow jumpers and putbacks for points.
The Bulls were a great team before Rodman joined the roster. With just Jordan, the Bulls were constantly in the playoffs and as he and the rest of the roster matured over the years, they became better. You didn’t ever see the Bulls make a splash on the transaction wire, they played together for quite a while.
Toronto and Cleveland ended up with nothing because neither understood how to build around their star player. Cleveland wasted money on players like Donyell Marshall, Larry Hughes and Daniel Gibson & they topped it off by drafting horribly for the most part…. oh yeah, and they passed on renting Amare Stoudemire for a title run?!?
Toronto is just a mess; they probably haven’t made a good move since drafting Bosh… except plucking Jamario Moon out of obscurity…. It was so obvious Bosh was leaving, why didn’t they just deal him at the deadline? Bryan Colangelo has to be the most overrated GM in the NBA.
Jamario Moon is useless. When people realize there’s more to the game of basketball than alley oops and dunking, the game will become more respected than it already is.
Toronto has made questionable moves no doubt, as they’ve tried to transition into a Euro-style basketball team while putting Bosh, who is true PF not a gunner like Sheed/Dirk, down in the post.
Colangelo is not overrated as a GM, I don’t believe anyone has thought too highly of him since his first couple of seasons with the team. His overpaying of Bargnani will catch up with him though, eventually.
As much as a lot of fans doubting the Pistons season this year, it will be a surprise when they make the playoffs and make a run. Proving especially that Joe D is not as dumb as some fans think.
It’s always good to point out the true parameters of the situation, as they were! With respect to all the “experts”, Darko was a no-brainer for the Pistons. Melo, although highly-touted did not play PF and we already had Prince, who had a very high ceiling at the time. Bosh was a bean-pole and unanimously graded behind Darko. In truth, we were screwed. Had we just been given the 3rd pick by the Grizzlies instead!?
For those that did not notice: Executive of the Year, John Hammond recently gave credit for everything he learned to one, Joe Dumars, who also won the award a few years ago. Trust me, Joe has made mistakes, but he is also damn good at running a team!
I agree with what EDT says, it just proves that no matter how great a player is, you can’t win by yourself, basketball doesn’t work that way. Even though Chris Webber did have a good supporting cast with the Kings (Peja, Divac, Bibby, Christie), just that it happened to be in the Kobe/Shaq Era, lol
@Jesse – So the Heat understand how to surround a star? With Carlos Arroyo, Quentin Richardson, Haslem, and Jermaine O’Neal?
Can we please move past that damn draft and what Dumars coulda shoulda woulda. Im tired of it and it’s a waste of time. We have a better team than people think (including diehard fans) You have to be patient. We were at the top for so long, 2 bad seasons and you guys can’t handle it. F**k Miami and Pat Riley. Knowing what I know now I wouldn’t want Wade or LeBron. They don’t fit the city of Detroit. Start being more appreciative of Dumars. This was written to no one specific other than Dumars/Piston haters…
I didn’t bring up the draft to complain about the pick. I brought up the draft to discuss the possibility of all 3 becoming Pistons.
EDT if u cannot see the difference between the chicago bulls of the 90s (or others teams u named) and the way heat just acquired their players then u are kinda dumb.
Pippen was with chicago from the very begining and nobody wanted Rodman by then. While now three players, arguably from the top 5 of nba players today just decided through facebook that they will join one team.
-blam
are you saying Bill Cartwright and John Paxton weren’t on the level of Bosh and wade.
hmmmmph.. ridiculous.
I’d take Wade over lebron any day of the week. Hell wade won with an old shaq. After Gm 2 of the finals Wade just said F**K IT!! He WON A CHAMPION ship with old a** SHaq. Shaq was what Ray allen is to the celtics. LeBron had Mo Williams whos better than jason williams.Antoine walker was better than antony parker. Antwan jamison better than Haslem. Shaq and Anderson Varejuou JJ hickson make up for shaqs points and reb. WADE WILL WIN MULTIPLE TITLES AND ENHANCE HIS LEGACY WHILE LEBRON EFFED UP HIS.
RWB you’re so right.
You know what? 10 years from now, everyone is gonna say that Wade > lebron. Why? Simple. however many rings Bosh and lebron have . . be it 2 or 3 or 6. Wade is going to have that number PLUS ONE, lol.
2003 draft class
1. LeBron James
2. Darko Milicic
3. Carmelo Anthony
4. Chris Bosh
5. Dwayne Wade
Darko??wtf? they should have drafted Carmelo Anthony.. Wade or Bosh..
tray u must not be from around here. we pistons fans think about 2003 every other day. We just dont try to talk about it.
First off It’s pathetic how many fake fans are on this site…
Just cause nothing major has happened doesn’t mean nothing will..
It takes time for things to be set in motion, for example the whole major free agency situation…
WE all knew we weren’t going to land a major free agent…
There’s still plenty of time for things to happen..
And as far as this BS woulda coulda shoulda crap…PUHLEEEEASE
Darko was a consensus 2 pick and what we needed on that team at the time…
Everyone forgets we had established bigs at the time..
Big Ben Sheed Okur Corliss..
So I see where the Pistons front office was coming from with that pick AT THE TIME
Well said KG. They say in the NBA that somethimes the best deal you do, is no deal.
EDT your right…we don’t talk about the 2003 draft. That topic was put into a bock and thrown to the bottom of the ocean where the only person who could find it would be Jacque Cousteau. End of topic as they say :0)
That would be box…not bock!
KG,
We did not have SHEED when we drafted Darko. I believe that us drafting Darko led to our Championship and domination of the Eastern Conference for so many years.
My point, if we had drafted Carmelo I doubt we would of picked up SHEED. We wouldn’t have traded for a position when SHEED even though he can play center, plays the same position as Carmelo.
So there is some food for thought for everyone who thinks Darko was a mistake of a pick. Would you of rather had SHEED all those years or Carmelo?
Joe D made some awesome moves back then. That’s when he was killing it.
It’s the recent moves of Joe D that stink. I dont particularly like Ben Gordon or Charlie V they are both soft. Oh I’ll root for them but . . . I wish we had billups and McDyess back. And of course there was the AI disaster. And what a horrible signing getting kwame brown was. Didn’t he have eyes when Kobe was teaming with Kwame? Kwame Brown’s hands are so slippery he dropped half of the passes Kobe sent to him.
I like Stuckey & Jerebko. But overall, Joe D has been stinking it up in the last two years. I still have faith in him, just because I look around the league and realize it could be a lot worse.
But it’s killing me that he hasn’t traded Rip and Prince yet. They ain’t getting any younger!
it’s hard to build through the draft, if all you have to work with are late 1st round picks.
Stuckey has been solid, but this year is make or break for him.
Jerebko has been great, but is that because he was a 2nd round pick and we didn’t expect much from him?
yes jordan did have pippen but when jordan couldnt get over the hill he didnt settle and jump on the lakers or the celtics roster. if pippen didnt play with jordan he wouldnt of been as good as he was. he would of still been great but jordan molded pippen into a defensive stopper. he practiced with jordan everyday learning every trick of the game. thats what great players do they make everyone better lebron just wants to concentrate on pre game activities. yes you need a a cast to help you win it all but quitting and jumping on an all star team is what everyone is talking about. plus back in the day there were always 3 all stars on every playoff team. jordan went through the almost every great player there was for 15 yrs. its knowing how to win and lead thats why lebron lacks.
i personally dont see the trio in miami winning a championship, at least not with what they have now. Chris Bosh especially is going to disappoint.
And no offense but how would we be any better with carmelo on the team? the dude absolutely sucks. He never would of succeeded here
Even if we drafted dwayne wade i think he would of made a joe johnson in phoenix and bolted somewhere by now where he could be the star rather then a piece of the puzzle.
im just saying if cleveland has a better record then us this season serious changes need to happen since it seems joe d is not gonna do anything this offseason. I miss john hammond
@ steve,
the only sport you’ve ever played was pocket pool so i wouldnt be such a big bragger if i was you. baseball americas past time? ya your right it IS past time for that sport. steriods, scandals, unathletic players ya i guess it would be a game for you steve. o and last i checked wasnt that sport dominated by hispanics? not so american by your standards is it? according to some of the racist comments youve posted before. also yes i have played sports before basketball AND football. not a pro or even college standout, but i bet i could beat your old, fat, and out of shape ass in either sport. maybe you should move to las vegas.. I disagree with what you’ve said.fixed for you
-db
@Danny Bohnlein
Stuckey has at least the second “make or break” year. Maybe that’s enough?)))
Ok, ok, one more year…
ehh… 3 coaches in his first 3 years and he’s playing a position he’s not had to play his entire life?
I say a 2nd year under Kuester, if he doesn’t improve it’s time to go.
@db, thats not cool u cross off everything i said? i am titled to my own opinion and i can voice that opinion any way i see fit. you cross me out and you leave what steve said? thats so not cool. im extremely pissed off by that. you may have just lost one blogger for that, and i was the one that everyone would prefer to stay. good day.
lol
People can still read what you said and besides, saying someone is only good at pocket pool is absurd and just bad shtick.
Nat, u better get this guy under control. all the years ive been here ive NEVER seen you cross off a fellow bloggers response. he can reply to what i said but dont do that kind of thing by crossing it off. thats so rude in so many ways, besides steve is the one here being mr. negative towards everyone else i was simply replying back to a comment DIRECTED at me. it did not and does not involve db. so he should stay out of it or simply reply he disagrees with me or that my opinion is not welcome on this site. if thats the case i will leave. i dont want to leave but i will if thats what u and everyone else feels is right. ive come to enjoy stopping by on YOUR site a couple times a day while at work to stay up to date on my team, and the news involving the team. i dont come here to be put down and disrespected (especially by one of the editors, or whatever db is) and that is what this site is starting to become with the likes of steve, and now db? to the people like edt and kg, rawshit flawless, american prince, and others who are respectful to mine and others opinions, thank you. ive ranted enough.
I’m under control, have no worries about that.
its not absurd db. you should really see steve go at it in pocket pool, he is ONE OF THE GREATEST EVER!!!! must have been all the practice. are we talking about PRACTICE? practice? . . . . . ya we are.
k im not mad anymore. but seriously dont cross off someones post, even if you can still read it.
db don’t cross off them words)
Guys, I WANT OUR TEAM TO BE AN ENGINE of gt-40, maybe it eats a lot of gas, but it’s clicking on all cylinders!
And now we have old version of ford focus’ engine + some details of an old luxury car that just doen’t work right…
I don’t mean we need 50+win season, I’m realistic, but GIVE ME A SOLID EFFORT!!! A SOLID TEAM PLAY!
I can’t wait no more
i cant wait either. i think we will be better then most think.
As far as I’m concerned Stuckey has played great for the last two years. No way is this a make or break year. He’s already proved to me that’s he’s got game. If we have 40 win year, Stuckey won’t be the problem.
@edt
He proved he’s almost at his all-star level, but remember, he contributed excellently when he was at the 2 spot…oh, same old talk about his position…
Too sad is that BG promised to the fans he’ll be good at PG, told he’ll develop all needed skills to play PG, I wrote about that on Slamdunk.ru, it’s huge Russian site. I have heard it from him so much, but he just can’t distribute the ball
I hope Monroe will be helpful creating in the middle
@ Danny Bohnlein
I’m not saying Jamario Moon is a world beater, but teams need to find role players on the cheap rather than wasting their entire MLE on them…. like Dumars usually does. I understand that basketball is more than dunks; do you understand every player isn’t going to have a complete skill set? Most guys are specialists that are in the league for one reason… I mean Moon did start 75 games as a rookie for a playoff team, how useless can he be?
And how freakin’ insecure are you about you’re writing? You reply to like half of the comments people make on your articles, even when they aren’t really disagreeing with you… just let you writing speak for itself, dude.
Replying to comments is a sign of insecurity? The only thing I’ve argued is that it’s unnecessary for pocket pool references to be made lol.
How useless can Jamario Moon be? Well, he plays SG/SF and yet he couldn’t see any meaningful playing time in Cleveland last season. The fact that Toronto sent him to Miami in a salary dump and then Miami wanted Q Richardson (who was traded several times last offseason) over him speaks volumes of his ability.
GUESS WHAT DARKO HAS THAT LeBRON DOESN’T HAVE?? A RING!!!!!!! HAHA
I don’t think this is a make or break year for Stuckey. He’s improved each season with a crappy team. And guess what. His team this year is not going to be much better. Too bad we have a dozen shooting guards that demand minutes or he could start SG with Bynum at the point.
Gordon needs to shoot better, Villenueva needs to grind it out more, maxiell needs to pick up where he left of this season. And summers needs to get more minutes and step it up. Wallace will continue to not be an offensive threat. Wilcox will suck.
If the rest of the team can pick up offensive responsibility he will have more asst. per game and a better fg pct.
@ Danny Bohnlein
Yes, replying to the majority of comments is a sign insecurity…. if you were confident in what you are saying, you wouldn’t constantly have to get the last word in…
The deal that sent Moon to Miami was about money, not basketball; Moon was a minor part of the deal. And everything that Miami did in the last few years was to set them up for this summer… And you’re right Moon only played 17 mpg last season on a contending team, but there was this guy ahead of him on the depth chart… some guy named LeBron.
Once again, I’m not saying Jamario Moon is a superstar; all I’m saying is that signing a starter for a minimum salary was a good move for Toronto… Do you really disagree with that?
Considering he wasn’t signed until right before training camp leads me to believe that other teams just weren’t interested in him. Also considering that he doesn’t just play SF (like you said LeBron was ahead of him), he should’ve gotten at least 25 minutes per night on a contender if he was a real difference maker. He’s not a difference maker, and Cleveland has been looking to move him all offseason and not 1 team has taken the bait.
I’m saying Jamario Moon, or ANYONE Toronto signed that offseason, was better than what they had on the roster. Jamario Moon is not a starter on any contending team in the NBA, plain and simple. He can dunk, but he doesn’t do much else.
When an NBA scout says a player has “great athleticism” it is really code for “has no outside shot whatsoever.”| Somehow whenever I think of that I see a picture of Jamario Moon.
Pistons fans have been spoiled. Inevitably the core was going to get old and rebuilding was going to have to come. One of the ways we’ve been spoiled is the remarkable run of good heath the core enjoyed all those years. It’s not just that the Pistons lost 155 man games to injury. It was that the team could get no rhythm going, the coach could get no settled rotation together and the team lost games because of players playing hurt (not that they had much choice).
Having said that, Hamilton and Maxiel’s contracts are albatrosses and we might have to live with some addition through subtraction just to dump them. But everybody take a deep breath. Neither Prince nor Stuckey are part of the problem and both of them are part of the solution. As is Ben Gordon now that he’s had his wheels fixed. I expect improvement this season no matter what. And improvement can build on itself. In other words, patience can be its own reward
the whole purpose of the rebuild was to get a championship. When Joe Dumars bust it up, he was basically saying, “I’m not content to win a division championship.”
The problem is that now we are looking at a lakers team with Pau + Kobe and a cast of dozens, Lebron Wade Bosh with quality players taking pay cuts to grab a ring, a monster celtics team, and we got what?
Our best hope is maybe we win a few games in the playoffs. For the next 5 years, we are going to be looking at the trio down in Miami.
The net result? Joe D didnt want his bird in the hand. He wanted the two in the bush.
And now we are in a position where the pistons fans will be happy just to make it to the playoffs.
I can’t really blame Joe D too much. But now I wish he had just waited and rode out our old team for two more years.
Yes, I miss being able to get to the division finals now. Yes I miss losing in the NBA finals.
We are now 2 years out from the rebuilding phase. How many years before we can beat a team that can beat both Miami and the lakers?
Do we have to wait until Lebron is 35 years old?
Do we have to wait until 2020 before we win again?
@db, i am glad that you do write back to others replies it lets us know if you agree or disagree with us. that said. dont ever cross off someones post, dam thats rude.
stuckey is our pg. fact not a statement. he IS a pg. another fact. just not a true pass first pg. to all you who think its a make or break year for stuckey, he is putting up comparable numbers to billups. here is billups stat line from 04-05 season
16.5 ppg
5.8 ass
3.4 reb
2.3 to.
compare that to stuckeys stats last year
16.6 ppg
@ Danny Bohnlein
Seriously, you’re such a clown. Why do you keep trying to argue with me? There was never anything we really disagreed on in the first place. I never said Moon was a difference maker, I never said I liked him, and I never said he was a starter on a contending team. All I was trying to do was give Colangelo credit for finding a bargain… He plucked the guy from obscurity and he stuck in the league. That’s it, Okay?
I’m a clown? Good to know.
sorry i hit send reply on accident
4.8 ass
3.9 reb
2.2 to
so if you look at the stats he is exactly on par with billups in his championship season. 1 more ass and its almost identicle numbers. why u guys hate on stuckey? hes putting up same numbers as your great billups. i loved him too but that is the past, you gotta embrace the future4 and let him be great too.
sorry i forgot steals stuckey 1.4 billups 1.0, ill take a young stuckey to a old billups.
Moon was a great pick for Toronto, he can play D because of his athleticism too, we have Ben Wallace that was undrafted, you’ll see how Mozgov will be a good player in NY, they picked him in our Khimki BC, he’s 7’1 and athletic, he will be 10+8 at least. In his 1st season he can be AT LEAST 10+8 in short minutes.
Who will say that Pargo can’t play? Undrafted.
Maybe Chuck Wagon? I’d LOVE to see Chuck Hayes in our roster , he’s a tough, tough defensive player, he’s very good. Undrafted.
Calderon – undrafted. One of the top in assist\turnovers.
Nocioni – undrafted.
Who wanted Haslem here? Is he a good player? Undrafted.
I mean, you GOTTA work with these possibilities! I can’t figure out how Joe D don’t use this possibility to improve a team when he has Wallace (the best undrafted ever, arguably) and now Bynum who had a good past season.
There are so much talent in Europe now, you have to look for players there!
Look at Scola! Is this a player with 18feet shot + rebounder + tough guy in the paint who can score 15+ every night? He player in Europe! Is this guy named JJ that saved our last season, he’s from Sweden! Bynum played for MacCabi Tel-Aviv, and so on!
Why sign a guy like Wilcox for 3+3billions?! You will see that Mozgov will be a lot more productive and he’s young and BIG guy, but he was picked by NY. Without a draft. Without summer league. He was just stolen from Russia.
Why not to steal someone good instead of getting “proven underdogish lazy dummy” who just have got his $3.000.000 extention FOR NOTHING
LeBron and CBosh don’t owe their owners anything. They filled up the seats and made them A TON OF MONEY. Those two franchises have been horrendous and got what they deserved for building shaky teams that couldn’t get it down consistently. They are playing for championships and no one respects that.
I know everyone values Tay’s expiring contract as his best asset. However after he got healthy last year he was one of our more solid players. And I do believe he will continue to be this season if he’s not traded.
I have a feeling that Joe D is not going to trade him. I think he’d like to resign him after this season to a smaller contract. And if you think about it. Would anyone complain if we could sign Tay for 6-7 mill after his contract expires. I’d love to have him on the team for that.
The one person we need to get rid of is RIP. The next person we need to get off our pay roll is Wilcox. He’s not even a basketball player. The only position he should be holding in the Pistons organization is Ticket Taker. What a bum. lol.
Rip I love you but you gotta go. I wish we hadn’t picked up Gordon so you could stay.
@db, stuckey is our pg. fact not a statement. he IS a pg. another fact. just not a true pass first pg. to all you who think its a make or break year for stuckey, he is putting up comparable numbers to billups. here is billups stat line from 04-05 season
16.5 ppg
5.8 ass
3.4 reb
2.3 to.
1.0 stls
compare that to stuckeys stats last year
16.6 ppg
4.8 ass
3.9 reb
2.2 to
1.4 stls
so if you look at the stats he is exactly on par with billups in his championship season. 1 more ass and its almost identicle numbers. why u guys hate on stuckey? hes putting up same numbers as your great billups. i loved him too but that is the past, you gotta embrace the future4 and let him be great too.
Not sure why Stuckey gets the hate. He’s the muthafu&in mayne!!! Straight up run ya ova on the way to the rim.
stuckey is our pg. fact not a statement. he IS a pg. another fact. just not a true pass first pg. to all you who think its a make or break year for stuckey, he is putting up comparable numbers to billups. here is billups stat line from 04-05 season
16.5 ppg
5.8 ass
3.4 reb
2.3 to.
1.0 stls
compare that to stuckeys stats last year
16.6 ppg
4.8 ass
3.9 reb
2.2 to
1.4 stls
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.