You can take it for what it’s worth but… As reported by Detroit Free Press writer, Drew Sharp, new Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores has said Joe Dumars is not going anywhere for “as long as he desires”. And here’s the quote:
“More good news: Joe Dumars isn’t going anywhere. It’s believed Gores has told him that he can remain president for as long as he desires.”
Now brings the question from the fans – “Does Joe deserve to stay?”. To me, the answer is yes. Joe has made mistakes, he dumped the franchise player for cap space which was used on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. He drafted Darko Milicic #2 in a draft that featured 60% of the Miami Heat starting lineup. He also turned over the reigns to the team to Rodney Stuckey, but he did it in the middle of 3 coaches in 3 years. All of the coaches, he hired. All of the turmoil in the media with regard to the players not getting along with coaches, and vice versa, his doing.
I’ve seen all sides of the argument. I’ve read 20,000 word blog posts where the writer completely shreds Dumars apart, I’ve also read posts where the writer absolutely falls all over himself praising Dumars. I say, Dumars has done more harm to the team than good BUT, I think he’ll get a second wind now that there’s stability in the front office. Sure, hiring and firing coaches will not be the best way to continue Dumars’ career in the Pistons front office but, I think Dumars deserves to have one more shot at it.
During last night’s game, while I was thinking of how to write this post, I watched 2 teams put together by the front office who put together the 2004 NBA Finals Championship team. As we all know, John Hammond is the General Manager of the Milwaukee Bucks, and he was Joe’s assistant before leaving a few years ago. The Bucks, a perennial NBA Eastern Conference Central Division bottom feeder, have been completely re-tooled from top to bottom since Hammond has taken over, except for Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut.
The Bucks were a surprise team in last year’s regular season, which lead a lot of people to list the Bucks as a sleeper in this year’s Eastern Conference. Hammond has constructed this Bucks team in a similar fashion that the 2004 Pistons were constructed, a team that is the sum of its parts and not based around how a superstar performs. The team has a defensive minded coach, just like the Pistons had Larry Brown. This past offseason, Hammond had his offseason of spending just like Dumars had the previous offseason and look what he brought in:
- Traded for Corey Maggette with his 3 years and $30 million left on his deal – he plays 21 minutes a night, off the bench.
- Signed Drew Gooden to a 5 year $32 million contract
- Signed John Salmons to a 5 year $39 million contract
We criticize Joe D for not trading Tayshaun Prince and Chris Wilcox because of their expiring contracts, yet Hammond had an even more valuable expiring contract ($18.3m) in Michael Redd and he’s still on the team. Redd, a career Milwaukee Buck, likely would’ve accepted a trade to another team if it meant improving the Bucks this season.
Both Dumars and Hammond have made mistakes, but how come Pistons fans still argue that Hammond is a better GM than Dumars? Detroit and Milwaukee’s cap situation are similar (Detroit is $1m-$2m higher cap the next 2 seasons), but Detroit has some assets to deal whereas Milwaukee is paying more mediocre players more. There are only a handful of NBA GMs that make the right moves year in and year out. San Antonio and Oklahoma City are 2 teams that have an excellent track record of solid draft picks (although as I mentioned in the podcast, Cole Aldrich is a bit of a bust right now), while all other teams hit or miss though most miss more than Dumars does. Dumars’ misses are magnified by the fact this team has had the recent success it has, in my opinion.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
So… it looks like Dumars will be back, at least for 1 more coaching search. A new coach, new owner and new president would be a lot for the team to go through next season, so I applaud Gores decision to keep Dumars.
Completely agree. Dumars deserves a chance to fix this mess, and yes he is responsible for a good part of this mess. I still to this day cannot forgive the Chauncey trade. But there is no denying the magic that happened at The Palace starting with the Carlisle years through LB and, to some extent, the Flip years. No sense rehashing Joe D’s mistakes, they’ve been rehashed a million times.
We’ve obviously seen him build a Champion from nothing before. He deserves a chance to do it again, under a committed owner with money that will let him make the needed moves. Like you, I think he will get a second wind because he KNOWS his reputation is on the line with whatever he rebuilds into next. I feel he’ll be refreshed and ready to make things right, so I support him staying and getting that opportunity.
I agree, joe d has not been able to do much without a good owner.
i do think joe d should stay, but i think he should do what he did before his first year as GM. Take a year off, really learn the players without having an agenda and look at players without having so many people in your ear telling him what he should do,
With john hammond i think people say hes a better team cause even though the bucks arent great their team does have a very 04 pistons feel to it, defensive coach versitile players who arent great at one thing or just scorers. And players who arent finesse and have bulk to handle defense Contrast that with the moves Joe D has made picking up tracy mcgrady ben gordon and charlie V you start to wonder if joe has that EYE anymore. I think he does though i think what he needs to do is get a team together, stop thinking too far ahead in the future with cap space when you dont even have a team now that can compete
I think that Joe has been hampered in his decisions/moves since Mr. D died. It will be good to see what he can do with some financial flexibility, which I hope he gets with the new owner. I am a Joe fan, so I’m sure he’ll fix any mistakes he’s made, just as he’s done in the past.
As far as Joe’s eye goes, we got Greg Monroe and JJ in the last 2 years neither one of which were supposed to be as good as they are, so at least it works some of the time! You won’t find a GM out there who hasn’t made mistakes, so that argument is kind of moot.
Yeah there’s an article by drew sharp stating his moves were being stopped, moves like avery as coach and trading rip for boozer, if thats true then dumars deserves one more year to try to turn things around
great post nat
have to agree with you danny.
I’m not a fan any more of Joe D, but I want to keep him. I think by now, everyone has this sort of split opinion on him, we respect what he did in the past, and know he has made terrible mistake in the past few years. But we could do a lot worse than Joe D. It’s not clear that we can do any better. I’m glad we will have this kind of stability going into the next season.
Chauncey Billups may have been a franchise player when he was traded, but he is obviously not a franchise player any more and one wonders if the revitalization he enjoyed in Denver would have happened had he stayed in Detroit and not been traded. We’ll never know but what’s not debatable is that he was rapidly approaching his best before date one the day he was traded. Should the money saved by trading him have been used better. If Hamilton had been traded for something decent as was probably the plan, yes it would have all turned out better. Part of the problem is that neither Gordon nor Villeneuva had significant histories of injuries before they arrived, but both have been hurt by injuries after they arrived (and both have played through injuries, people confuse injuries with games not played). Joe D enjoyed phenomenal luck through the run, and phenomenal bad luck through this dip. He may have helped himself with better coaching choices, but hopefully with a new owner will allow him to address that and we’ll see some immediate improvement next season.
Mark my words! Majority of the detroit media and fans will be eating there words in a couple years. Dumars will prove he is one of the best at what he does.
Not only that, but i will be posting on all your websites your own words when you have put him down and wanted him out. Just to remind you all!
unless gores wont let him have the money to get the big deals done, lets hope thats not the case.
I think Joe is doing a great job for what he has. I rememeber they kept the old 89 90 championship team way pass it years and it took close to a decade to look like a decent team. He felt like it was a chance to rebuild in the middle instead of the bottom. It is not guarntee the draft will produce a franchise player. Only reason San antonio and OKC is making good decision because u still have two of the top players in the league . It is easy to build around a hall of fame big man. Dumars has made mistake but look at bird this last decade? Why isnt he fired and he mad alot of blunders. So leave dumars alone. Until there is a good coach on the market like a Jerry Sloan or??? then we will be in better shape. We still got some good core pieces and trade pieces. I wish charlie v will once and while go to the block and try to score..
excellent and fair analysis!
I concur, but why the meaningless wins all of a sudden? Oh well, I guess it don’t hurt to go out on a high note.
Yes it does, we get a worse draft pick.
we are a lock for the 7th pick, doesnt matter if we win or lose.
you’ll notice that the pistons are playing at a faster pace, something stuckey has wanted to do for 4 years, something prince absolutely refused to do
this means we have better shot percentage, higher scoring games and even though we still have the worst defense in the NBA it is less of a factor in an uptempo game. In our last 3 games we have been averaging about 105 points. We are not a better team, but we are finally playing a sort of run and gun style which suits our “worst defense in the NBA” style of play.