I wonder if after 6 months of contrasting the hunger and self motivation demonstrated by pick #56 of the 2005 draft, against that of pick #2 circa 2003, under nearly identical conditions, Joe D's trade decision became much less distasteful.

As I do not agree with your original premise, I cannot agree with your assumption.

I don't even think you are asking the right question. It should be, "where would we be if that draftee would have been handled correctly from the first"?

We would not have several of the current Pistons and might have a more rounded team. Might even have another belt or two.

Maybe not, but I think so.

I think #2 was handled in proper fashion, which brings to mind why the L is nicknamed No Babies Allowed.

On this I am sure we shall always agree to disagree.

What I was trying to say is that you can't say that he screwed up the 2003 #2 pick because it is still revolving around. Who knows he may wind up getting a HOF player with this year's #15 pick.

As far as I am concerned the case book is not closed on the 2003 #2 pick yet. Stay tuned.

I don't believe that Dumars gave up on DMC's playing ability, but DMC threatened to walk back to Europe if Joe D. didn't trade him. So in order to save face and at least get something in return for DMC Joe D. made the deal. He never really gave up on DMC. It was DMC that gave up on Detroit.

I didn't ask that question cause I thought the answer was obvious. We would have been dynamite if we had drafted Wade. But I respect your opinion. I respect the possibility of Darko being great now if he was handled properly. I just thought it was an interesting question because I can see both sides of the issue. If it was one-sided in my mind, I would not have asked it. I honestly can see both sides of the issue and I am more confused now that I was before. A few of the "we should have kept Darko" posts in this thread have some very compelling arguments in my opinion. Anyways. I thought it was a good and legitimate question, that basically asks, now that the milk has already been spilt, did we choose the right cleanup method?

darko and arroyo > pick + capspace.

darko has never been handled correctly since he has been in the nba. he isn't being handled correctly in orlando but at least they are playing him. darko is a beast in the post. he has an outside shot and great passing ability. darko is also a defensive minded big man with rare speed. he's so quick his coach sometimes wrongly puts him on small forwards. i've seen him several times chase guards down on fast breaks. he's a legit 7' with long arms and can check the duncan, j o' neal, kg and the likes. people bring up how the other picks in the draft did. darko is the one top pick in that draft that i feel we had a good chance to sign at a rate that davidson could stomach. wade, melo, bosh, would have left for money. darko just wants to play basketball, show his skills and win.


what would our defense look like with darko, sheed and tay anchoring it?? what would our zone look like with darko's quickness and size anchoring it. defense and centers win championships we gave up a good young one.

arroyo is a great backup pg. he can also start if called upon and even carry a team just ask team usa and the rest of the world. many people forget that when he first came here and was allowed to play quite a few people wanted him to play over chauncey. arroyo and dice was an unstoppable combination. arroyo even pushed chauncey to start passing more and it was contagious with the whole team. arroyo also has a very good assist to turnover ratio. lb ruined arroyo and flip finished the job.

The mistake was drafting someone to sit for 3 seasons. It never works, not with low draft picks. Plenty of history before that pick to tell where it was heading.

Even so. Solid bench guy/avg starter is a bust for a #2 pick. Darko will have to do better. The guy is already 23, almost 24 years old. Supposed to be this defensive stopper and Sheed was able to plow through him like he was not even there in the last Magic game.

Anyway. Joe's record with good picks has been sub par. Only one of the 3 is still in the league. I think he tries for the homerun ball with good picks and goes for the best player with bad ones. He needs to reverse that and pick the most solid player avail when #15 comes around.

max, just for the record, he is still 21 and won't be 22 for a while.

I'd like to add that I'm glad we got something for him and he didn't just jet off to Europe. That would have been bad for us, him, and the Pistons' organization.

Once Flip didn't play him, there was not going to be any rehabbing here.