Tough question. I still think I would have rather Joe drafted Bosh or Wade. They could have even traded the pick for a young up and comer. Oh well, hind-sight is 20-20 I guess.

I WAS against drafting Darko all along though. I wanted them to take Melo though so I'm not sure that would have worked out either. Great player but doesn't fit the Piston mold.

Yeah, I agree with all of this and was thinking the same thing.

I don't think anybody takes Stuckey #2 in any draft, let alone any incredibly deep draft. I also don't think in hindsight anybody (except a couple of our forum members who shall remain nameless) would take Darko #2).


That being said, I give credit to Joe D. for cutting his losses and I'm very happy with Stuckey at #15 or wherever we got him.

I'd take Darko at #1 in our backyard basketball league. He's some gangsta.

Just because he didn't pan out for us, doesn't mean that it was a bad pick/ gamble. The thought process was OK. Young big with athleticism and outside shooting touch. Mature beyond his years b/c of his upbringing in a war-torn environment. Played pro ball for years already.

They knew they weren't getting a "sure thing" and they felt like it is so hard to get a dominant big man these days that they would roll the dice a little.

Bigger risk, bigger reward... or of course, bigger loss.

They rolled the Dyess alright.

I will add this. How can Darko be such a bust, but yet he completely dominated Ming, one of the best centers in the league. The two things just don't add up. For most of this season, Darko was an NBA starting center. One who his coach thought very highly of as far as his defense.

Answering some other posts while I am at it; no Bill, by no means do I think you're funny, and indeed, I really do hate your posts. If that is what you are aiming at, good for you, I hope you are proud of yourself.

Here is something else. Lets say we played Darko some minutes from the time we got him. A bit at small forward here, a bit at power forward there. Lets say for instance, that we never played Ham during Darko's first year and gave those mintues to Darko, with Corliss playing more at small forward. Ham did absolutely nothing positive in the playoffs, so most likely we still would have won it all that year.

Forward to the next year. Again, we play Darko some. In game 7 vs. SA, instead of running out of bigs, and having Tay attempt to guard Duncan, we could have used Darko to guard him. (And yes, Darko has had reasonable success guarding Duncan these past two years since he left us, it would certainly have been better than Tay guarding the guy.) Most likey, thats two ships in a row. Ben never leaves. In Darko's third year, possibly still with Larry Brown, he plays a bit more. Instead of Wade beating us, Darko's interior D helps us to shut him down and we are talking about a dynasty. Etc. Yes, I believe if we had managed Darko better, and maybe a couple of other players, we could have won several Championships in a row at this point. Since we never played Darko, except for sparsely over a 14 game stretch, (amounting to less than 70 minutes playing time in total our rotation - not including garbage time), we really can't say how he would have done, nor how we would have done, if we had actually played Darko.

Declaring a guy a bust at 22, after he just completed his first year as a starter, just might be a bit premature.

And the Darko embellishment goes on in fantasy land. Yes, he started...for the Grizzlies.

Let's just come to agreement that Darko might end up becoming a young late-bloomer.

For all the ifs and buts, with his youth and inexperience there was nothing he was capable of doing to help the Pistons win more than the one title they have in this era.

Given the depth of the poll of basketball talent in US and the overwhelming number and struggle of players who didn't make it, what young players need are timing and fortune. Stuckey is very veryu lucky to came to Pistons at the right time and as a fan I'm so happy happy to see him got the chances to thrive.

As for Darko, let me make it short, he was drafted as a prospect while he thought he was a younger Norwisky. He was hungry but he thought the team had fed him sour food in his stint here.
What would the current Pistons' roster like be if Darko had shown some heart like Maxiel does every time when he hit the floor ?

At this point, I think you would have to consider the possibility of him ending up becoming an old late-bloomer.

I like Lee's post (sorry) because I wanted Darko to be successful. My twist on his post is that, he needed to show heart on the floor during practice and games to earn his minutes. I think that is the part of Darko that we couldn't measure. Maxiel brings that heart and presence when he plays. Heart is what gets you into games. Talent and desire will keep you there.