I got laughed at on the NBA show today when I said that. However, Darko had not done anything to show he was a viable part of the team the whole time he was here except be a human victory cigar.

Meanwhile, Stuckey (who we picked with Orlando's pick we got for Darko) has steadily proved that he is an asset and proved he can start without turning the ball over (unlike Arroyo and Flip Jr) in playoff pressured games.


I don't care that he was @ #15 and not #2. He has MORE than made up for the lack that Darko has had with us and continues to in Memphis.

Why would they laugh at that?

Stuckey is a Pistons type of player. The ghost of Otis Thorpe can finally rest in peace. Darko was a Grizzlies type of player.

I don't know if you can say that Stuckey made up for something. There are arguments going both ways. On the plus side looks like you've got a solid Pistons-type player that should be contributing for years to come and make a transition from the current roster easier. On the other hand, you passed on Wade, Bosh, etc., who have been productive for their teams, although oft-injured. Stuckey is younger, and hopefully healthier, and he comes in during an opportune moment when Pistons need guard help so that he gets a chance to develop under the tutelage of two of the better NBA guards.

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I think the Washington Wizards have got to be the dumbest team in the history of civilization. - C.Barkley

Only because we get productivity from Stuck. So yeah.

I was thinking this exact same thing the other day.

We had a chance to draft D-Wade (among others) with the Darko pick. Stuckey is a very similar type of player as Wade (not saying that he's as good as Wade right now though).

Darko was a mistake pick. That much is a consensus. Give Joe credit for being able to turn a mistake into something positive. That doesn't happen very often. A lot of times, missing on a top pick can set a franchise back considerably. Of course, Detroit wasn't your typical #2 draft pick team either.

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Even if Stuckey becomes as good as those players one must always ask how many RINGS we could have gotten with Melo, Wade, etc. When Stuckey is hitting his prime the Best Starting five will be long gone. So, he may just end up as a great player on a bad team. It was the timing of the Darko pick that stunk the worse. A championship quality team with the 2nd pick....a rarity.

I bet we would have the same results with Wade or Mello. Cuz someone would be sitting.

If you look at the numbers over the regular season, Stuckey's averages are similar to Darko's.

Darko: 7.2 pts 6.1 reb .8 ast .5 stl 1.6 blk 23.8 min

Stuckey: 7.6 pts 2.3 reb 2.8 ast .9 stl .1 blk 19 min


Stuckey playoffs: 7.3 pts 3.7 ast 22.2 min

If you look at the opportunity costs, nothing can make up for the#2 blunder. But if you just narrow it down to Stuckey vs. Darko after 5 years in the NBA, Stuckey's hands down better for us.

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I just don't think that Wade, Melo, Bosh, etc. would be the players they are today if we picked them. Or at least not have the impact that those players did in their first 3 seasons.

They'd be at the bottom of the depth chart of a Championship team with a core that was in it's prime and under contract.

I think that the timing was exactly why Joe felt that he was able to take a gamble on a very young and very raw talented big. I don't think that Joe was looking at Darko as the final piece to the puzzle so much as he was the future of the franchise that could take over when the current group started to slow down.

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The opportunity cost is obviously from not having gotten Bosh. It made sense for the Pistons to go big with that pick, given their roster at the time, but the perennial All-Star big man was sitting two picks away from the bust we whiffed on.

But in terms of a consolation prize for whiffing on that pick, Stuckey looks like he'll do quite nicely.