In listening to Billy King yesterday, someone asked how close was it that we traded for AI. He said it was a monster trade involving 18 players and 3 teams I think. What did not make it go through is Joe D had made a promise to someone (can't remember who) that would have been broken, and he wasn't going to do that. It's a good bet we also would NOT have made another trade for one of the core guys we have now.

Are you talking about the time Matt Geiger refuse to waive his no-trade agreement?

Or another time?

yeah, that's it cuz he mentioned that was what held up the trade also.

The trade would have been Iverson for Stackhouse which fell through when Giger dropped out because the salaries did not match anymore.

It would have been an absolute steal for us. It would have been a different team though and who knows how it would have turned out. LB would not have joined the Pistons because he was the one spearheading the trade to get AI out of his hair. So if the trade would have happened then LB and AI would not have had the chance to work things through and Dumars never would have approached him in 03 for the coaching job.

Bigger issue. What if G.Hill would have stayed instead of signing with Orlando which brought on the sign/trade for Ben Wallace? Still may have signed Ben anyway but we would have been stuck with the max salary for an injured player.

Or whatif C.Webb signed here in 02? Dumars wanted him but Webb chose to stay in Sac and spent a lot of that contract injured.

Seems like a lot of Dumars success is based on things that did not happen or almost happened and fell through.

Dumars may be the kind of GM who can turn any hand into a winner.

That's it, we gonna work our best out rationally and leave the rest to the Almighty.

i'm not sure i'm comfortable leaving the rest to David Stern

i'm sure i'm not comfortable leaving the rest to Frank Sinatra.