Here are the facts. 1. In 2003-04 and 2004-05 when Darko was on the Pistons 12 man roster the Pistons won one world title and lost in the Finals the other year. Since Darko has been gone from the Pistons we have not been able to get out of the Eastern Conference to get to the Finals 2. Darko played one full year for the Magic. They went to playoffs, Previous to that they were a lottery team. 3. Darko left the Magic after last season and the Magic have signed 3 big men in an attempt to replace him. Magic bring big man Gortat over from Europe - NBA - Yahoo! Sports Those are the facts. Is Darko that good? Probably not, but for sure when he is around positive things happen to the team that he is on so much so that the Magic felt that they needed to replace his departure with 3 big men, including one all star caliber player.
Didn't they sign Lewis first? And then Darko left? So how are you deducing from those facts that The Magic felt Darko was so good they replaced him with Lewis and whoever? What is the logic here Buddha? If they felt he was that good wouldn't they have made it a priority to sign him? Or signed him to an extension when they could?
Regardless of what the article said, Lewis is not a big man. So, you have 2 really crappy big men signed to replace Darko. The reason that they had to get poor quality big men was because they blew their wad on Lewis. I agree that Milicic is a valuable commodity, but I don't think you can use his replacements to appraise his value. The best way to guage his value is to look at the contract he just signed. That is exactly what he is worth.
yes. darko is that good. memphis will make the playoffs this year. yes shard plays the 4 at times. the magic left a big hole in the middle when darko left. yes we have had a big hole in the middle since darko left. darko would have started for us last year and would start for us this year. in my opinion darko was given the boot from orlando with d. howard's blessing and maybe ultimatum. i don't think dwight liked the way darko's number started getting called at the end of the 4th quarter in the elimination game against us. darko was delivering and maybe signed his walking papers in the process.
At least we got something for him. Not a total disaster. If Stuckey turns out to be 1/2 Wade-like, then it should ease the pain of letting a big man slip away. Also, we would have had to re-up on Darko's contract at this point, right? So, we would be paying him a real #. If we would have used him correctly from the beginning and he would have flourished, then that salary # would be astronomical, and we would probably not have Chauncey on the team... or would have had to make other concessions. I don't like the way it went down, but looking at this coming season, I don't think we are going to be that much worse off. I think that the past 2 years were the ones that we missed our opportunity on.
i think stuckey will be good. i've liked what i've seen from him so far. he only wanted 10 million which is cheaper than chauncey. darko isn't about the money he just wants to play basketball. we may have had to give up mcdyess and never sign nazr. so i think that's ok in return for locking up a 22 year old for quite a few years. big men are what win championships. chauncey will be diminishing returns. even if he left for big money in free agency we probably would have 2 to 3 more titles. yes. we are fine jmax, amir are coming along nicely.
Good point, if we had kept Darko, our payroll would be minus Mohammed's and Dyess's salaries to start this season. Which means we would be paying less money out altogether for the center position. Dyess could still have opted for this season, but we could easily trade him, have a front line of Darko, Sheed, and Tay, and never look back. By the time Sheed starts fading, Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell would be more than ready to keep things going.
Talk about beating a dead horse. I don't have a problem with discussions of Darko's new role in Memphis, but asking the "what if Darko stayed in Detroit?" question over and over and over and over is just plain insanity.
The question will never stop being asked. The fact is, people have continually stated that we could not afford to have kept Darko. Where were you then. It seems only now that the notion is being challenged that you object. What? Is only negative posting about Darko allowed here?
Let's not start with the "this board" stuff. I tend to skip these threads because Darko is gone and unlikely to ever return to Detroit. Most of my breakups have been followed by fast rebounds.
I had a few rotations worked up for the "what if Darko stayed in Detroit" scenario. I had 13 different rotations...but now I'm not going to post them...ever.
I don't want to be a downer. Go ahead and post your rotations, but be sure to do it in the "Rotations" thread. The question was never about whether a team could afford Darko or not. The question has been whether Darko could help a team win a championship. Detroit's management decided "no". Orlando's management decided "no". Now, Memphis is going to give it a whirl.
I think the real question is, in spite of Darko's ability and potential, why did so many coaches, and management dislike him so much? I'm going with old boys club, once LB dissed Darko, Flip and BHill hated him from day 1. New coaching that doesn't worship at the altar of LB will give him a fair chance.
Did Hill dislike him? Besides, they let Darko go after Hill was fired. And I got the impression that it was more of a financial decision and a salary cap play after they acquired Lewis than it was a condemnation of Darko. Just because Ben Wallace left the Pistons in free agency didn't mean that we didn't want him back. The price was just too high.
Three strikes, you're out. Let's see how things play out in Memphis before dragging the Pistons franchise through the mud (again).
Hill played Tony Battie over Darko. I think the playoffs clearly demonstrated who was the better player. The only explanations for Hill playing Battie was he was incompetent or playing favorites.
