With the way Ben Gordon's been playing lately, I don't think getting better and more injured are mutually exclusive propositions.
I'd do Rip for Gordon in a heartbeat and become the first GM to buy out a player in consequtive seasons. He's got $5M left on his contract.
I don't think we can get him back with time on his contract because of the waiver rules. I'd do an broken pancake with no syrup for Gordon
Too bad we don't have a pick in the 20th range, we could have brought in another swede and started a Piston-mania among the 9 people in Sweden who cares about the NBA. But you never know: Detroit Pistons #DraftDreams: Jeff Taylor « PistonPowered
I'm reading that Jeff Taylor article and it reminded me that we have a roster that is in desparate need of quality wing players while at the same time being stacked with wing players. When exactly did Dumars join Ingsoc?
More good news.........the Pistons may have missed the playoffs last 3 years, but their roster is too crowded to even add their draft picks!!!!!
Ok.... we had 14 under contract last year plus one draft pick over seas.... so thats our 15. So with three draft picks we need to dump 3 or 4 if we use the mid-level (which I think is pointless this summer, save it for next summer IMO) Sorry but Wilkins and Russell didn't do enough to warrant there return. We don't know what Ben is planning, but I'd be happy for his return. My choice is to send Bynum on his way to a new address, maybe as filler with another player (CV or BenG if there are any suckers out there.). We also could get lucky and Max could opt out of his contract. Save all that, if we want we can amnesty somebody. I take the article as a fluff piece, Joe has plenty of ways to get the 2nd rounders on the roster if they warrant being on the roster.
ok a quick look around.... and I know that Washington would never go for it... but I can dream... NBA Trade Machine - ESPN If Joe pulls this off, he gets he mojo back :D
Current contract status as of now: 1. Knight - 4 more years 2. Prince - 3 more years 3. Jerebko - 3 more years 4. Monroe - 3 more years 5. Gordon - 2 more years 6. Stuckey - 2 more years 7. Daye - 2 more years 8. Villanueva - 2 more years 9. Bynum - 1 more year 10. Maxeil - 1 year if he takes the player option 11. Macklin - needs a new contract this summer 12. Singler - no contract ------------------------------------------------------- Wallace - gone? Wilkins - gone? Russell - gone? -------------------------------------------------------- I would think the Pistons will re-sign Macklin. I'm not sure what is going on with Singler. An amnesty would get rid of CV or BG. Who knows what will happen with trades and/or free agency. I don't see over-crowding as an issue at this point.
I think the Pistons are 2 players away from a playoffs berth. They need someone to break out, and they need one solid rotation player who can give 18~ 24 minutes a night. Maybe BK is that breakout player. Maybe the planker, or BenGo. I think that GM is already 75% of the way to his upside, so it is hard to see him being the one to breakout.
I want to see how Stuckey (in particular), Monroe and Knight start out the year. I don't want to see them taking X amount of games to get started. Is it possible to get those 3 plus Tay and Gordon all going in the right direction to start the year? I think I am starting to feel Perry (or is it Percy) Jones the III or Jim Henson at the 9 spot.
I agree. Problems with over-crowding is not an issue. The only way to move things around to gain value is via trades. Roscoe has always been of the opinion that JD's alter ego has been Tay (and rightly so). The new owner must correctly understand some limitations of his GM. Gores must move big time this year or be set back another two years. Is this understandable to most people? If not, let me know, and I will be aggressive in trying to compose some of my patented convoluted paragraphs for further explanations. ________________________________________ Fan: All I want is to watch an excited team playing abrasively. JD\Gores: If you watch closely you are beginning to see our approach and youthful talent on parade. We are becoming younger, talented and excited about the game. Fan: Please...this may surprise you, but I have actually graduated from college and understand the march of youthful enthusiasm. I find something missing on this team. JD\Gores: Do not underestimate the value of some current and experienced leaders: Ben Wallace and Tayshaun Prince. They bring much to the table and their experienced direction is invaluable. Fan: Yes, I agree. But do not overvalue past history and the complexity of change when guiding today's youthful players. It is not a deep dark secret that the youth group has been exposed to hierarchy authority. What I mean by this is that they have had a long history of directional experience and older adults to guide them concerning all things basketball. In the NBA this backdrop is suddenly reversed. JD\Gores: It can be, but this organization is not new. We have a history of accomplishment. We also have an understanding and the organizational directions that accumulate talent. We, in a sense, provide confidence and encouragement for all. An environment for learning, maturity and expansion. Fan: And the we? JD\Gores: Of course, we are talking ownership, senior administration and on-the-floor-direction. This is our compass. Fan: Let me get this straight. We are talking present day history. Within the last few years (a shorten decade) we have had a neutralized ownership level, an administrative level of professional out-takes leaving the team's professional ranks, and a GM left with a slightly warp speed level of strategic direction that looks backward in proportion in how the coaching must fail (because of benign financial levels) for the greater good of organizational survivability. This is a shadow hiccup, disguised as I have only one position: it begins with the hammer. JD\Gores: I disagree. Not with the problems of history, but with the direction of forward movement that we committed to. Progress can be built from adverse associations. What else do you want? We are committed to movement forward. Fan: There always has been a question from the NBA of the open shirt. The appropriate owner whose cultural artifact is a white space for lack of tattoos. Jordan, in later career, had those lovely earlobes. JD\Gores: I don't understand? Fan: That's OK. I am cheating on you here with the following comment (nothing personal): Though chattel slavery a thing of the past, black bodies still occupy the auction block. And not just any old negro body, but bionic miracle machines like Michael Jordan’s. This news brought customers from across the globe running. Anybody with the price of the ticket could become a shareholder. Buy the pleasure of watching the value of your stock and yourself in your MJ cap or sneakers or sweatsuit skyrocket as MJ leads the Chicago Bulls to another NBA world championship. This modern, media-driven, vicarious, virtual possession of a block body better than buying a slave, with all the attendant burdens of ownership. By simply copping certain trademarked booty, you could choose if and when you wished to be like Mike. Or, to be more precise, you could choose to appropriate and identify with only those black body parts you desired (dismember and reconfigure the black body) and leave the rest, the negative, bad parts, alone. Unless you found a little touch of the gangster rap, drug, and hoodlum deviancy nice; then you could turn your cap backyards, droop your baggy, hip hop trousers below the crack of your ass, represent some that outlaw stuff too. Represent "bad" without worrying about paying the dues bad black boys pay ---poverty, jail, apartheid, early graves. Or so the deal seemed to promise. John Edgar Weidman, ISBN 0-395-85731-7, pg. 41 JD\Gores: What can we say? Want do you want? In all your easy subjective directions of today's solution. What is it you want? Don't give us a long paragraphs, make it short. Less than even a sentence. But, remember to make a core that will rally all. A satisfaction level that attempts, toward the movement of possibility of all concerned. Fan: Josh Smith
I do not want Josh Smith. Love the guy. He is a great player, when he plays to his ability. But quite simply put, he is the most athletic big in the league and watching him brick twenty footers is far from entertaining.
It is good to see that Joe and the owner are on the same page. They communicate very easily for a duo. No wonder Roscoe is so optimistic.
