Is Dumars losing the confidence of the fans?

It's people wanting to pay guys after they stop being cheap and have already topped out their value.

David Lee on a late first round rookie deal (around $2 million or so in year 4) is a great deal. David Lee at $9 million as a free agent? Brain damage.

Trevor Ariza pre-championship, reasonable value. Trevor Ariza without Kobe? Gimme a break.

Vince Carter? T-Mac? Boozer? None of these guys are getting better, and they all want more money, or the same money for declining performance.

Joe is buying guys when they are (relatively) cheap, taking them from direct competitors, and locking them up so that when they hit their prime, they are out-producing their deals.

All Villanueva has to do is match last year's per minute production as a Pistons starter and he will already be exceeding his contract.

You're a good judge of value. I wonder why you've not been more successful in Fantasy?....

I was good in the keeper league. I snafu'd the draft, because I had no strategy. But still, I overpaid for lebron, and from a year over year perspective, I own the best fantasy player. All of those guys you smartly grabbed when everyone else was tapped out, most of them will be available to be drafted. You couldn't keep them all.

When it comes to evaluating players on performance, I am good. But to be honest, I play fantasy casually, and don't do any research about my opponents, or anything fancy. I just rank who is available against who I have, and turnover for the better players, week in and week out.

You can't compare CV to Sheed on offense. CV took 3 times as many shots inside as Sheed did, as a percentage of total shots. CV took as many inside shots as Sheed and Dice combined (as a percentage of total shots) last season. Anyone who thinks CV is comparable to Sheed or Dice as a jumpshooter ....

Like the criticisms of the coach as some "offensive coach", these criticisms of CV also seem to be unfounded.

Odom was a career choker and loser until Kobe made him a winner. He never made the playoffs in LA, then Wade carried the Heat in 04 as a rookie. The less he scored with the Lakers, the closer they got to the title.

Next year, the cap will be lower probably. We won't have cap space to do any meaningful shopping, because it will be eaten up by the cap falling. Joe is ahead of the curve, because unlike everyone who has been acquiring expiring contracts, he cleared the books a year early. This means he doesn't need to trade talent for Chandler or Boozer, to get an expiring. He has the cap room now.

It's either luck or genius, but it is far from a failure. In fact, it makes the Billups trade for AI look brilliant.

I don't know how many ways I can explain this, but most of the complaining and second guessing seems to be coming from the folks who don't understand what is going on with the CBA and the cap.

Like earlier, someone suggested getting Boozer without giving up a key piece. Rip and Tay are key pieces presumably. CV and BG cannot be traded for months because they just signed. So if we traded the entire balance of the roster (not counting rookies) we could probably rent Boozer for a year, then receive less than half of his salary as cap room under deflation.

So we should get Boozer if it only costs us 3 or 4 players including Stuckey, Maxiell, Kwame, then be lucky to re-sign a single Maxiell the next offseason.

So when people criticize Joe's moves thus far, its somewhat ridiculous. We should get the coach tyrant who flamed out, instead of a veteran coach with pedigree and experience with Rip and Tay (NOTE THIS IS IMPORTANT, RELATIONSHIPS MATTER).

And likewise, people bring up McGrady or Carter, both of which everyone knows are loser head cases, and again, renta-players who will leave us empty handed next offseason.

C'mon... a 30+ year old Odom for the same price or more than a 24 year old Villanueva?

Sheed hasn't been considered a franchise player since 2002. That was 7 years ago.

True. Sheed's mind hasn't been in the game for a while. Talent without effort is useless.

lpgrl - Where did this Odom thing come from anyway?

Ros - I think people do realize that there is a cap and than CV will make 1/3 of what Bosh will get and what Amare and Boozer are making now. I read a lot of the CBA years ago. You have to almost be a lawyer to understand it. It was written by Lawyers.

What does that even mean? He's old, he's slow, he's soft on offense, and he's completely undisciplined.

When he was 27, he was a god on the court. Now he's just another old big man, but he has range. He's Uncle Cliffy without the rebounding.

Talent level? He's a smart player. He lost his hops several years ago, maybe when he showed up to defend the title, with a new contract, out of shape and overweight.

For the love of Pete, he's not half the player KG is, and I can't stand KG.

That's just bias talking, because Scott Skiles (no soft touch himself) seemed to think Charlie was becoming a more than adequate defender, and we already know he is a better scorer and rebounder than Sheed has been lately.

It's a bad analogy.

The policy matters, not the man who is presenting it.

It doesn't matter who the GM is, if he does what the Clippers GM does. If Joe Dumars acted like Elgin Baylor, he would get Elgin Baylor results, not Joe Dumars results.

No man can make a bad policy work, and as Jordan/Zeke have proven, no former champion can make a bad franchise successful.

I'm not the one bringing him up. lpgrl did. Then she tried to make the case that the guy who is now a Celtic, is somehow better and always will be better than the guy who is a Piston.

And on the Pistons forum, I felt obligated (mistakenly) to take up for the Piston. Because while I try to be a good host, I am just a man, and a flawed one at that. And I get tired of hosting people ragging on the Pistons and have been overcompensating.

That said, it's one thing to have a critique. It's another thing for every single post to be a criticism, many times completely unfounded and disingenuous.

But you had a point when you PM'd me. I should take the high road. And so I will.