The Darko Milicic- Thread

Darko

Ok, here's the skinny. All of here he truly loves Darko, let's hope that he gets traded before the deadline. Probably would be the best thing for the Piston's Organization and the Best thing for Darko.

Going into the third year is more than enough time to develop, play hard and gain some consistency.

Darko is a player who can turn it on & off for whatever reason. As someone mentioned earlier, Darko appears to be a loner and doesn't mesh well with others. Case in point the three rooks who gets involved collectively in charitable works.

I am outside of the Detroit Metro area, however, I have FSN & NBA league pass. Not once have I seen Darko just having fun or doing anything besides playing basketball.

Was Darko involved in the Children's Hospital event with the other players?

He just appears to be an anomaly, maybe he needs to relocate to another city, start over i.e.. Darko just don't fit in with this organization and will only be a matter of time before Dumars put the pen to paper.

I saw the replay of Chauncey hitting the game winner against Portland, and I noticed that Darko looked noticably pumped up. He jumped off the bench and gave a nice fist pump. I guess I expected him to do the gum chew thing. (Delfino was actually leading the cheering section, which I also thought was a good sign).

His attitude may not be that bad. He has avoided the typical outbursts that you would expect from a 18-20 year old who is truly frustrated.

Good point!

Basketbills

i just read that article and i didn't read your post. i came here just to put that down pretty nice article though.

2 years of riding the bench is not enough time to develop. if he had played 2 years on a lottery team yes i would expect improvement. how can you gain consistency if you aren't played consistently?? 2 years of practice is not the same as 2 years of in game experience.

darko doesn't appear to be a loner on the bench. i see him laughing it up, cheering and goofing off with the other players. i don't see him at the end of the bench with his shoes off.

usually the charity stuff is team or nba sponsored. it is not a matter of the 3 rooks waking up in the morning and going to a hospital for the kids. darko could do that if he so desired but he doesn't or maybe he does the cameras just aren't there. darko is focusing on basketball which is not a problem with me.

thanks. i have darko's back until the end. it's easy because i truly believe in the guy. i really think the larry brown young bench was given the shaft i have stuck up for all of those guys. delfino, smush, memo, arroyo and darko. look at how those guys are playing now that lb is gone and the minutes are there.

maybe this is why chauncey spoke up for dmc this summer. he probaby truly understands what darko is going through. it's weird how chauncey felt entitled to a chance that other top picks got. but darko feeling entitled to a chance is sooooooo wrong to some posters in here. but like i said it's understandable why darko feeling because he's a # 2 pick he should get some minutes.

too bad

too bad he isn't really playing basketball.

The only reason that we have Chancey, and Chauncey has the success he has now is because of an injury. Without it, CB would have kept riding the bench in Minny, traded, and riding the bench somewhere else. It took an injury to get him an opportunity to play, learn, make mistakes, learn, improve.

In real time, Darko had one bad game, and was then benched. Darko wont have to wait for injury. Some team will sign or trade for him that wants to give him a chance, so I'm not worried about him. But I am worried about the Pistons. Ben is getting older, we dont have a single player on the roster (except Darko) with even the potential to replace him. Forget replacing him, there isn't a single guy on the bench who's a potential starting center. And if you guys think getting a starting center is easy, remember Detroits earlier attempts at getting one:Oliver Miller, William Bedford, Olden Polynice, Otis Thorpe, Theo Ratliff, Christian Laitner, Mikki Moore, and Jerome Williams. And remember Theo sucked with Detroit, Joe let him go. I'd take Darko over every one of those guys except for the JYD.

You are calling JYD a center...??@?!? He was Ai's Point guard in college at George town. Hes 6-9 206.. Theres no way u can misconstrue Jyd as a center.

I might be dense

but who is JYD ?

Jerome Williams... known as the Junkyard dog.. drafted by detroit in the first round.. left after being unhappy with how he was treated or with how much money det offered him.. Not really sure it was a long time ago

Mav

Thanks, I remember Jerome but did not tie in the JYD.

I always liked him and then we lost him to Toronto, I believe. He always showed energy, like Rodman.

jyd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Williams

Imo he was a great effort guy gave you solid d hustled for boards and just flat out busted his butt I was sad to see him go especially for corliss (I hated Arkansas and I hated him at the time, such a homer) but I guess it turned out ok in the end for us. JYD won’t go down as a piston legend but he helped make the teal era a little more bearable to watch. Darko could learn a lot about effort from watching tapes of jyd!

Thanks abe.. i do think he was traded tho because he was not happy with detroit and they didnt want to lose him and get nothing in return.

One thing I must say to you BBall, you are definitely a die-hard Darko fan. But realistically, do really, really think that Darko is doing everything right?, is he really an innocent pawn caught in the rigors of NBA life?, or is it something Darko needs to do to better market himself for a little more playing time? Comon, just put on the objectivity glasses for one minute and lets here just one problem that Darko has that he is solely accountable.

i think darko does a lot of things wrong. i just happen to think they can't be corrected in 4 minutes of garbage time or during dnpcd's.

he is too unselfish. he should be putting up 1 - 2 shots per minute.
i think he should be more aggressive on the boards.
i think he flares sometimes when he should roll.
i think he brings the ball down too low so he can be stripped.

yes. i think he is caught up in a bad situation. the guy who replaced him as the 4th big (dale davis) is having worse stats and less impact on the game. yet he is getting more minutes than darko was and during meaningful times of the game. he is getting more minutes based on being a vet. i don't think darko's lack of playing time is truly based on darko's lack of effort or lack of production. i think it's a mixture of flip trying to teach darko a lesson (all minutes are meaningful, be ready when i call you not when you want to be ) and the quality of the 3 players in front of him (past and present quality).

so i'm sure darko is as confused as me about what he can do to get more playing time besides step on some toes in practice. darko is too much of a team player to do that.

1.5 shots per minute = 72 shots per 48 minutes. That is almost what Kobe does.

or jmax. flip said darko should be a little bit more like jmax.

darko tops this year will play about 10 minutes. during meaningful minutes i think he should let the game come to him. but if flip insists on putting darko in during garbage time. darko should put up a shot per minute. in 4 minutes of garbage time darko should try to get up 6 shots. just my opinion anyway. since setting picks, passing to jmax and running the offense is seen as passive and lack of effort.

I was thinking the same thing! If Darko gets his 20 to 25 minutes per game to get a chance to learn that would mean a high end of 40 to 50 shots per!

bball Jay

I am thinking that Darko would solve his problem of being seen as too passive by concentrating on just one thing.

He would, I believe, solve his problems by going after every offensive board there is during his precious few seconds in the games. By garnering these offensive boards and trying to jam each and every one of them back in, he would solve all the problems with people thinking he is soft; disprove the lack of desire opinion people have; score some points for his stats; score some boards for his stats.

I have watched closely and the times he seems to have his spot under the bucket, ready for the rebound, the ball goes through the basket. Take notice sometime; when he has his spot cleared out, the ball goes in. It is when he is out of position that the misses happen.

Darko, go after every offensive board instead of being there to throw the ball into play after an opponent basket. Jam 'em back and see if that works.

Man, I do want to see that.