D- Mo to the Pistons?
I know it would probably take everything to go perfectly on draft night tomorrow but if the Pistons pull the trigger on a rumored trade to pick up Houston's 14th and 23rd picks they could be set up to take a big (Tristan Thompson) at 14 and possibly Darius at 23 to fill their PG spot. Slim chance but I have my fingers crossed.
http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/2011/06/report_detroit_pistons_could_t.html
I think Darius would be a great fit with the pistons.
I'd love that move. The Pistons need a real distributor.
if anything get him in the second round or trade Prince and rip for a late 1st round pick. if we get the opportunity to get that kid from the Congo DRAFT HIM! he will instantly make our defense 10x better, him and greg Monroe in the paint would be great with Monroe grabbing the rebounds and scoring in the paint then have Bismack get a ton of block and with his athleticism dunk it on some peoples heads. The kid from the Congo reminds me of Ben wallace and if he can improve his shot and post moves he will be great
Prince is a free agent now. Is he restricted?
the Pistons aren't resigning him. They're looking to trade Rip and/or Ben but Rip is much easier to move because he has an "expiring" contract(even though he has 2 years left but next season will be a lockout so that's 1 year left).
They would just have to not resign him, or he'd just retire.
Gordon, not Wallace.
I think I went the other way because I just think of Gordon's contract as untradeable.
The Pistons are shopping Rip and Ben. The value is higher before the draft and wll dramatically drop if they draft Kemba and plans to move Stuckey to SG.
ARRRGH DOUBLE POST
Biyombos gonna be a bust. and morris sure as hell aint goin in the second round
need another PG, Biyombos will be the best available at the time the Pistons pick and with everything ive read on him he has an extremely high motor and is too physically gifted to be a bust. Plus he will be here this year and be able to make an instant impact, if there is a season
what true pg do we have? stuck is a 2 and bynum wears down too fast to be anything but a spark off the bench. Biyombo is the furthest from a sure thing out of just about anyone in the draft. ben wallace is a rare breed and big bens dont grow on trees
If they did, those would be scary trees.
That's news to me. All I see are a bunch of combo guards, none of which can distribute the ball well. Stuckey is a at best a SG, but probably should be a third guard on a good team. Bynum is a good reserve PG, but definitely not a starter either. D-Mo has a huge upside and would definitely be worth a late first round pick by the Pistons.
EDIT: This is in response to lukepanici's post above me
I haven't been keeping up on much of the draft stuff, but all I know is if the Pistons draft that Lithuanian guy that won't even come over for another 2 years, I'm going to flip my shit. All we need is another Darko that we have to wait 2 years for.
I know the laws of sports require that white players be compared to other white players, but not every European is a Darko clone. (Who was the NBA Finals MVP again?)
If he has the highest upside of anyone at that spot, I don't mind drafting him. So the Pistons will suck next year while he's overseas - so what? Then they'll get another lottery pick in a much deeper draft. It's not like the Pistons are positioning themselves to win the 2012 NBA championship.
Trust me, I'm not comparing them b/c of their skin color. I read a negative scouting report on that guy. Underweight, no outside game, can't create his own shot, and doesn't pass well. Sounds like Darko to me.
Valanciunas is a beast with a high motor and passion for the game. He wants to own the paint and play in the paint and is athletic enough to cover 4's and 5's and guard the pick and roll. I would compare him to a young Noah, Tyson Chandler, or Anderson Verajao. Valanciunas doesn't posess high skill as in a jump shot or a go-to post move. He does however shoot better than 80 percent from the free throw line so that does bode well for his future as a jump shooter.
Darko was a very athletic, extremely skilled player that that had all the tools in the book. But he didn't have a lot of motor, never wanted to play in the paint, and really wasn't that passionate about basketball.
Comparing the two is completely uniformed along the lines of saying we shouldn't get Kalis for Michigan Football because the last time we got a 5-star from Ohio was Boren and he left us.
Hey, Valanciunas is a project and he won't be here till 2012 but debate not taking him along those lines, not by comparing him to a Euro bust that he shares nothing in common with.
If you want to compare a player to Darko as an 18 year old, see Donatas Motiejunas. http://www.youtube.com/draftexpress#p/u/5/G5Tblw5WggQ
Milicic was considered a SF/PF hybrid in the Dirk/Pau mold. Valanciunas is a C. Apples and oranges.
Not every Euro is considered a "Darko clone:" just the ones who may inspire the Pistons to toss another draft pick in the garbage. If the Pistons had taken 'Melo," they would have probably beaten SA in the finals the next year. Wade didn't go until later, and he wasn't projected to be a star, but "Melo was the consensus #2 pick that year in every front office except Detroit's.
Picking Darko was the event that started the Pistons' slide into mediocrity. Until Darko, everything Joe did turned out great. Since Darko, everything Joe did turned out wrong.
Ugh.
Did not turn out well. The hammer stunk!
Were you even alive then? Are you serious? No, Darko was THE consensus #2 to EVER team. In fact a few (like 1) had him ABOVE LBJ. Read The Book Of Basketball. Bill Simmons goes into this debate heavily. Prince was young, so we had no need for a SF. If anything i'd say we would have been more likely to take Wade. And no way we take Bosh. That'd be a HUGE reach. Also, we probably wouldn't have traded for Sheed those not won in 2004. I'll take a 'Ship and Darko any day over questions. The people who complain about Darko and say it was terrible pick, realize that at the time it wasn't. Looking back, yes it was, but every single GM in the league loved him.
Yep, getting Rasheed Wallace in a trade for nothing and winning a title for it was a huge setback for this franchise. The signing of Antonio McDyess for the MLE was also an awful move.
Nobody has been a bigger critic of Joe than me since 2008, but your post shows a complete ignorance of timelines.
Trade Prince and Rip for a late 1st pick? What the.....? First of all, Prince is a FA. 2nd, assuming he were actually under contract, you would have a team with a late 1st round pick that would be able to take on all that salary for nothing.
And you want the team to take a miniature Thabeet.
You don't watch too much pro ball, do you?
just like in the NHL and this is such a weak draft late draft teams would much rather have a sure thing then a career bench warmer. Biyombo also isnt just a giant guy in the paint like thabeet, Biyombo is extremely athletic and would instantly improve our defense
As a free agent, you have the same rights, but for going over the cap. You can do a sign and trade, but then you're going to have to finalize, and take contract/salary back.
if Pistons trade back with Houston and gain #14 and #23 pick, they can land Bismack at #14 and Morris at #23. That solves both problems. They get a true PG and an interior defender at PF/C.
With that being said, I don't see it happening.
Prince was not traded during the season because he's a free agent and it will work out better for him and the Pistons to do a sign a trade. Right now the main rumor seems to be Prince for Kris Kaman in a sign and trade deal. Which makes perfect sense.
or until the CBA is resolved. No one who's contract ends on June 30th can be traded, period.
Once the CBA has been resolved and free agency starts you can sign and trade players. Prince isn't an option right now.
Chris*
I don't follow the NBA as much as I used to, but I am something of a Knicks fan. Any chance that he ends up on the Knicks? Their needs seem to be a center and a back-up PG for when Billups retires after next season (likely) or gets hurt. D-Mo would seem to be a good fit into their offense. I initially heard some rumblings that he might end up there, but nothing lately. Anything out there?
Yes. I'm also a Knicks fan and Darius would certainly fill an important need in distributing to Amare and Melo. Darius has been one of the 5-8 most talked about guys on the speculated Knicks draft board. HOWEVA, some see it as a bit of a reach at #17 (I'd be ok with it), some think we should go with a big man like Vucevic, Faried, or Biyumbo (if he somehow slips to us) and buy a later draft pick to snag a pg, and others (myself included) are terrified because Donnie Walsh is no longer GM and we have no faith in Dolan not screwing everything up.
I would love the trade-back and D-Mo at 23, but would prefer the dude from USC at 14.
I highly doubt Tristan Thompson lasts that long. As a Cavs fan, he's about the only top 10 player I like in the draft besides Irving and Williams and would be perfectly fine with reaching for at #4.
I think he's soft and his back to the basket offense needs a lot of work. Not a particularly strong player. If he doesn't get touches early on in the game, his effort level will go down as the game progresses which is not encouraging.
we'd be talking about him as the number one pick. He is pretty bad ass for his size and although he is raw he just looks like a legit NBA player. No way he makes it past 10 and could go as early as 4.
I think the Pistons really need to just clean house with the new owner. We'll have a new coach coming in who hopefully will be able to earn some respect and stay for more than 2 seasons. We have Prince's contract expiring, need to get rid of 1-2 of our jammed backcourt of bad contracts. Chris Wilcox isnt helping the salary cap out much either. Speaking of bad contracts, how the hell does Joe Dumars still have a job? Charlie V and Gordon havent exactly lived up to their superstar level contracts and God knows we don't have a good draft history under Dumars.
I concur
Villanueva wasn't the greatest free agent signing, but he's not paid as much as fans seem to think. He signed for the mid-level exception. It's Gordon who's making the big bucks.
We didn't sign him with the mid-level exception, we signed him with available cap space. We had about 18 million freed up. The MLE is only available to teams that are over the cap, and it is the average salary of all NBA players from the year before. For the 2009-2010 season it was worth 5.854 million dollars, and Charlie's deal started at 6.5 million.
But yeah, Gordon was overpaid from the start.
I think are going to go with Thompson. He is the safest pick, and still has big upside. I doubt they go with a foreign pick or trade down at this point.
Chad Ford says Pistons are strongly considering Rockets trade proposal for #14 and 23 with Markieff Morris the target at 14. Darius would be a candidate at 23.
beside Bismack in which I've already stated my case several times. I like Chris Singleton because of his ability to be a premier defensive player in the league. He may be one of the few who can stand up to LBJ on his own. His ability to disrupt passing lanes, guard mulitple positions(can guard 2, 3, 4 and possibly 5 if it's a stretch 5) and can block shots. The biggest problem is obviously on the offensive side in which he looks mechanical and awkward in movements. He is a very streaky shooter but if he's hot, he's hot. I see him playing 10 plus years as a lockdown defenders. If he can develop a 3 point shot, he'll be an effective player.
Just curious , who do you consider a stretch 5?
Dirk, Bosh, KG, Okur and to name a few. They can step out and make jump shot. They have played the 5 at times so Chris can slide down and still be effective.
Gotcha. Yeah, it's tough to find a stretch C that isn't just a PF masquerading on the block. I can only think of Okur, Lopez, and Ming, myself.
but I was mostly referring to teams playing small in which they slide PF to C in which Chris can also slide down to 5 to counter the small lineup.
If he can develop a 3 point shot in which he can stand at the corner alas Bowen, he'll be fine. I'm just worried about his offensive game in which he has major, major work to do. If the Pistons do trade down, I can see them taking Singleton to replace Prince. It's a better solution than taking Kwahi Leonard at #8 whom I don't see a good fit for the team IMO. Singleton fits the Detroit mold in terms of blue collar mentality.