OT: Chauncey Billups signs with Pistons
Welcome back Mr. Big Shot
Shame the Pistons I watched when I was getting into the NBA are all broken up now. Trading him for Iverson was an ignorant move.
"Trading him for Iverson was an ignorant move."
Ehhh. Yes and no. Ignorant is a little strong. Nobody really knew AI was DONE done. The Celtics nearly traded for him rather then aqcuire the BIg 3 at around the same time (maybe 1 or 2 years ealrier/later #stonerbrain), but hindsight is ALWAYS 20/20.
The thing about AI is with his attitude it made him an enigma. Was he done? Was he just quitting? Was he unhappy? Did he hate the coach? Nobody really knew but AI and so we got him and he was in fact DONE done.
I liked it at first only because I have always loved AI and even AI at 50% is pretty damn good.
It was time to blow it up and JD got a huge contract that would expire soon...
I mean people tlak about Billups, but look at how RIP turned out? He was oft injured for the Bulls. That was a great sell move.
In the end JD has made way more dumb moves than good ones, but he did make the moves to bring home a championship so he is ok with me for 5-7 years (which is about up).
The Darko Debacle was Joe's worst move ever, and it probably cost the Pistons one more ring. Melo, who was the consensus #2 pick in the '04 draft, would have made enough of a difference in the '05 playoffs to get the Pistons past SA.
Hindsight is 20/20. Draft busts happen all the time, and Darko was seen by everybody as a Top pick. If he had been picked by anybody except the Pistons, or had a coach besides Larry Brown, who knows what might have been
Picking Darko may have "cost" the Pistons the 2005 title, but signing Charlie V and Ben Gordon to those godawful contracts has essentially killed the Pistons and put them into the mess they're in right now
Well said. Forgot about that.
trading a player a year too early is better than trading a player a year too late. That's precisely what Joe D is trying to do. He simply got the wrong value/player from the trade. If he traded for the right player, there wouldn't be any criticism on his moves. Simply put, if he got the right players, no one would be calling for his head.
Look at Dombrowski for example. He made a ballsy move by trading away one of the most popular player on the team by the players/fans in Granderson. He got the right players back in Austin Jackson and Max Scherzer. If he failed, there would be fans calling for his head for botching the trade. That's the reality of the GM's job. People will always criticize your moves. There were tons of Tigers fans who weren't happy with the trade, but right now, it's a great trade because they won the trade by getting a better leadoff hitter in AJax and a great pitcher in Scherzer who have gotten better and better as the years goes by.
People around here seem to forget Chauncey being broken down and ineffective his last few postseasons in Detroit, making him a good candidate to be traded with his big salary. Coming back and playing fewer minutes makes plenty of sense. Plus, he had to grow into the PG position, something Brandon Knight needs to do.
Also, this may help Josh Smith stay focused. He has all kinds of talent and athletic ability, but he needs his head in the game. Chauncey may help guide him there.
to disagree that Chauncey was ineffective in the post season toward the end of his run in Detroit. I thought he played Rhondo fairly well in his last playoff series here. Ben was the motor of that team. He made it come together and you could tell they were missing their glue when he left. Chauncey did what he could but their ceiling was just much lower.
took some abuse from Parker but he gave just as much as he got in that series. That entire series was a great point guard matchup. And Daniel Gibson hit a few threes at some opportune times. That hardly translates to "embarrassing" somebody.
The Pistons would've been foolish to match that. And his quick downturn showed it was wise to let him go. Chauncey on the other hand was hurt the previous 2-3 postseasons. He was great for Denver his first season, then got hurt in the playoffs. I can't remember if it was a sprained ankle each time, but I belive they were lower body injuries. You cannot dismiss the fact that he has missed a ton of time since he left Detroit with a myriad of injuries.
Happy to see Chanucey and JD buried the hatchet. There was some considerable contention from Chauncey about how he was let go (even though it was back to his hometown).
Good to see Billups back home.
We should now have a reasonable chance to be a 1st round road bump for the Heat in the playoffs next year.
Woo?
I would assume there was also considerable respect for one another as well. I know, at least before the trade, that Chauncey really credited Joe D. for bringing in him, kind of mentoring him and helping him reach his potential. Joe D for obvious reasons should respect Chauncey as well for everything he did for the Pistons.
At the end of the day, I think we're all kind of looking at your last two paragraphs, and sighing in agreement though. Don't tell that to Cavs fans though, they are estatic about signing Bynum and the prospects of possibly being a 6-7 seed (that's honestly how they put it, not me). Cleveland fans: the sad perpetual optimists.
We just gave Bynum what boils down to a 1 year $6 million deal that only gets to $12 million if he hits incentives throughout the season. The 2nd year of the deal is a club option. If it doesn't work out he's gone by next season, if it does work out we have a 25 year old 7 foot All Star.
Cleveland is ecstatic that we just gave him a low risk, high reward contract. If it bombs out who cares, we weren't winning a championship next year anyway.
Low risk, high reward. But from everything I'm hearing out of Ohio people are super pumped that they're "in contention" again. "In contention" being a first round playoff exit and even some fans bringing up getting back at Lebron. Though, I guess I should preface, these were radio people I was listening to, and, well, yeah...
I can't handle the fans that actually call into the local sports talk shows around here, it's unbearable.
You should have heard everyone 3 weeks into the season calling in and saying we should extend Mark Reynolds even though the previous 6 years of his career show him doing exactly what he's doing now.
Trust me, they represent the minority.
Agreed. Chauncey owes a bit to JD for taking a chance on him when Petino gave up on him after 50 or so games...
What I will never get about the NBA is that they build intrigue out of teams tanking for the next years good draft picks and there is more of an incentive to tank them to make the playoffs as a lower seeded team.
I will never understand how a game can be built around the idea that winning isn't the best result. Seems flawed. I enjoy the game of basketball (college is great), but the NBA has some real issues when the point isn't always to win the game you are playing...
But, like you say, it's gotten so common that it's basically comical. I don't know how you fix it. Maybe make your draft position be based on 2-3 seasons earlier, but I could see a lot more problems with that than fixes. There has to be a reward for trying to get better while not punishing teams that can't help for sucking. With basketball being heavily influenced by even one star player, there is too much insentive that teams would rather suck for a while than be good.
The Pistons, for instance, have repeatedly been punished for not being good but also working to actually put a good product on the court (whether they have or not is debatable). It just seems kind of backwards.
1. improve on defense, especially down low.
2. Chris Bosh to score 0 points again, just for four games in a row
3. DWade' s knees to continue falling off
Then... just stand helplessly as LeBron scores 48 points in the fourth quarter again like in that last, Cavs-pistons series.
Damn, almost had the winning formula.
I like the move for two reasons, outside of these two moves I hate it because he is aged and is coming back from a significant injury...
Reason 1 why I like this move - trade is coming. Six guards on the roster is setting up Joe to get rid of one or two ( Stuckey with his expiring deal, possibly Knight) and a forward or two (Charlie V, expiring, and Greg Monroe). Please Joe try to get Demar Derozan and Rondo.
2. He's a proven leader in an organization that has no leadership in any position. Owner doesn't care, GM is proving to be incompetent, coach likes to be friends with players and has no control(see Blazers with Bonzi Wells and Sheed.)
Memo had like full body replacement surgery about two years ago. His NBA playing days are over.
/s
Assembling a team that's going to be fringe lottery for the next few years, at least.
This was a nice PR move, I'll give him that. But the team is going to be stuck in that same space the 76ers have been since Iverson left. Fighting for that 8th seed.
Be good or be bad. You're not going to attract a high level FA to Detroit so your best option is to build through the draft and then add mid-level players and veterans. The Warriors are doing it as we speak. The Clippers did it, but they got Chris Paul, so it doesn't really count.
If Dumars can find a way to get a top 10 PG and a top 10 SF in the next year than this team will work. Knight can come off the bench in a Jason Terry type role (or Stuckey in his best years). But how likely is that to happen?
I think he rather give up Monroe than Drummond. I'm quite positive that he will have Drummond as a higher trade value due to his potential and he already shows that he can be productive even if he doesn't reach his potential.
Well, that's why Simmons proposed the trade he did, because EVERYONE (inc.Dumars, Ainge, etc.) would want Drummond. Simmons is a C' s fan, of course he wants to win the trade!
But would Rondo be allowed to have a say in the trade? He'd want to go be surrounded by the best parts possible, and might say no if Detroit loses too much. If he has the juice in that organization anymore, I mean.
seriously would actually not surprise me.
As someone who actually watched the Pistons play after the Billups/Iverson swap, I can say that Hamilton was actually the main reason the team pretty much fell apart. Iverson actually came in with the right attitude, looking to play like the All-Star/Olympic version of himself -- a penetrating facilitator for a team with a lot of weapons. Unfortunately, Rip's ego couldn't let that happen -- he avoided passing the ball to AI as much as he could, and Iverson never really could get going as a result (and neither could the offense in general without the only player who could consistently break down the defense not seeing the ball).
If anyone remembers, whenever Rip was injured and out for a series of games that season, the Pistons and Iverson would go on a win streak. Then Rip would return and they'd start losing again. But Iverson's always been the guy that the middle-America mainstream public likes to gang up on, so he got blamed while Rip, who was actaully the problem, got a free pass from the public. I think Iverson held up about as well as he could have in that situation.
After that season, when Rip pretty much became the de facto leader, the chemistry and locker room very publicly went to crap. But most casual observers didn't even recognize the root of the problem until a couple years later when Rip got real pouty and caused a bunch of problems after he was asked to come of the bench. Rip won't ever be a Piston again after that.
Of course, every real Pistons fan knows nothing really mattered after Davidson went all curmudgeonly on LB and forced him out. The Pistons weren't going to win a title under Saunders, regardless of any player personnel moves. Losing Brown definitely cost them one and probably two more titles.
that you may not quite remember exactly how things went down. Rip signed a long term contract days before the Pistons traded Chauncey and brought in another guy that basically played Rip's position. Rip did not tank that season and I really did not see any chemistry problems with them on the floor as far as ego, they were just like the two most mismatched guards in history. And I don't remember AI being the picture of professionalism. He reported lived in casinos and of I remember correctly he just sat out like the second half of the season just cuz.
we have some babes here.