OT: Joe Dumars worst move as Pistons GM? Darko or J. Smith

Submitted by Drew_Silver on

Sorry to go off topic, but I had this bar stool argument last night

Joe D's worst GM move

Drafting Darko or Signing Josh Smith

 

Pistons are 12-3 since they dumped Josh Smith, the guy was just not right for the team in any way.  He jacked so many bad 3's last year (a historic rate).  Josh Smith had a strong track history of being mediocre and a bad shooter.

 

Darko was widely considered to be the #2 guy.  The conventional wisdom in the NBA is to take the Big Guy if 2 guys are about equal.  Darko didn't have any screaming red flags around him.  I know it turned out to be a terrible move, but at the time it seemed at least defendable.

snarling wolverine

January 23rd, 2015 at 3:58 PM ^

It was definitely a Darko/Carmelo debate.  Everyone agreed that the top three picks would be LeBron and then the other two.

Darko was never paid all that much (relatively speaking) - he was only under his rookie contract in Detroit.  Carmelo OTOH has been a max-salary guy forever, and yet he's not really a franchise player.  He would be better as a secondary option to a LeBron type, but I don't know if his ego can take that.

Young John Beilein

January 24th, 2015 at 10:15 AM ^

To nitpick, I think Darko got a pretty big contract from Minnesota after he played hard for like half a season.  He put up a lot of blocks and even made his way onto some fantasy teams.

Edit:  Upon further investigation, it was 4 years 20 million.  Not all that much more than his rookie contract, but a hefty sum for us working stiffs.

schreibee

January 23rd, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^

The Pistons went on to great success with Darko sitting onthe bench, so hardly a career -wrecker of a move by Joe D. Would they have beaten the Spurs in '05 with Melo? Or if they could've had a better crystal ball and taken Wade or Bosh ahead of where they were predicted? Perhaps...

They were a crap team when they got JSmith, so who cared then? Or Charlie V or Ben Gordon, etc. Joe D has been flailing since the great moves that brought Rip, Chauncey, Big Ben,, etc. FLAILING...

snarling wolverine

January 23rd, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^

It's also possible that the Pistons, with Carmelo, never end up trading for Sheed - or if they do, he and Carmelo squabble and the team implodes.

People tend to assume that how the Pistons did from 2004-08 was their baseline and that they could only improve from there.  A lot of talented teams don't achieve as much as that group did.

umchicago

January 23rd, 2015 at 2:14 PM ^

i was screaming for carmelo.  he was the surest thing in that draft; even more than lebron, imo.  although, lebron obviously had more upside.  i thought they were 1 and 1A; couldn't go wrong with either guy.

funny thing is, dumars tried to trade for carmelo a few times not long after that draft.

QuemeLosBarcos

January 23rd, 2015 at 3:06 PM ^

Tier 1 - LBJ

Tier 2 - Carmelo

Teir 3 - Everyone else

Darko is the worst NBA draft pick in history. Sure, Carmelo is not a good defensive player, but the Pistons needed a scorer and had tons of defensive talent. I firmly believe that they would have won multiple championships if they would have picked Melo. It was such an obvious choice to everyone except Joe D. No way to put it except that it was a complete disaster.

Wolverine 73

January 23rd, 2015 at 5:09 PM ^

But I remember clearly that the only name discussed in Cleveland other than LeBron was Anthony, and whether we were too enamored of LBJ because he was local, while Anthony had shown what he could do winning the NCAA.  Darko's name was barely mentioned.  Surprisingly for a Cleveland franchise, the team picked the right guy.

MattisonMan

January 23rd, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^

J Smith. Most people thought Darko was good at the time of the draft. Time proved otherwise, but most people I know thought Smith was incredibly stupid at the time. I've heard of drafting for talent over need, but I've never seen that logic extend to big free agent acquisitions.

WolverineinSB

January 23rd, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^

I think it's Darko by a long shot bc u can't take a young raw player like that coming to a new country and never play him. Didn't he average like 2mins a game? I do believe that the pistons broke his confidence. Doesn't help that the next 3 picks may all be HOFers.




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Dubs

January 23rd, 2015 at 1:20 PM ^

People give Joe D a lot of shit about Darko, but Darko was VERY HIGH on many draft boards.  Now, granted, there were many many other great prospects (Wade, Melo, Bosh to name a few).  But it's not like he drafted some guy who was projected to be a journeyman in the D-League.

Dumars biggest flop was the contracts he gave veterans like Ben Gordon and Charlie V that handcuffed the team.  So I think you could lump Smith into this category.

Dubs

January 23rd, 2015 at 2:14 PM ^

Yeah, I guess that's probably not fair to him.  I tend to group he and Gordon together because both were purchased the same offseason that Dumars felt he had to fill in all that empty space on the payroll with warm bodies.

So based on contract numbers, Smith was 2x as expensive and therefore, 2x as bad for the team.

Brenskifhn1

January 23rd, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^

Given the other players coming out in the 2003 draft, that may have been the worst move of all time in the NBA. But hindsight is 20/20.

Sure would have been nice to have had Wade, Bosh, or Anthony in a Pistons Jersey.

El Jeffe

January 23rd, 2015 at 1:38 PM ^

But Bowie was a bust for more reasons than not having any rings. And the 94-95 Rockets would have given the hypothetical Jordanful Bulls all they could handle, if they even made it past the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Rockets swept the Magic, who had Shaq and Penny and won 57 games in the (then more powerful) Eastern Conference.

I think in any universe Hakeem was a more defensible first pick than Bowie was a second pick, even given what Jordan turned out to be.

Michigan4Life

January 23rd, 2015 at 10:55 PM ^

Took them a while to recover from it but now, they're a legit NBA Final contender. Dame Lillard was thought to be a reach for the Blazers but it was worth the pick for them bc of his killer instinct and ability to elevate his team. Of course, Lamarcus Alridge emerging as one of the better big guy in the league helps.




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