OT: Darko Milicic finds peace as a farmer.
Here's piece on Darko Milicic, the guy the Pistons chose over Anthony, Bosh, and Wade back in '03:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/miserable-at-every-nba-stop-darko-milicic-…
Bonus SE Michigan basketball note: Oakland came from 20 down in the second half last night to beat Clemson.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/2017/03/14/oakland-stun…
March 15th, 2017 at 11:43 AM ^
Let's be fair: Darko was the consensus pick at #2. People grading that draft at the time were giving the Pistons an A. A whole bunch of people got that one wrong. It's not like it was some out-of-the-blue pick that had everyone puzzled.
there would be no Sheed. Darko was the domino effect that led the Pistons to acquire Sheed via trade.
Had we picked Wade or Carmelo, we may not have started Tayshaun Prince. Also no team with Carmelo is ever winning a championship.
Had we picked Wade or Carmelo, we may not have started Tayshaun Prince. Also no team with Carmelo is ever winning a championship.
This is an annoying criticism. Dumars did what everyone in the world expected and wanted him to do. We lucked into the #2 pick that year and didn't need an instant impact player. Everyone thought Darko was the future of an already really good team. I'd suggest that if we take Carmelo with the #2 pick we might not win a championship because he messes up the chemistry.
Be mad at Dumars for a lot of other things, but this was not a bad decision; it was bad luck. Further, it was only after this point that Dumars started making bad decisions. He put together a championship team and went out and hand picked Sheed for this team and got him for very little.
Exactly. I always remind people that if we had drafted Carmelo then we probably would not have traded to get Sheed.
I'll take it a step further and say that when drafting a 17 year old kid, in most cases, there is still a ton of developing he needs as a player and a man. Especially someone that came here alone from across the world. Goes from having very little to having a lot. We see kids going into college that still have a TON of growing up to do. Hell, we see kids leaving college still immature as hell. In my eyes, the Pistons knew they had to develop him as a person and a player. He was obviously immature. I think the Pistons failed him just as much as he failed the Pistons.
He tried to sign and trade Grant Hill for John Amichi. Orlando told him to get bent, take Ben Wallace and Chucky Adkins (who they didn't want) and like it. Ben Wallace accidentally turned into one of the best players in franchise history.
Dumars didn't "stumble into a championship team;" he built it through some great trades. Unfortunately, after they won their championship, GM's started lowballing him because they didn't want to be the next GM made to look stupid by Dumars.
But that pick was the stupidest pick in the history of the NBA draft and was the beginning of the end for Dumars.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:36 AM ^
GM would've taken Darko at #2 overall. Dumars isn't the only one who were salivating for Darko. There were talks of him getting drafted ahead of LBJ because of the hype.
I think he meant before we knew Cleveland was getting #1 in the lottery.
There weren't any debate on who was the top 2 prospect in the draft and that was LBJ and Darko then everybody else.
March 15th, 2017 at 12:20 PM ^
was the stupidest pick of all-time, everyone could see that would be a failure
I know... what the hell were the Monstars thinking?
March 15th, 2017 at 10:02 AM ^
March 15th, 2017 at 11:23 AM ^
He was like the Rick Ankiel of basketball GMs. Shined brighter than almost anyone for a few years, and then turned into a total shitshow.
March 15th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^
I actually think the criticism over the Darko pick was one of the least horrible, and most hingsight-is-twenty-twenty, mistakes he made. A lot of teams were salivating over him, it was a position of need at the time, and no one could have possibly expected Wade to be as good as he became.
He probably managed the title mostly through luck, it would appear, because after hitting on Chauncey and Big Ben at the same time, he had an abysmal streak of signings and trades to run the franchise into the ground. At a time when most other GM were rolling dice, Joe managed a seven, but as the league got smarter and more analytics focused, it left him in the dust.
Sure it was a terrible bust, but unless I'm having a false memory, the consensus view around the league was that Darko was the second most attractive player in that draft. "Can't teach tall" and coordinated was the buzz at the time, and Detroit needed to bolster its 4 or 5 to make the next step.
So I wish that D Wade had been the pick, but an awful lot of hindsight goes into the hew and cry of "Dumars was stupid".
/ducks/
The biggest problem is that it was pretty clear from the get-go that Milicic lacked the internal drive necessary to thrive in the NBA. He was born on third base as far as talent, height, ability went. And he looked at third base, and said - "oh, what a nice pillow" and napped on it.
I remember during the pre-draft workouts that he would not do one-on-one workouts and was also at strip bars (at 17), which are beet-red flags. That stated, I still think he was the consensus No.2 pick.
Here's some links I found at http://www.nbadraft.net/forum/how-good-was-darko-milicic-projected-be
2003 Nbadraft.net mock draft: http://web.archive.org/web/20030618014556/http://nbadraft.net/
2003 Nbadraft.net top prospects list: http://web.archive.org/web/20030606232724/http://nbadraft.net/2003prospe...
2003 Nbadraft.net top international prospects list: http://web.archive.org/web/20030608165819/http://nbadraft.net/internatio...
2003 CNNSI NBA mock draft: http://web.archive.org/web/20030526233155/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c...
CNNSI article explaining different talent tiers for 2003 NBA Draft: http://web.archive.org/web/20030604165352/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.c...
Articles about Darko leading up to 2003 NBA Draft: http://web.archive.org/web/20030417001158/http://seattletimes.nwsource.c... http://web.archive.org/web/20030402053618/http://www.cleveland.com/sport... http://web.archive.org/web/20030417000953/http://www.mansfieldnewsjourna...
Yeah umm, beet red flags don't usually glare at you or stick out that much there Chachi. Maybe more of the scarlet or just a plain old red next time.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:26 AM ^
I also remember reading at the time that Darko didn't even start or play that much for his Euro team. Which also seemed like a giant red flag. Like if you're supposed to be a transcendent big man, shouldn't you be playing and dominating against Euro players?
He was the consensus #2 pick in that draft. The report was that he was Dirk Nowitski with a mean streak. That couldn't have been any more of a false statement. I wanted to compare him to Aaron Curry who the Seahawks drafted #4 overall from Wake Forest who was out of the league in two years in the Stafford draft. Darko actually figured out how to block shots and got a huge contract from Minn I believe. He should still be pretty wealthy.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:56 AM ^
Total career earnings north of $52 million, per Basketball Reference, so yeah I'd say he did alright.
He was an essentially replacement-level NBA player for ten seasons, the only reason he's considered a bust is because he went second overall.* If he'd been drafted at the end of the first round (1) almost no one would remember him and (2) the people who did remember him would remember him as a mediocre but serviceable big man.
*EDIT: And yes, the fact that he was absolutely does make him a bust. Point is that he had an okay career in the end.
I didn't think it was a buzz about Darko, it was the way Dumars explained his pick after it was made. If there was any buzz about the secod best player it was Carmelo that was talked about the most, at least the way I remember it.
The one good trade Dumars made was the deal that brought Sheed here, he did luck his way through the Grant Hill sign and trade. Like many championships, a little luck and a little savvy combined got it done.
Hiring LB should be a huge credit to Joe D too, even knowing it would end badly after 2-3 years when he was hired, and only getting 2 years, it was a great move. They win nothing without both Sheed and LB.
March 15th, 2017 at 11:46 AM ^
If there was any buzz about the secod best player it was Carmelo that was talked about the most, at least the way I remember it.It was Darko. "Best international prospect ever" was the buzz on him. Carmelo was the other guy under consideration (no one was thinking about Wade or Bosh at #2) but almost everyone had Darko over him.
He turned out to be a better kickboxer than basketball player. ...and he wasn't a great kickboxer.
March 15th, 2017 at 10:18 AM ^
too much spillage. What a rookie.
attempting a dunk one night at the Palace...when the rim came from no where and blocked his dunk.
Wonder what Kwame Brown up to these days?
I wonder what Corleone Young is doing.
Being the poster boy for the NBA's age limit.
You're comparing a couple injury-saddled players with a guy with no talent or drive. Surel, both Bowie and Oden turned out to be busts, but both could ball.
Per Milicic himself, in the article, other draft busts were usually guys who wanted to but couldn't: Milicic could, but didn't want to.
It's a sad story, but he's still got a shit ton of money, a farm, his health, self-awareness (very important), and thus he gets little sympathy from me. His self-awareness makes me like him a lot more, but also makes me wonder even more about what could have been.
Great Viking name. Best Viking NBA player ever.
universally expected to be good, picked before truly great players, and couldn't blame injury for washing out.
It was a terrible pick by Dumars, but I'm not sure Carmelo would have been a good fit with the "going to work" Pistons team.
BTW-Darko was in the NBA for almost a decade and at one point got a 3 year $21 million contract from Memphis.