OT - Joe Dumars to Resign
WDIV just reported that Joe Dumars is resigining. Not exactly a shock.
I understand your point, and as a lifelong Tigers fan I wasn't disagreeing with you. I remember '03 (119 losses) and Juan Gonzales. SO I completely get the comparison, but I think my point was more or less that it's easier to dig yourself out of a rough patch in baseball by throwing money into the team, a new stadium, and upper management with proven success.
I think if you told me that Gores was going to hire someone of Dombrowski's caliber I would be more patient with him. Dombrowski had won a world series with the Marlins of all teams. So tell me who they are going to go out and get that's on that level? With Joe D in charge (and I love Joe D the player, and early GM) the Pistons are digging a hole that is going to take a lifetime to get out of. If Gores wanted autonomy over coaching changes he should've fired Joe D immediately or made that very clear. He didn't and they ended up with a public dispute over who would coach the team. I don't think Woodson would have mitigated the tire fire that is the current roster, but he was certainly a better choice than Frank. At this point, you are right, the jury is still out on Gores as an owner, but I would also argue the clock is ticking and soon he is going to have the Pistons buried under a situation where there's no good short term outcome. If you are telling me we have to wait 3-4 more years for a winner, then I would say Gores should just move the damn team to Seattle or Tampa. We would be better off with a new franchise/clean slate.
and he's done absolutely nothing in the 3 years since then to show he has any competence in basketball decisionmaking or that he's smart in general.
Umm what not? You don't get to be worth 2.5 billion by being dumb, unless you inherit wealth.
THEY'RE GOING TO RE-SIGN HIM!? HOW LONG WILL HIS NEW CONTRACT BE?!?!
I typed up a pretty long post but then my browser randomly went back a page (does this happen to anybody else?) and I lost it.
The tl; dr was
The guy operated under the eyeball test and trusting word of mouth. He telegraphed his man crushes on both free agents and draft picks, broadcasting his preference for Stuckey/Darko/Daye for weeks in advance and Webber/McGrady/Smith/Iverson for years.
I was a sympathizer for a long time until I realized how much luck actually went into his successes. He clung to an exhausted blueprint by keeping the 2004 core around way past its expiration date and then tried to reload using the same blueprint! He never, ever adapted to the league. The last straw was when he made the major mistake of bringing in Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon and then did the SAME thing four years later with Smith and Jennings.
Inexcusable.
After the 3rd or 4th time, I wanted to throw my computer out of the window so now whenever I type anything long, I may sure to select all and copy it. That way if it happens I can paste it right back.
signing Smith and Jennings are an act of desperation move when Gores told him Playoff or get fired. The problem is when a GM is on a life support with an ultimatium, they will make moves that looks good on paper talent wise, but are bad signings long term. You need a owner who will support the GM and preach patience so the GM can make the right moves long terms instead of rash signings like Jennings and Smith.
Not saying Joe D should be freed of blame, but when you have that kind of situation, GM tends to make stupid signings.
I've heard rumblings that it was Gores that forced Dumars to sign Smith. No evidence of this, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Sure he was a great player and he brought the Pistons the 2004 title, but he's been a failure at his job since then.
He's gotten paid A LOT of money and this is part of the job. It's not like he didn't get a fair shot. It's not like he can't feed his family. It's not like he's all of a sudden Will Smith from Pursuit of Happiness.
Why should ANYONE shed a tear for Dumars? Why should fans not be allowed to celebrate the change?
This is a grown man who was GM of a major sports team in America. This wasn't some 3rd grade teacher getting paid 25k a year. This wasn't me or you who aren't even close to a position, and likely a salary like Dumars had.
It's part of his position. It's part of the game. He knew when he signed up, he was going to make millions of dollars, have a shit ton of responsibility and be judged on the performance of the team he put on the floor.
Did he not get enough time? Was he not compensated fairly? What is so unjust that people can't rejoice in the change? Joe Dumars losing his job is not the same as everyone else losing their job.
It may be in poor taste, but is that REEEALLY the most distasteful thing in sports or on MGoBlog? No. Doing a Tuesday morning happy dance to this news is not. It comes with the territory - especially in sports - especially in professional sports.
Joe D makes millions and I don't; why is that a reason I should criticize him? Neither I nor anyone else is going, oh what a terrible thing for a man to lose his job in this woeful economy. Yes, I'm glad that it means that the Pistons have a better chance to improve - that doesn't have to mean being a classless dick about it and forgetting the good stuff he did. Focusing on only the bad is a pretty bitter and unpleasant way to go through life.
It's just psychology. We're programmed to to have more potent and easily recalled unpleasant memories than pleasant ones.
and
It's also personal. Joe Dumars has led me down the path of drinking to forget. I can't help if the good old days of six years ago got swept up in the mercy blackout.
I said it's part of his job. Plain and simple.
Don't twist my words so you can cry some more.
Its also that Dumar has become a sort of easy scapegoat for the difficulties in transitioning ownership. It's easy to critize him for his moves in recent years but these moves also need to be considered in relation to the difficult context where he was sometimes operating with his hands tied.
Hindsight is 20/20 but perhaps it would have been wiser for Dumars to step away at the end of the Davidson era.
he is going to join Matt Millen and they will be the next great announcing duo.
Being upset about him not taking Melo is stupid. Why is it that the Knicks usually aren't any better or worse when he's out of the lineup? He just doesn't win.
The rest of the stuff on the other hand, okay. But at least we have a championship, another championship appearance, and 6 straight trips to the conference finals.
just like the rest of the GMs at the time. There was a time where Darko was once considered to be a better prospect than LeBron.
"There was a time where Darko was once considered to be a better prospect than LeBron."
Please show me ONE link that supports this crazy notion.
there are many many reasons Joe "deserved' to be able to resign (on his own terms): 1987-1991, 2004-07 and a few others that weren't too bad.
Joe was given the chance to resign both because he is a Pistons legend and because he brought the franchise back from mediocrity, going to 6 straight ECF, 2 Finals, and winning 1 championship. He was given such a long leash because he earned it and because of the whole Karen Davidson fiasco. This was his make or break or break season, and he failed to deliver. He deserves to be fired, but his contract is up and they didn't want to make their Bad Boys celebration awkward, so they choose to let him ride out the season. I think that was a classy decision by Gores.
I grew up on the original Bad Boy Pistons and loved Joe D as a player. Loved him even more as a GM initially when he brought in the missing link of a championship team, Sheed. I'm not going to miss his head scratching free agent signings over the last few years. That's what did him in. I think his early successes and the draft blunder that was Darko eventually made him desperate for more success, which led to some of the shitty moves he's made in more recent memory. Hopefully they don't bring in Zeke, but someone who actually knows what they're doing so they can clean out the garbage and build around some of the better young players the Pistons have.
so I guess it is only fitting the rest of him do the same. Really, has there ever been such a dramatic turn around in a GM's performance? Dumars went from Jerry West in the first half of his career to Matt Millen in the second half.
I feel bad that he's gone. People like to crap on him, but he took a turrible situation and turned it into one of the more prolonged stretches of success a non-San Antonio team has enjoyed in decades. Yes, his last couple of years have been down, but I'm looking forward to everyone here crapping on the guy they bring in.
And honestly, you throw out the Darko pick and his drafting record is perfectly acceptable.
And you're reaching on KCP. Don't need to crucify the poor kid for not being Trey Burke.
That being said please trade Josh Smith on Draft day.
Gores is clearing the deck for Izzo.
The question is, will Izzo take the Pres/GM role, and set up one of his cronies as the coach; or will he coach and hire someone to run the front office? Either way, I think Steve Smith is coming back to Detroit.