Why did Detroit pick Darko if he wasn't going to play?

[Pharaoh]

We didn't work Bosh as a token gesture - Bosh wanted us to pick him and wanted to impress the FO so they agreed to bring him in.

And Bosh knew we weren't going to take him but he pushed for the workout anyway. Afterwards the FO thanked him for coming, told him we were impressed but that Darko was still our pick...

The day before the Draft Bosh was brought back for another workout...because he'd once again requested it! He wanted to be a Piston! He wanted one last shot and Joe was always a player's GM.

After the 2nd workout we still picked Darko!

This is why I've always said we should have traded down for Bosh - he wanted to be a Piston!

[captainrebel]

Guys for God’s sake! Do we have to go through this every freaking year? This is not 9/11. It is not Pearl Harbor. It is of no significance to American history so why the f**k every year? It’s been since 2003 and every year there is a thread on the Darko days as if it’s the loss of a loved one. Sure there were better picks. But, as we all know, the NBA draft is a crap shoot where you can either get a diamond, a cubic zirconia, or a piece of glass. Well, Darko was not quite a piece of glass; just a lazy piece of either of the other two who refused or failed to work towards his maximum potential. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind if the pistons made the same pick if it would ensure the 2004 championship. If they had picked Wade, Anthony, or Bosh, maybe Dumars gets bold and move Billups, Prince, or Wallace. No one knows what would have happened. But, we shouldn’t blame Dumars for making a selection that every other team after Pistons would have made had they had the chance.

The Dark(o) days are over! Let us move on.

[Whisper]

Brown was an a**hole. He very publically said he wanted Carmello. His disdain for foreigners was strong. He ridiculed Darko on national television (Letterman). He set Darko up by saying he could earn playing time by practicing hard. It was reported, by teammates, that he was playing his butt off and yet Brown refused to give him minutes even when we were blowing teams out in the first half. Imagine being in a foreign country at 19 an being hated by your boss.

[Pharaoh]

IF we draft Bosh I believe Brown treats him better than he treated Darko and plays him as much as Okur...

We still do the Sheed trade cause it was a win-win deal for us: Sheed was expiring and if it failed we'd let him walk

It didn't fail obviously & instead we kept Sheed over Okur. IF we had of drafted Bosh he'd have come off the bench behind Wallace×2 - maybe we don't get Dice but if memory serves he chose us for our medical staff instead of going to Boston.

[Unclecreepy]

Guys for God’s sake! Do we have to go through this every freaking year? This is not 9/11. It is not Pearl Harbor. It is of no significance to American history so why the f**k every year? It’s been since 2003 and every year there is a thread on the Darko days as if it’s the loss of a loved one. Sure there were better picks. But, as we all know, the NBA draft is a crap shoot where you can either get a diamond, a cubic zirconia, or a piece of glass. Well, Darko was not quite a piece of glass; just a lazy piece of either of the other two who refused or failed to work towards his maximum potential. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind if the pistons made the same pick if it would ensure the 2004 championship. If they had picked Wade, Anthony, or Bosh, maybe Dumars gets bold and move Billups, Prince, or Wallace. No one knows what would have happened. But, we shouldn’t blame Dumars for making a selection that every other team after Pistons would have made had they had the chance.

The Dark(o) days are over! Let us move on.

I couldn't have said it better.
I almost wonder if this thread is a some kind of trolling?

[Warspite]

Just was going through some stats for Darko and saw how utterly paltry his minutes were during his tenure in Detroit. He averaged 4.7, 6.9, 5.6 minutes during his first three seasons -- hardly adequate for a guy the Pistons had high hopes for. He's even quoted as saying, "I've said it 10,000 times, the best way for me to improve is to play. All the work in practice and individual workouts can only help me so much."

With that being said, do you guys think Darko would have developed a lot more and become at least respectable for a player picked at his position during that draft if he had gotten minutes? Why did Detroit make that selection if Brown wasn't going to play Darko? I know with a championship team in place, it may have been hard to give him copious minutes, but I don't understand why Dumars would make that pick if he wasn't even going to get minutes. Why not pick a more NBA-ready guy?

I remember meeting Darko at Somerset and briefly talking with him, and he seemed like a genuinely good guy. I know he gets a lot of flack for busting, but I sometimes wonder if he would have been much better had his earliest years have been a more inviting situation. I believe that the first couple of years to a young and impressionable player are the most crucial in his development.

1. Darko didnt develop because he lacked work ethic.
2. The Pistons had 1 obvious hole at C. It was a long term/gift pick (the kid was 18yrs old so he was 10 yrs away from his prime)
3. No player taken in that draft would have gotten starters mins.


Darko got plenty of playing time in Orlando and Minn. He simply wasnt a hard worker that wanted to be great. He was only professional when it came to the lifestyle.

I think you forget that the Pistons were in the ECF the yr before. The pick was the Grizz pick that they owed from a previous trade. How would Dumars know if LB was going to play him or not? LB had never coached a game for Detroit when Darko was drafted and Sheed was a Trailblazer that wasnt on the trade block.

[Lucidity]

Yeah, we had no shot at Lebron obviously, we weren't taking Wade because we had Rip & no one knew Wade would turn into Wade. We were committed to Tayshaun so we weren't taking Melo. Bosh was the pick, even as he was billed as a soft jump shooting big, that was the pick on draft day in my eyes.

[whitehops]

I don't think it adds much to think about (imo) a mistake that management made over 10 years ago.

look at the teams that drafted melo, bosh and wade. the nuggets were never that good with melo and ended up trading him for a bunch of assets that never really materialized. the raps were in a similar situation as they made the playoffs a couple times but ultimately never had that much success. the heat had success that was about on par with the pistons up until 2008 when the pistons fell off, but they look like they're in for quite a few rough years.

it's obviously been a rough stretch from 2009-2014 but the bright side is that we are in a much better situation than Denver and new York, and Toronto's success and future outlook has little to do with the fact they drafted bosh.

[Pharaoh]

IMO the reason the Darko pick is viewed the way it is:

IF Joe Dumars gets that pick right we OWN the NBA for the next 5 years!

People forget the success we had, even though we picked Darko. The theory goes that if we picked Melo/Bosh/Wade we win 3+ championships instead of 1

Just goes to show some people are never happy! A lot of fan bases would kill for our run in those days

[Warspite]

The interesting what if from me is

Dumars is able to trade Darko and expirings for Sheed and 2003 and 4 trailblazer picks on draft night.

2003 Pistons draft Delfino and Barbosa
2004 Piston draft Jefferson, Smith and Martin

2005 Pistons

Billups/Barbosa
Rip/Martin
Prince/Smith
Sheed/Dyse
Ben/Jefferson

Interesting trivia about the 03 draft is that Kyle Korver was drafted by the Nets and then traded to 76ers for cash so they could pay for summer league in 2003.

[hoophabit]

It's funny that this is kind of the forbidden topic. You can talk about the Bad Boys, the 2004 team, even where Bing and Lanier fall among the great Pistons, but bring up Darko and folks get testy. Geez, I'm not that ashamed that I got it wrong?

Pharaoh, thanks for the interesting tidbit on Bosh. I had never heard that before.

[Uncle Mxy]

IF we draft Bosh I believe Brown treats him better than he treated Darko and plays him as much as Okur...

Memo would get benched by LB every time he attempted a 3, whether he made it or not.

[Redeemed]

Darko was all hype and no game. He could have played every minute of every practice and every game and never developed into anything that vaguely resembled a professional basketball player. Selecting Darko will go down as one of the greatest blunders in Detroit Pistons drafting history. We picked Darko over Wade, Melo, and Bosh.

[The Penguin]

It's funny that this is kind of the forbidden topic. You can talk about the Bad Boys, the 2004 team, even where Bing and Lanier fall among the great Pistons, but bring up Darko and folks get testy. Geez, I'm not that ashamed that I got it wrong?

Pharaoh, thanks for the interesting tidbit on Bosh. I had never heard that before.

It's been covered ad nauseam and answers to any question about it can be found using the search function.

I'm sure if you went to the Cavs page and started a thread titled "Lets talk about The Decision" or went to the Raptors board and started a "Vince Carter was really awesome" thread or started a "Ron Artest- True Feelings" thread over on the Pacers board it would go over like a fart in church. Every organization has their sore subjects and Darko is far enough away there's a whole generation of fans with no understanding that Darko was viewed as the #2 pick across the NBA universe. Heck, there were plenty of people who thought Kirk Hinrich should have been drafted over Dwayne Wade at the time.

[Manocad]

It's funny that this is kind of the forbidden topic. You can talk about the Bad Boys, the 2004 team, even where Bing and Lanier fall among the great Pistons, but bring up Darko and folks get testy. Geez, I'm not that ashamed that I got it wrong?

Pharaoh, thanks for the interesting tidbit on Bosh. I had never heard that before.

It's not forbidden and no one's getting testy. It's just been beat to death for 10 years; there's nothing left to say that hasn't already been said ad nauseum, as was previously noted. My advice to anyone is that if you're going to open a thread, pick a subject that fosters new and interesting discussion. There is nothing about Darko that will foster new and interesting discussion.

[hoophabit]

It's funny that this is kind of the forbidden topic. You can talk about the Bad Boys, the 2004 team, even where Bing and Lanier fall among the great Pistons, but bring up Darko and folks get testy. Geez, I'm not that ashamed that I got it wrong?

Pharaoh, thanks for the interesting tidbit on Bosh. I had never heard that before.

It's not forbidden and no one's getting testy. It's just been beat to death for 10 years; there's nothing left to say that hasn't already been said ad nauseum, as was previously noted. My advice to anyone is that if you're going to open a thread, pick a subject that fosters new and interesting discussion. There is nothing about Darko that will foster new and interesting discussion.

Um, okay, I didn't start the thread. Just seems to me there are always pretty strong reactions. Thing is though, as long as you're a Piston fan Darko is someone who's going to come up from time to time. Maybe I should have read it at the time, but seriously didn't know about Bosh appearing to have a strong interest. Of course, none of it really matters now.

[Manocad]

I didn't say you started the thread. I was only commenting on why people react the way they do to a thread topic that appears over and over again, and giving advice to "anyone starting a thread." If I was implying that you started the thread I'd have used "you" instead of anyone.

[Navas]

Pistons could've won five championships for the next several years undefeated and there'd still be a topic on Darko.