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

[laploutocratie]

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.

[ImHeisenberg]

Joe Dumars thought he was going to be amazing. Lots of other people did as well. They were all wrong. End of story.

[sc8581]

Close thread

[chrbal]

Wade came out of nowhere. Bosh was a beanpole. Darko was going to be a once in a lifetime player. Darko could be developed. Melo would've never played for larry brown.

[Liqourish]

Let's not forget, Darko was drafted before we traded for Rasheed Wallace and went on an incredible run leading into the playoffs, let alone winning the championship and coming very close to repeating as champs. We also signed Dice which pushed Darko further down the depth chart. Darko had chances to contribute, but he had a poor attitude on and off the floor. He then went to other teams and didn't perform there either, despite showing glimpses. Eventually, you have to put onus on the player and not everyone else.

[Pharaoh]

I still believe that:

1 - we should have traded down to #3 and picked Bosh

2 - doing so still results in the Sheed trade

3 - which still results in back to back Finals

Darko was picked because everyone thought he was the next big thing at C. There wasn't any doubt he was going top 2 or 3 in that Draft!

Only one fan I know wanted us to pick Wade at #2! Obviously he was right (wasn't me)

[epheisey]

I think Darko was a victim of the Piston's success. Larry Brown was difficult to impress, and I believe, he ultimately caused irreparable damage to Darko's development. I understood Darko being on the bench during close games, against the better teams. But that 04 Pistons team was incredible defensively, setting records for points allowed. There was plenty of opportunity for Darko to make it onto the floor outside of his use as the "Human Victory Cigar". Larry Brown had the team playing hard nosed, lock down defense, and Darko was an offensive minded center, with range, something that didn't fit into LB's system. Darko had potential, but he didn't have that killer instinct or work ethic, and that along with LB's almost disinterest in Darko, floundered his development.

I personally believe that LB is the main reason for Darko's lack of early success. LB never intended to stay in Detroit, so he didn't have the incentive to build for the future. He used his vets and ran them into the ground, with great success. But, when he was done with them, he just packed up and moved on to his next stop. If Detroit had employed a coach who intended longevity, I would bet that Darko would have gotten far more attention and his development would have actually progressed.

Darko had the ability to average 17/10 with a block or two a game. But he was never brought along as a young player, and was left to essentially develop himself, IMO. Not to mention, he was barely 18 and coming from Serbia to America. That's a huge culture shock by itself, not tossing in the fact that he's in the NBA as the #2 pick, and at the time the 3rd youngest player ever in the NBA. He wasn't mentally ready for the rigors of the NBA game, and especially not under a coach like Larry Brown. There was way too much on his plate, and the organization did not do enough to ensure success. Likely because the team was winning a championship, and developing a young Serbian kid didn't seem necessary.

With LB as the coach, the Pistons needed to be drafting someone who was capable of contributing right away. I believe if we had drafted Carmelo, he would be a much better player today as a result of playing for LB.

So why did they draft him? I'm not really sure. The two positions that they needed to fill at that time were SF (Prince was still young and for the most part, unknown) and PF. I was of the opinion that they should have taken Carmelo or Bosh, but honestly, who was listening to a 13 year old kid haha. PG/SG/C were stable with Billups/Hamilton/Wallace. And honestly, the only one of those 3 I would have considered irreplaceable would have been Ben. Why they drafted a center, I don't really know.

[Collymore]

I still believe that:

1 - we should have traded down to #3 and picked Bosh

2 - doing so still results in the Sheed trade

3 - which still results in back to back Finals

Darko was picked because everyone thought he was the next big thing at C. There wasn't any doubt he was going top 2 or 3 in that Draft!

Only one fan I know wanted us to pick Wade at #2! Obviously he was right (wasn't me)

You still believe we should have picked Bosh + trade-down assets over Darko? That's bold.

[Kilo]

If Darko was picked by a different team and started/played big minutes right away - would his career have been different? I'd say yes. I think fit is very important with young players. Darko's confidence was destroyed never playing, the demanding Brown, and the veteran laden team that treated him more like a mascot. Now surely the other side argument could be made that he was soft and no matter where he landed he'd have busted and it's one of those things we'll never know. I just think that not playing and being wholly unhappy he started cashing his fat checks and trolling around town for high school girls and by the time he was traded his mentality/ethic was locked in and it was shoddy. I believe it was Barkley who said he believes teams have three years to develop habits in a player before they are what they are for the rest of their careers. I think in a better environment with a different kind of coach, younger more supportive teammates and more playing time the story of Darko would have been much different.

[Manocad]

For Pete's sake...not another one of these.

Darko was a project and everyone knew it. However given his rare skill set he had the potential for a phenomenal upside and was absolutely going top 3 in the draft. That upside never materialized with the Pistons nor with any other team for the rest of Darko's career. The Pistons didn't do anything wrong; Darko just turned out to be a bust. It happens. Remember Sam Bowie?

The End.

[Jackattaq]

For Pete's sake...not another one of these.

Darko was a project and everyone knew it. However given his rare skill set he had the potential for a phenomenal upside and was absolutely going top 3 in the draft. That upside never materialized with the Pistons nor with any other team for the rest of Darko's career. The Pistons didn't do anything wrong; Darko just turned out to be a bust. It happens. Remember Sam Bowie?

The End.

Sam Bowie had major injuries, he wasn't entirely a bust. Even after the severe injuries and his multiple comebacks he had career averages of 11 ppg 7.5 Rebs 75% FTs in only 27.5 minutes per game. That's NOT BAD. Maybe not worthy of a pick at #2 but NOT BAD. He had career best year with 15 PPG and 10 REB per game. But the man's lower body was never the same after bad knee injuries.

He was never a terrible player, he just got hit with the injury bug and never recovered to be the player that Portland had envisioned.

[Snakebites]

You'll definitely have to understand that many of us, particularly those of us who have been on these boards for a long time, are weary of answering this question, but what the hell, I'll give it a go. Two key points to understand, and I think these two really sum it all up:

1) Dumars believed he had a team on the cusp of contention as currently constructed, and that put us in a distinctly unique situation of having a top pick in such a situation.

He believed he could set the team up for long term relevance by selecting a player who wouldn't demand huge playing time right away and could be brought on a little bit more slowly. He also had the abiding belief that Tayshaun Prince was going to develop into the perfect small forward for our team, and that meant Carmelo Anthony, who would need to start right away, was not an optimal choice in his mind. The thinking was that his PT would gradually increase over the course of the next few years and by the time Big Ben was in his decline we'd have an all star big man to replace him. As it turns out, Dumars was right about the team being on the cusp (and right about Tay, who was his best draft choice), but dead wrong about Darko.

2) Hype. Darko had his promoters who hyped him as a unique talent and someone with the potential to be a transcendent player. Some GMs bought into the hype. Others, like Jerry West (who has gone on record saying if they had kept that pick they'd have never even considered him) did not. Those who didn't buy in, and there were plenty of them, were dismissed as being overly skeptical of either very young or European players, both of which were appearing at all time highs on draft boards at the time. It was a new era, many felt, and Darko was a part of it.

The media certainly bought into the hype, and so did our management. Dumars bought into it so much that we decided on him very early on and made no pretense about it. Dumars himself admits he didn't vet out his game and personality as much as he should have, and we never seriously worked out anyone else. Melo declined to workout with us because everyone already knew we were picking Darko. Bosh was worked out as a largely token gesture. Rash decision, fueled by hype and excitement surrounding a mysterious and intriguing player.




I don't see any particularly compelling evidence that he was a victim of our success. I believe he'd have busted on any team, he was just a straight up bad pick, born from misplaced hype. He was almost an urban myth among fans and some in the league, and unfortunately we're the team that had to pay for that myth being false. He had neither the attitude nor the personality to succeed in this league, all he had were physical gifts and those are useless if they're in the wrong mind.

[hoophabit]

Yeah, wouldn't have mattered who picked Darko. Every physical tool but no heart. Another example of how raw athleticism can be beguiling. I was totally wrong on that one. I remember being elated when we got him. I'd been reading for a couple of years prior to that draft in publications that gushed as to how he was "can't miss" and indeed did have transcendent talent. I drank that Kool-Aid.

[The Penguin]

Larry Brown doesn't play rookies. He didn't play LeBron in the '04 Olympics.

[Timmaytime]

lol @ this thread

Darko was a great prospect albeit raw

We were a contending team that didn't need raw prospects playing big minutes. If Darko plays 20 minutes a game we don't win

[Manocad]

For Pete's sake...not another one of these.

Darko was a project and everyone knew it. However given his rare skill set he had the potential for a phenomenal upside and was absolutely going top 3 in the draft. That upside never materialized with the Pistons nor with any other team for the rest of Darko's career. The Pistons didn't do anything wrong; Darko just turned out to be a bust. It happens. Remember Sam Bowie?

The End.

Sam Bowie had major injuries, he wasn't entirely a bust. Even after the severe injuries and his multiple comebacks he had career averages of 11 ppg 7.5 Rebs 75% FTs in only 27.5 minutes per game. That's NOT BAD. Maybe not worthy of a pick at #2 but NOT BAD. He had career best year with 15 PPG and 10 REB per game. But the man's lower body was never the same after bad knee injuries.

He was never a terrible player, he just got hit with the injury bug and never recovered to be the player that Portland had envisioned.

My point was that "s**t happens" with top draft picks that nobody foresees thus making them unworthy of their draft status.

[tmorgan]

Dumars made the pick, and it was defensible at the time.

Brown was the coach, and he clearly wasn't into player development with a championship-caliber roster.

Also, Darko is a moody, sulky ass.

[Damon_3388]

Obviously the Pistons weren't going to play Darko big minutes early on, but I don't think having him average less than six minutes per game (and only play in half the games), and then giving up and trading him mid-way through his third season was the way to go. I would have given him 10-12 minutes per game, and at least seen out his rookie contract, and assessed where he was at from there. He'd still only be 21-22 years old then, still years away from his prime.

[Lucidity]

Darko wasnt Oden or something prospect wise, he was definitely a project. He did have some major potential if EVERYTHING worked out perfectly though.

It happens though, cant fault a GM for falling in love with a 7 footer with his potential even if that full potential was a far fetch in reality.

[Phenomenonsense]

Darko was never developed under Brown. Not saying he would've been good, but he would've been far better on another team.