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When I have spare time, I often write random articles about the NBA and submit them to a site. If my articles get a good amount of pageviews, I get paid but that doesn't really matter to me as it is never substantial enough to matter. Anyways, last night I made a list of the top-ten worst NBA moves of the last half-decade. Here is my list;

10. Pistons draft Darko
9. Lakers trade Butler for Kwame
8. Hawks pass on Chris Paul/Deron Williams
7. Nuggets sign-and-trade for K-Mart
6. Magic draft Fran Vasquez
5. Raptors trade Vince Carter for, basically, Joey Graham
4. Bulls sign Big Ben
3. Magic trade T-Mac for, basically, nothing
2. Cavs let Boozer out of his rookie contract
1. Knicks hire Isiah Thomas as GM, then later coach

Anything I'm missing here? I did my best to remember everything from the last five years but I might have forgot some. I didn't include any deals from this season or last summer. Too early to tell on most of them. I put the Butler trade low because Kwame just turned into Pau. I don't think anything else needs much explanation.

I already wrote out the article and submitted it, but I wanted to see what you guys thought.

The Grizz not getting more for Pau. Youd think a big guy who's 27 with that much skill would fetch more.

Id move the Darko selection and the passing of Paul/Deron higher. Marvin has been good, but he's not nearly as good or as needed as one of those would have been.

To be fair, K-Mart has been hurt and that's really nobody's fault. He's a starter, now, and is performing decently.

I agree with a lot, but the Darko draft needs to move higher, considering how good the next 5 guys turned out.

Pistons#1 wrote:The Grizz not getting more for Pau. Youd think a big guy who's 27 with that much skill would fetch more.

Id move the Darko selection and the passing of Paul/Deron higher. Marvin has been good, but he's not nearly as good or as needed as one of those would have been.

Pau trade would be on there but I left out all trades/moves from last summer and this season. Too early to judge most of those deals.

I agree that the draft pick ones could have been moved higher, but I left Darko kind of low because Joe D. had the good sense to trade him at the exact right time and Stuckey could still pan out. Plus our team hasn't suffered much in the short-term from the decision, and it is easy to see LB's grating style driving Melo or Bosh out of Detroit just like he did with Darko.

I'd personally have the Darko fiasco a bit higher based on the notion that it effected potential championships. Add any of Wade, Bosh or Melo to this roster and we're raising at least 1 or 2 more banners.

How many of those other moves or non-moves would have resulted in championships?

Passing on Paul/Deron looks pretty bad too, though.

Not drafting Darko doesn't gaurantee that Detroit would have won more championships. That's flawed logic. Who's to say Wade/Bosh/Melo would have been the players they are today if they had played their rookie seasons on the Pistons in 04?

Hell only one of those players has won a championship and took Shaq to do it. In this decade, if you don't have Shaq or Duncan, you don't have a championship besides the 04 Pistons. So please spare me the "what ifs".

Hunter wrote:I'd personally have the Darko fiasco a bit higher based on the notion that it effected potential championships. Add any of Wade, Bosh or Melo to this roster and we're raising at least 1 or 2 more banners.

How many of those other moves or non-moves would have resulted in championships?

I'd put Darko as #1 for that reason. That could potentially go down as the single worst draft pick ever.

Liqourish wrote:Not drafting Darko doesn't gaurantee that Detroit would have won more championships. That's flawed logic. Who's to say Wade/Bosh/Melo would have been the players they are today if they had played their rookie seasons on the Pistons in 04?

Hell only one of those players has won a championship and took Shaq to do it. In this decade, if you don't have Shaq or Duncan, you don't have a championship besides the 04 Pistons. So please spare me the "what ifs".

lol c'mon now. Being drafted by the Pistons might stunt their development but we're still talking about supremely talented players here. At worst they'd be strong bench players, which is something we lacked in '05 when we lost game 7 to SA and the following year when we lose to (a Wade lead) Heat.

I think pretty much everybody on this board should be able to agree that had we drafted another player we'd likely have won at least 1 more championship. We weren't so far away that one more solid piece wouldn't have made a difference.

^ uhh, Michael Jordan went #2. I'd say that was a bigger travesty than Darko going #2.

Jordan wasn't drafted in the last 5 years.

Edit - nvm, thought you were responding to me, which is why I was confused.

Anyway, I don't think Jordan being drafted #2 was that big of a travesty.

Hunter wrote:Jordan wasn't drafted in the last 5 years.

"That could potentially go down as the single worst draft pick ever."

Liqourish wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



"That could potentially go down as the single worst draft pick ever."

yeah, I just edited my post. I realized you were referring to somebody else after. You put a "^" in your post that was pointing to mine. Just a lil misunderstanding here.

Well you were posting as I was replying you type faster.

Umm Jordan was #3 guys, not #2..

#1 Hakeem (you could argue still about picking him ahead of Jordan) #2 Sam Bowie, #3 Jordan

Darko draft pick is being talked about now and for years to come as one the worse draft selections in history.

mattyj wrote:Umm Jordan was #3 guys, not #2..

#1 Hakeem (you could argue still about picking him ahead of Jordan) #2 Sam Bowie, #3 Jordan

And Bowie could have been very good if not derailed by injuries. Conventional wisdom says to take the bigman, which is why I don't think it was that big of a travesty. It's not the same as say, drafting a Darko or Kwame ahead of Jordan, ya know.

mattyj wrote:Umm Jordan was #3 guys, not #2..

#1 Hakeem (you could argue still about picking him ahead of Jordan) #2 Sam Bowie, #3 Jordan

Same difference, let's not get all technical now.

Detroit got Memphis' draft pick, went on to win a championship, got a nice young guard and cap room for the draft pick and now the draft pick is in Memphis.

Detroit was NEVER going to draft Wade, period. It was between Bosh and Darko. If you want to argue what Bosh could have done here... go for it. I still don't get the big deal out of Joe going for the big with the biggest upside. It didn't pan out, it happens. Detroit hasn't exactly suffered for it.

Liqourish wrote:Same difference, let's not get all technical now.

Detroit got Memphis' draft pick, went on to win a championship, got a nice young guard and cap room for the draft pick and now the draft pick is in Memphis.

Detroit was NEVER going to draft Wade, period. It was between Bosh and Darko. If you want to argue what Bosh could have done here... go for it. I still don't get the big deal out of Joe going for the big with the biggest upside. It didn't pan out, it happens. Detroit hasn't exactly suffered for it.

That coming from the position that drafting another player WOULDN"T have resulted in another championship, which again, I do NOT agree with. I'd say it has cost us and rather dearly.

And Bowie could have been very good if not derailed by injuries. Conventional wisdom says to take the bigman, which is why I don't think it was that big of a travesty. It's not the same as say, drafting a Darko or Kwame ahead of Jordan, ya know.

WHAT?!?!?!?

Conventional wisdom says to take the bigman? But drafting bigman Darko over Wade (who wasn't even expected to go top 5) is a travesty?