Darko Milicic: Scouts failure, coach failure or his failure?

[EddieJonesFan]

I'm sure the safe answer would be a little bit of all three, but basically my question is do you think Darko's potential was misdiagnosed by scouts prior to the 2003 draft or do you think he just failed to achieve his potential by poor work ethic and/or poor coaching?

[Guy986]

During a Memphis/Houston game last year, i watched as Darko held his own against Yao Ming on both ends of the floor. He defended Yao as well as any traditional big man i've seen AND he was able to score on Yao in the low block one on one.(not easy to do. Ask Dwight Howard) He had those nifty left hook that looked unstoppable against Yao.

I remember thinking how "wow, how talented is this guy". I think if Darko is motivated, he could be a dominant force. The guy is 7'1 and he can as well as any big man in the league. He's so young, i think he still has what it takes to put everything together. If only.....

[sule]

I'm gonna go with mostly a coaching failure. Sure the Detroit teams were serious contenders those years, but Milicic should've been more integrated into the team and given more playing time for development.

He was 18 when he came in the league, so obviously he wouldn't be a contributor right away, but as a raw prospect he could've been molded by Rasheed and Ben Wallace to play strong D in the paint.

He's never really shown to be a very good offensive player, but he could've been a good defensive player. He's proven he can block shots, and can rebound at a decent rate.

The whole process has probably left him bitter. It's no wonder he wants to go back to Europe.

[Guy986]

So yes, i think the issue is poor work ethic and poor attitude. If he had worked with say.. Kareem Adul Jabbar for a couple years in his earlier years like Bynumn did. The sky's the limit for this guy.

[GnarlesOakley]

A mixture of all three. Coaches never knew what to do with him, and he lacked the confidence and willpower to take control of his own fate.

[sule]

So yes, i think the issue is poor work ethic and poor attitude. If he had worked with say.. Kareem Adul Jabbar for a couple years in his earlier years like Bynumn did. The sky's the limit for this guy.

I think a coach that developed his strengths and helped him along the way could've turned him into a David Lee with better D.

Right now, though, he's looking worse than Kwame Brown.

[_SRV_]

The fact he was picked ahead of Wade, Bosh and Anthony is a scouting failure, the fact he didn't justify being a lottery pick even, if both his failure and a list of bad situations.

[EddieJonesFan]

What if Toronto had taken him, a team that could have afforded to give him big minutes right off the bat. Do you think his career would've been dramatically different, or do you think he just would've been moderately better?

If you look at all the old scouting reports and video, he does sound like he had phenom type talent. Big, long, good athlete, nice touch around the basket. But I suppose you can say the same about Olowokandi.

[NYK 455]

Mixture of the three.

[Harcore Fenton Mun]

Scouts get wood for 7 footers. People are willing to gamble that they will develope. That is all it is really, gambling that the guy could be the next dominant big. Every one loves to try and hit the home runs, but they look like fools when they strike out.

[poopdamoop]

IMO, scouts are right a lot more often than they are wrong. Most busts come from GMs making strange picks and passing over highly touted guys, and Darko was as highly touted as anyone besides LBJ in that draft. If he went to a younger team with more freedom and less pressure, I see no reason he wouldn't excel.

[Manocad]

Coaching failure my butt. Only someone outside of Detroit would say that. He was the #3 pick, for pete's sake. Everyone in Detroit WANTED him to succeed. The reason he didn't play more minutes was because he was raw, undeveloped and based on his practices, didn't show anything that warranted longer minutes. This isn't like a LeBron situation where your #1 pick is better than anyone on your whole team, and obviously he'll start and get plenty of minutes. But rest assured, Detroit did everything they could to develop Darko without hurting the team. And that's what EVERY team will do with their top draft pick; they won't hurt the team to develop one player.

[poopdamoop]

And that's what EVERY team will do with their top draft pick; they won't hurt the team to develop one player.

Yes they will. The Bulls just lost their best scorer so that they could save money and give more shots to Derrick Rose.

[Roger Murdock]

Coaching failure my butt. Only someone outside of Detroit would say that. He was the #3 pick, for pete's sake. Everyone in Detroit WANTED him to succeed. The reason he didn't play more minutes was because he was raw, undeveloped and based on his practices, didn't show anything that warranted longer minutes. This isn't like a LeBron situation where your #1 pick is better than anyone on your whole team, and obviously he'll start and get plenty of minutes. But rest assured, Detroit did everything they could to develop Darko without hurting the team. And that's what EVERY team will do with their top draft pick; they won't hurt the team to develop one player.

+1. Also helping your cause, if it was a coaching problems it means that like 5 or 6 different coaches all screwed up too, which is highly unlikely.

Its Darkos fault. Everyone sees the talent he has although hes raw. he just doesn't have the mindset to be good. Theres something wrong with him mentally. Normal people dont do stuff like this, I dont care how bad the game was reffed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci3j363HWQM

Hes might have had the worst attitude in the entire nba.

[Vindicater]

Coaching failure my butt. Only someone outside of Detroit would say that. He was the #3 pick, for pete's sake.

He was #2, Carmello was 3.

[Manocad]

And that's what EVERY team will do with their top draft pick; they won't hurt the team to develop one player.

Yes they will. The Bulls just lost their best scorer so that they could save money and give more shots to Derrick Rose.

Sorry, let me restate that...no team with intelligent management will hurt the team to develop one player.

[JonFromVA]

GM failure due to Euro inflation.

If Darko was taken with the 30th pick, nobody would care - he'd probably have a nice career as a role player, but everyone wants to uncover the next Dirk/Manu/Parker/Yao/etc, and he was simply taken in to the NBA at much to young of an age based primarily on potential and hype.

Just look at the best foreign born players in that draft. Barbossa? Diaw? Pietrus? Pachulia?!@? ... Pietrus was taken at #11 and the rest way later. Those guys are all fine picks later in the draft where most of them were taken, Detroit just reached taking Darko much like Toronto did taking Bargnani. Bogut wasn't a great pick either, but at least he played in the NCAA.

Basically the GMs need to be protected from themselves, because the allure of a high-ceiling prospect will always overwhelm the more proven player who's already demonstrated what some of his limits are.

[EddieJonesFan]

But there was (or at least seemed to be) a consensus amongst scouts that he was the second best prospect in the draft. So I don't see how you can see it was GM's inflating his value.

[Vindicater]

GM failure due to Euro inflation.

If Darko was taken with the 30th pick, nobody would care - he'd probably have a nice career as a role player, but everyone wants to uncover the next Dirk/Manu/Parker/Yao/etc, and he was simply taken in to the NBA at much to young of an age based primarily on potential and hype.
.

[Teppler]

I think D'antoni is down right creeped out towards the guys tbh. I think he has a really bad head on his shoulders.