Detroit Pistons: The Mystery Known as Joe Dumars

[mercury]

Bad
Drafting Rodney White
Drafting Mateen Cleaves
Drafting Darko
Not Re-signing Mehmet Okur
Re-Signing Rip
Coach Michael Curry
Coach John Kuester
Coach Lawrence Frank instead of Mike Woodson
Trading Billups for AI
Signing T-mac
Signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villaneuva
Re-Signing Prince

Good
Losing Grant Hill but gaining Ben Wallace & Chucky Aktins
Signing & Re-Signing Chauncey Billups
Not giving Ben Wallace a huge contract when he was on the decline
Trading Stackhouse for Rip
Trading for Sheed
Having what has appeared to be a successful summer of acquisitions (drafting, trading, signing)

There's stuff to complain about and stuff to be encouraged about. I hoping we can start looking forward to a successful path to another Championship in the future.

mostly agree, but we were actually unable to retain Memo after resigning sheed. The so called Gilbert arenas provision could have just as easily been named for okur.

And I didn't object to the Billips trade, it was what came after that created the problem.

Exactly... They changed the "two year contract" rule the following year where we could have retained Memo.
What some folks are forgetting is that Chauncey was already regressing (especially in the playoffs)... he did start off well with the Nuggets... then he went downhill (some health issues).

I agree with the bad use of the A.I. expiring... but that was an awful F.A. year... Joe would have been chastised for not making any signings... maybe he could have made a deal for the contracts but nobody knows the circumstances.

[Cowology]

Billips had more bad playoff series than good ones. Heck, he was terrible in 2004 and just about every ECF we played in, but he played great in the Finals and that is what people remember. Not him getting outplayed by guys like Boobie, Tinsley and other scrubs. We should have broken the team up several yrs earlier than we did.

There is a lot of nostalgia and revisionist history when it comes to Chauncey.

[Durins Baynes]

That makes Okur a net neutral, because if Joe really knew he'd be a good player, he'd never have signed him to a contract that guaranteed he would be unable to keep him if he did turn out to be good.

[Cowology]

That makes Okur a net neutral, because if Joe really knew he'd be a good player, he'd never have signed him to a contract that guaranteed he would be unable to keep him if he did turn out to be good.

[HotelVitale]

That makes Okur a net neutral, because if Joe really knew he'd be a good player, he'd never have signed him to a contract that guaranteed he would be unable to keep him if he did turn out to be good.

Right on, it would have been better not to sign him at all--then nobody would know he was good and we'd never have to lose him. Mind power!

[Durins Baynes]

No, it would have been better to sign him to a deal which allowed you to keep him if he turned out to be good. The fact Joe didn't do this shows he didn't really think Okur was going to be good (or he was incompetent- either way we shouldn't be giving him cred for finding Okur).

[hoophabit]

No, it would have been better to sign him to a deal which allowed you to keep him if he turned out to be good. The fact Joe didn't do this shows he didn't really think Okur was going to be good (or he was incompetent- either way we shouldn't be giving him cred for finding Okur).

Well, the credit for finding Okur should probably mostly go to Tony Ronzone and the Piston's Euro scouts at that time. The Pistons weren't the only team that got burned on that second round pick rule, and that's why it ultimately was changed. The league seems intent on changing rules either right after it might have helped the Pistons, or right after they've just won a championship.

Hey Durins, how about them Spurs?