FACT: When young players leave our team they get BETTER!!

[ripchard32]

First of all, I am a HUGE pistons fan and have watching them ever since I can remember, however I have no idea why the HELL! we cannot develop young players? is it the playing time? is it the players we have around them? is it the coaches? is it the team chemistry? Almost EVERY young player that has left us has had a pretty good breakthrough. Brandon Knight, Amir Johnson, Aaron Afflalo, Khris Middleton, Carlos Delfino, Chase Budinger (who we shouldn't have traded) I really think we must have some sort of silly curse or something because it always feels like it happens this way. I am sick and tired of losing hidden gems and at the very least good rotation players that we could obviously have used.

[fekz]

because they've been allowed to play, bottom line!

[triplet1984]

That's part of it - but the other part of it is that Joe shows no regard for HOW PLAYERS FIT TOGETHER ON THE COURT. Almost everybody ends up playing out of position in our idiotic rosters.

The Spurs formula is this... they figure

[Mr Peanut]

Not sure what the point of this is...young players are supposed to get better as they grow and mature and refine their game, whether they be with the Pistons or another team.

You've listed quite a few players that have looked better since leaving our club. What about Austin Daye? Dajuan Summers? Walter Sharpe? Terrico White? Vernon Macklin? Kim English? Darko?

The only players you could have serious gripes over Joe letting go are Afflalo and Amir, the rest are never going to be huge factors in this league.

[Q00]

Why do so many people want to be the Spurs when they haven't won anything in 7 years? That formula doesn't seem to be working too well for them anymore.

I don't think any player we traded became any better than they were expected to become. Afflalo was a very good player here and projected to be good longterm. He was just young still and they were looking for more win now players at the time (as with all these guys). So now that they are in their primes they are producing more, but they pretty much are what they were here in terms of ability/talent.

Whats so great about Delfino anyways? Is he even still in the league? Also, Budinger was never even on this team, and isnt anything special anyways.

What have Knight/Middleton done to make them any better than they were here? They are both pretty much the same players just getting more opportunity. Knight still isn't a PG and Middleton is still a good shooter. We needed a PG, so in order to get it we had to trade them. Starting PG > shooter role player all day. So not sure why anyone would have regrets about that deal just because Middleton is proving to be a good shooter/role player. That;s what he was when we traded him, and all he will ever likely be. Knight is a scorer who can't run an offense and can't shoot. So what did we need him for more than a real starting PG?

Amir took 9 years to get to the level he is now. You really wanted to spend 9 years developing a guy just so he can give you 11/7 one day?

Afflalo is the only player of this list that I would like to still have on this team right now. I liked him better than Stuckey from day one and hated the Gordon signing. So giving him up just to have enough to sign Gordon was not something I cared for at the time or now. But it is what it is, its unfortunate in the Afflalo case, buut I'm not going to get mad about giving up a bunvh of average role players like the others, and making a bad decision on one young player....it happens to every team.

[ripchard32]

Not sure what the point of this is...young players are supposed to get better as they grow and mature and refine their game, whether they be with the Pistons or another team.

You've listed quite a few players that have looked better since leaving our club. What about Austin Daye? Dajuan Summers? Walter Sharpe? Terrico White? Vernon Macklin? Kim English? Darko?

The only players you could have serious gripes over Joe letting go are Afflalo and Amir, the rest are never going to be huge factors in this league.

First of all I did say "almost" every player, there will always be players that just can't play. Now the players I have listed didn't just have "gradual" improvement when they left. They literally almost "exploded" once they reached their new team. Fact is, when they were on the pistons they just didn't play as well.

[ripchard32]

Why do so many people want to be the Spurs when they haven't won anything in 7 years? That formula doesn't seem to be working too well for them anymore.

I don't think any player we traded became any better than they were expected to become. Afflalo was a very good player here and projected to be good longterm. He was just young still and they were looking for more win now players at the time (as with all these guys). So now that they are in their primes they are producing more, but they pretty much are what they were here in terms of ability/talent.

Whats so great about Delfino anyways? Is he even still in the league? Also, Budinger was never even on this team, and isnt anything special anyways.

What have Knight/Middleton done to make them any better than they were here? They are both pretty much the same players just getting more opportunity. Knight still isn't a PG and Middleton is still a good shooter. We needed a PG, so in order to get it we had to trade them. Starting PG > shooter role player all day. So not sure why anyone would have regrets about that deal just because Middleton is proving to be a good shooter/role player. That;s what he was when we traded him, and all he will ever likely be. Knight is a scorer who can't run an offense and can't shoot. So what did we need him for more than a real starting PG?

Amir took 9 years to get to the level he is now. You really wanted to spend 9 years developing a guy just so he can give you 11/7 one day?

Afflalo is the only player of this list that I would like to still have on this team right now. I liked him better than Stuckey from day one and hated the Gordon signing. So giving him up just to have enough to sign Gordon was not something I cared for at the time or now. But it is what it is, its unfortunate in the Afflalo case, buut I'm not going to get mad about giving up a bunvh of average role players like the others, and making a bad decision on one young player....it happens to every team.

Since we "knew" these player' potentials and what they were gonna be why the hell did we trade them? To win now? Ok that makes sense, but what doesn't make sense is giving away some of these while we were on our decline. Why not just give them a chance since we were going into rebuilding anyway, which is what every team did and the player have gotten better. Brandon Knight is a lot better than what he was given credit for he has improved with the bucks especially on the defensive end and if I'm not mistaken he is averaging more assists so his passing and PG vision is steadily increasing. I don't like when us fans are so quick to write off a "mistake" when we CONSTANTLY do it. And that we are so quick to dismiss the obvious fact that early in their careers all the players on our 2003-2004 championship team were only looked as possible "rotation/role players" Good coaching and effective training does wonders.

[Q00]

^Because we were trying to have a "seamless transition" from one era to the next without having to bottom out. Whether you agree with that thinking is up to you, but that was reason they opted for the win now players over youth at the time.

Personally I didn't have a problem with Joe trying to do transistion that way. I wanted them to keep winning as long as possible as a fan, not watch them be a lottery team. It didn't work though, in big part because of the ownership problem, but also because of trading Chauncey. I think they couldve had that seamless transition with Chauncey guiding the ship instead of Stuckey.

But then we probably never have Drummond/Monroe right now, and instead feature Afflalo/Amir as our franchise players . So maybe it all worked out for the best lol

[ComboGuardCity]

The spurs were a free throw away from winning the title q00

[ImHeisenberg]

I love how "fact" is capitalized in the thread heading, and yet not a single fact was given.

Knight is still Knight, he will have a good scoring game, then crap the bed the next game (like tonight). Middleton looks better because he's finally getting a chance to play. But, it's not as if either Knight or Middleton are helping their team win any games.

Aaron Afflalo, like above, was finally given a real opportunity in Denver. Chase Budinger is perpetually injured, so I could care less about that move. When's the last season Chase didn't need a mid-season surgery?

Anyways, I will concede that Detroit's player development is kind of a joke compared to some notable teams development programs. But, it's not like anyone had a revolutionary breakthrough just because they were on another team. These are the same players, with the same warts and bumps, in a different situation with more opportunity.

[ripchard32]

I love how "fact" is capitalized in the thread heading, and yet not a single fact was given.

Knight is still Knight, he will have a good scoring game, then crap the bed the next game (like tonight). Middleton looks better because he's finally getting a chance to play. But, it's not as if either Knight or Middleton are helping their team win any games.

Aaron Afflalo, like above, was finally given a real opportunity in Denver. Chase Budinger is perpetually injured, so I could care less about that move. When's the last season Chase didn't need a mid-season surgery?

Anyways, I will concede that Detroit's player development is kind of a joke compared to some notable teams development programs. But, it's not like anyone had a revolutionary breakthrough just because they were on another team. These are the same players, with the same warts and bumps, in a different situation with more opportunity.

Ironically I find a lot of our "fans" thinking this way then regretting it later when we actually need a player of the position that we gave away and see how they are doing now aka Amir Johnson (pre-drummond) Aaron Afflalo when we all hated Rip, Delfino when we needed a consistent scorer off the bench. We always live to regret our words and getting rid of Knight will be no different. For all we know he could be Kwame Brown but he could also be Jennings V2 with our luck it's most likely the latter

[joseph mamah]

that's what happens when you play guys to their strengths rather than constantly trying to fit square pegs into round holes

[ARoS]

I would rather have Singler than Middleton, and Knight has nothing on Jennings. So what's the beef...

[zeebneeb]

The grass, is always greener....

[Billl]

Young players are supposed to get better, but the only guy you listed that is actually any good is afflac. I'm not losing sleep over us not "developing" more marginal rotation players.

[ImHeisenberg]

The grass, is always greener....

Well, the grass looks brown dead, and salted in some areas right now.

[Billl]

"Well, the grass looks brown dead, and salted in some areas right now. "

That's crazy. We've got the most promising young frontcourt in the league. Short of drafting the next lebron, I'm not sure you can ask for a better base to build around.

[momed11]

"Well, the grass looks brown dead, and salted in some areas right now. "

That's crazy. We've got the most promising young frontcourt in the league. Short of drafting the next lebron, I'm not sure you can ask for a better base to build around.

Except monroe is gone. The grass was greener till Joe D opted for mediocrity now over potential dominance later.

[Clarity]

"Well, the grass looks brown dead, and salted in some areas right now. "

That's crazy. We've got the most promising young frontcourt in the league. Short of drafting the next lebron, I'm not sure you can ask for a better base to build around.

This is good perspective but he has a point with the silly "win now" narrative costing us potential dominance down the road.

I certainly understand the frustration with the Josh signing, I was right there scratching my head as well but whats done is done.

However even as tough as its been, its not like there isnt insane hope. Regardless Drummond is the lone hope we have in becoming great again, that hasnt changed. Josh's & Jennings, even a 23 yr old already as good as Monroe is only a side kick at best to Drummond is he reaches his potential.

[Kyrama]

Fact: When young players leave our crappy team to become first or second options on other crappy teams they look better