"tell the world, we're ready to spend"

[Sheeeeed]

I don't know the answer to these, but I'm curious:

- How many NBA owners live and conduct most of their work in a state their franchise does not reside?

- How many NBA owners who have won NBA titles have lived and conducted most of their work in a state their franchise does not reside?

I have argued that Gores can't have the passion for this franchise that true fans have if he's not In the area to live and breathe the Pistons...not only is he not in the area, he's about as far away as he can be.

So I wonder what the answers are, and just how telling they may be.

Davidson owned the Tampa Lightning at one time, does that mean he didn't care about the team because he didn't live there, or go to all the games? Where the owner lives, or how many games they go to has no relevance to winning a championship.

Gores isn't some 70 year old man that's retired that can go to all the game. Hes got a business to run.

[ImHeisenberg]

"Tell the world we're ready to spend.....all our money on bad players!"

[Snakebites]

The only move I think can fairly be pinned on Gores is the move to cough up a future first rounder to unload Ben Gordon.

Well, that and the decision to keep Dumars around when he bought the team, of course.

[ImHeisenberg]

The only move I think can fairly be pinned on Gores is the move to cough up a future first rounder to unload Ben Gordon.

Well, that and the decision to keep Dumars around when he bought the team, of course.

I think we're all holding our breath to see how bad of an owner Gores really is.

[Snakebites]

The only move I think can fairly be pinned on Gores is the move to cough up a future first rounder to unload Ben Gordon.

Well, that and the decision to keep Dumars around when he bought the team, of course.

I think we're all holding our breath to see how bad of an owner Gores really is.

Well, keeping Dumars around for 3 offseasons of terror is already damning enough for me.

[jakebernat]

it's still tough for me to wrap my head around the fact that we gave up a 1st rounder to sign josh smith.

[Hotmayo]

The only move I think can fairly be pinned on Gores is the move to cough up a future first rounder to unload Ben Gordon.

Well, that and the decision to keep Dumars around when he bought the team, of course.

I think we're all holding our breath to see how bad of an owner Gores really is.

Well, keeping Dumars around for 3 offseasons of terror is already damning enough for me.

Dumars has drafted well those years. Can't have it all

[mercury]

Bill Davidson's death has destroyed this franchise. The absolute worst thing that could have happened was the team being bought by someone who knows nothing at all about basketball or how the NBA works.
I have defended Joe D forever but Stucky returning is the last straw for me with him.
The only hope now is if Gores sells ASAP.

gores is real dumb. Needs to sell the team. It's looking like he's made a mistake buying the pistons. Should've let illitch but it. Poor joe has to exit this way. Would've liked to have seen him succeed one more time but gores seems to know it all.

I agree to an extent. While Joe's moves this summer were just dumb and dumber, part of that has to be external pressure from Gores to "win now".

Even then, a smart GM would have the foresight to see that Smith would have been a terrible fit and that Jennings attitude problems were more severe than he perceived them to be.

Selling to Mike Illitch isn't exactly a long term fix either, in hindsight. I believe he's sick, correct? In that case, the team would likely have gone through another sale period which would have been painful.

Either way- I believe Gores views this like any other investment and plans to exit the business in 5-7 years. I believe Gores' main motivation for playoffs is that it increases the value of the team. I doubt he honestly cares about winning in the sense that Davidson or the fans do.

True that we tend to think all moves were made by Joe... with the Gores clan they may have out smarted themselves... I'll be waiting for Joe's take on the past few years... hopefully he owns up to his failures and tells the truth about external influences... Joe Dumars book = best seller... would love to hear about trade talks and negotiation... best guess he takes the high road.
Say what you want but he has always been a class act.
Basketball decisions should be left to those that understand the game.

[Pharaoh]

One could argue Gores sacrificed ONE first round pick in order to spend.

One could also argue that signing off on the contracts of Smith & Jennings proves Gores was willing to spend money.

We can debate all night long if those 2 were the right people to spend money on but the fact us we don't know if their signings are on Gores or Joe or a combination if the 2!

Joe is the VP of Basketball Operations....all basketball matters go through him. Was he over-ruled on the Smith & Jennings deals? We'll probably never know. IF he was dude should have walked (or threatened to) since he was over-ruled on Woodson

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[Sheedpocalypse]

Tom Gores better get 'ready to spend' a lot of time unravelling this mess...

[wallace72]

Tom Gores better get 'ready to spend' a lot of time unravelling this mess...

You bet Gores is going to clean up this mess,
maybe not by himself, but he's gone have his people work for him!
I'm sure he's gone surround him with the right people and knowledge
about the game.
He's not stupid, he takes care about the money like we do with ours, even
for a billionare!

[theBigLip]

I'm not sure why everyone is so down on Gores. He is willing to spend. Unfortunately, he trusted a GM that has won a championship. I'm sure it was Dumars' plan for Jennings and Smith. Didn't work. Gores knows that and is sacking Dumars in a respectful way. I'm really going to judge Gores on the next GM he hires and if he is willing to spend this summer to make the team better.

[ImHeisenberg]

I'm not sure why everyone is so down on Gores. He is willing to spend. Unfortunately, he trusted a GM that has won a championship. I'm sure it was Dumars' plan for Jennings and Smith. Didn't work. Gores knows that and is sacking Dumars in a respectful way. I'm really going to judge Gores on the next GM he hires and if he is willing to spend this summer to make the team better.

But, don't you question Gores ability to evaluate Dumars' motives? He was a lame duck, looking to save his job by chasing short term gains over long term goals. Which, it blew up in his face like any plan like this does.

[theBigLip]

I'm not sure why everyone is so down on Gores. He is willing to spend. Unfortunately, he trusted a GM that has won a championship. I'm sure it was Dumars' plan for Jennings and Smith. Didn't work. Gores knows that and is sacking Dumars in a respectful way. I'm really going to judge Gores on the next GM he hires and if he is willing to spend this summer to make the team better.

But, don't you question Gores ability to evaluate Dumars' motives? He was a lame duck, looking to save his job by chasing short term gains over long term goals. Which, it blew up in his face like any plan like this does.

Gores wanted to make the playoffs. We were close the year before. Drummond was going to be 100% healthy. Seems like not a big stretch. Jennings can still be considered an upgrade over Knight, although there are still issues. The big question marks for me is approving Smith's contract and, after it became obvious we weren't going to make the playoffs, to not do something at the trade deadline.

So the big long term/short term tradeoff was really Smith, so I'll agree with you there. But I'm still willing to give Gores another year before casting judgement. And ever the optimist, I do think we will be in the playoffs next year, although that's not saying too much being in the East.

[Clarity]

Tom Gores better get 'ready to spend' a lot of time unravelling this mess...

Preach

[Pharaoh]

I admit I find it funny that some people blame Gores for the state of the roster.

Joe is responsible for the roster!

Even assuming Gores wasn't a fan of the Smith and Jennings acquisitions should the owner over-rule the GM? Isn't that meddling?

You can't have it both ways:

Either you want Gores to meddle or you want him to STFU and let the VP of basketball operations/GM do his job.

And demanding the playoffs for this season wasn't a stretch when he mentioned it. Drummond, Monroe + #8 + a load of cap space in a conference with only 4-5 good teams and 4-5 going for the tank?

Playoffs was a reasonable goal. Joe simply blew it

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