bstein14 wrote:Joe Dumars started out on fire as GM. It might have not looked that way at the time, because he missed out on Grant Hill and then CWebb in back to back offseasons, and his first two drafts were Mateen Cleaves and Rodney White.... but
His first trade was bringing FA Ben Wallace to town in a sign and trade.
His 2nd draft, where he took Rodney White in the first round, he got future all-star Mehmet Okur in the 2nd round.
He traded nothing for Cliff Robinson.
He traded draft mistake Cleaves for Jon Barry
He signed drafted Tayshaun Prince.
He signed Billups as a FA.
He traded Stackhouse for RIP.
He traded away the Rodney White mistake for another first rounder that ended up being Josh Smith(Later used in Sheed trade).
It's incredible what he did with that roster in his first two years with Detroit. He had a bad team with a superstar already deciding to leave in Hill and he added Big Ben, Billups, Rip, Prince, and Okur in a 2 year span as well as other solid bench/rotation players.
Not to mention his early coaching hire of Rick Carlisle ended up being a great coach in this league.
When you look at that first move, it was unreal. He's about to lose Grant Hill to free agency. That's a given. And Grant is signing with Orlando. Also a given. Dumars puts together a last-minute sign & trade to save face & get
something back in return. That
something turns out to be not only Ben Wallace, but also Chucky Adkins, who would be a very solid player for the following 3.5 seasons before being traded for Rasheed. Felt bad that he missed the 2004 ride.
Possibly the greatest last-minute throw-in trade of all time.
.
