Yes, Italian league is way better than Hemofarm ( whatever that place was called ) What kind of stats are 9.7 PPG and 4.6 RPG in the Italian league? Would we have any guarantees that he would not stay there for a couple of years. Why was Okur a late 2nd rounder and the golden boy DM's top 10? A Jump shooting 7'er is a jump shooting 7'er.
That's good enough and very true. The problem is that the Pistons have to make every accumulation a "starter" accommodation. There is no room for error and JD has backed himself into such a corner, that any mistake from draft-pick, S/T and MLE will add one extra year away from competitiveness. Each miscue adds one additional year. Irrevelant...the Pistons do not have the time to wait your way out.
I beg to disagree. They do not have the time to be impatient. Dumars has to act like he has been here before. He has. He has been at the bottom. And he has climbed out. As long as he does not convey panic or lack of a plan, he will get a second chance to raise the titanic. Whether he can get an opportunity to pull it off depends entirely on his capacity to move with self-assurance and grace, genuine or otherwise.
Will you believe in black swans before you ever witness one? The standards for Alpha and Omega are not the same. The first shall be the last and the last shall be first. All of life is ironic. I'm not worried. Yet.
If he trades Rip then things really are not that bad contract wise. Yea, overpaid a bit for Gordon and CV but just about every team has that problem.
With 2 down years so far of Piston teams with substandard regular season records, I see another 8 years of frustration before this gets straightened out. I base that on... 1. Joe's current ability to find talent. 2. Quality Free agents who are willing to sign here. 3. Luck of the draft. 4. Inability of players to mesh these last few years. Many here have speculated that without injuries, we would be in much better shape. I do not hold that opinion. I'm figuring that Joe has 3 more years to show improvement, then he will be replaced. Joe was able to assemble the last team by finding an amazing amount of "diamond in the rough" players. I'm just afraid his luck has run out.
I think that 5 year max contract deal really helps teams not stay bad for very long - at least not how it used to be. I remain confident. People have always said that Detroit is not a popular destination but we have always managed to attracted what we needed to - just been signing the wrong ones lately.
