Posted by BigC:

Drafting Darko alone should have gotten his azz stomped out with mental boots along time ago.

ummm . . . he won the title that very same year. and came within one quarter of repeating the next.

Posted by Marv:

Posted by BigC:

Drafting Darko alone should have gotten his azz stomped out with mental boots along time ago.

ummm . . . he won the title that very same year. and came within one quarter of repeating the next.

Put Melo on that team, and the Pistons are the organization of the decade hands down. Nobody would have been seeing them for a while.

They wouldnt just be known as a one and done champ that upset the Lakers.

[Edited by - sebstar on 06-30-2009 10:56 PM]

Avery Johnson will not be the next coach of the Detroit Pistons, who are instead closing in on hiring Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach John Kuester.



Johnson, an ESPN NBA analyst, confirmed in a SportsCenter interview Tuesday afternoon that he and the Pistons have broken off contract talks after more than two days of negotiations.



Sources close to the process told ESPN.com that the job would instead go to Kuester in a deal likely to be completed later Tuesday or Wednesday.



The Pistons' pursuit of Johnson ended, sources said, because Detroit -- having paid both Flip Saunders and recently fired Michael Curry last season and still owing an estimated $5 million to Curry over the next two seasons -- was only prepared to extend a two-year offer to Johnson with a team option for a third season.



It's believed that Johnson wanted no less than the security of a four-year contract, given where the retooling Pistons stand in the Eastern Conference hierarchy after a 39-43 season and the fact that Detroit is looking for its sixth coach in team president Joe Dumars' 10 seasons running the front office. When that gap couldn't be bridged, sources said, no formal offer was made to Johnson.



"I looked at it, I was interested in it, but I was only interested in it if we could agree on a vision for the team going forward," Johnson said in the SportsCenter interview.

lame duck walking...