i'm sure if dumars drafted melo, then he probably used his expiring deals to land shareef instead of sheed. so he would still have two centers, ben and okur, and a PF that can score in shareef and still has another year on the deal so he could keep both.

agreed with everyone, the jury is still out but melo is melo. nobody knows about darko. dumars felt he had the luxury to wait and allow a player to develop while the team wins now. the difference is that i think the team could've won a title NOW instead of just treading water (2nd round) during the time of darko's development.

remember tsikovilis (whatever his name is) that denver drafted 4th overall last season. what happened to him? he actually regressed his 2nd season.

yea DJ: his name was Nikoloz Skitizvili, he was a bust and actually Denver wants to move him now, and he was a guy who was said to have all the potential in the universe. My point is in the NBA you don't get many chances to put together good teams that compete for a title, but when you get it, take advantage, melo on the pistions team could have put them in the finals, that was the scorer they needed but not only that melo is a go to guy, and a guy who can do multiple things, they needed him now, while they had wallace, Rip, and billups playing at the top of their games....

Larry Brown was not with the Pistons when they made their draft pick.

biggest problem I see with that team is Brown wants to win NOW and they are rebuilding at the same time.

RJ showed some nice heart at crunch time. Nets bench is thin, the starters are exausted.

ITs been an interesting series, reminds me of some of those old Heat-Knick games where they would just grind it out.

All of a sudden, just because, Detroit passes over Melo, Pistons blow a chance to go to the finals?
What comic book are you reading? Too bad for Detroit drafting Tayshaun Prince and developing his game for team bball only to be replace the following year by Melo….I don’t think soooo. That’s right, Melo was suppose to replace Prince, or maybe Prince should’ve sat on the bench waiting for a Melo injury to get minutes ?….nope

Look here draft dodgers, year after year drafting some of the best picks available and you still can’t get it straight: Oh Yeah.. Odom is Odom, Miles is Miles, Chandler (for Brand) Wilcox, Kaman and the lottery list goes on. Please, don’t even go there with the bandwagon picks, like there’re going to make a difference for clipps playing .500 ball The difference is Dumars has Pistons competing and winning…..and not looking like the lottery clipps (their season starts and end with the lottery) Joe, passing on Melo…..no hype, no mediocrity, no blunder. BTW, if you you’re talking Tskitishvili, he needed time to develop and was not considered a top 10 pick for that lottery….again more hype. Nevertheless you should consider starting “ Kiki’s mile high blunder thread “…

The one thing I disagree with Dumars about is the fact that he failed to realize the buzz that Carmelo would have brought to Detroit. Look at what he is doing in Denver, all that could have been done in Detroit. In the same token, I understand his philosophy after all. He is more like a team guy, he is not looking for a star to come and help win his team a championship. However, I have yet to see a team without a star name to win the championship. They normally do very well, but when you have a star, it changes the game drastically. Carmelo is a mega-star in the making, and Dumars should have drafted him.

Posted by Nalod:

I heard on radio

well then it must be true

Now that Carlisle is facing the team he built, if Pacers win series could Carlisle firing haunt Dumars.

Good showing by the Knick Killer

Posted by Bonn1997:

I posted on another forum what I think Detroit should have done:

If Dumars was so obsessed with Milicic, he should have kept his mouth shut after Milicic's impressive workout with the team. He could have drafted Carmelo and traded down to get Milicic. Milicic probably wouldn't have gone until the #6 pick by the Clippers (who took Kaman) or he might not have gone until much later. No one was impressed with this kid until Detroit told the media he was an unbelievably talented big man. Any team that picked Milicic would have been willing to trade Darko and this year's #1 pick and/or another young player for Carmelo. Or Dumars could have arranged a deal with Denver because Denver was (justifiably) very high on Carmelo.

My own personal opinion is that you draft 7 foot projects like Darko in the SECOND round (or maybe make an exception and draft him mid first) but not with the #2 pick of the first round. However, if Dumars was this obsessed with Darko, there were smarter options for him to workout.

there is always risk in passing up the player you want in hopes of getting him with a lower pick. Miami and Toronto were both ahead of LAClips, right? Both were probably looking for big men. Why risk it?

Posted by Bonn1997:

Nothing's guaranteed, but I'm sure the Nuggets would have worked out a trade. If you draft Carmelo at #2, can you seriously imagine the Nuggets turning down an offer of Carmelo for Milicic plus a draft pick? You could probably get them to give up more than that.

Why risk it?

because you could very easily get future draft picks AND Milicic

Although nothing's guaranteed, I think it's pretty close to a zero percent chance the Nuggets would turn down that offer. It's a calculated risk. It's basically extremely low risk and higher reward than what Dumars ended up doing.

And obviously you have discussions with teams before doing this. You should only do this if you have a trade in place with Denver before the draft selection. It's basically a 0% chance of not working, but even if it somehow doesn't work, then oh well, you're "stuck" with Carmelo and you end up winning the championship this year. What a tough break!

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 05/23/2004 11:41:03]

WHo knows, this might have happened and the Nuggets wouldn't agree to it. If you are the Nuggets m you can just call Dumars on a bluff and force him to take Darko with his pick.

Freaking pistons are in conf. finals and growing dudes on the bench.

Prince would be a great player coming off the bench at SF and SG--a sixth man candidate in the future backing up Carmelo and Rip.

Detroit could not give him those minutes

That's ridiculous. You make minutes for him. I can't think of one team in the NBA that can't find minutes for a player like Carmelo.

second guessing

It's not second guessing if you made the prediction before the season started, like most knowledgable fans did.

Pistons have huge upside, and knick fans should be thinking them,Indy and host of other teams can get it together sooner and deeper than us.

The only thing I'm thinking is thank goodness we don't have to beat a Pistons team with a starting lineup of Billups, Rip Hamilton, Carmelo, Wallace, and Wallace, with Okur and Prince coming off the bench!




[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 05/23/2004 23:25:40]

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 05/23/2004 23:28:32]

[Edited by - Bonn1997 on 05/23/2004 23:30:11]

Nalod: good post, but having Carmello would not change the fact that Prince would still be on that team. And if the pistons make the finals it won't change the fact that Dumars made a blunder, simply because Darko had nothing to do with their success this year. The blunder will come if they don't get past the pacers because I honestly think they still need a go to scorer on that team, and the blunder will continue to show in the future because instead of having a potential star player to build around, I mean a championship team around will hurt the pistons in the near future. You play to win championships and you draft to win championships. I am confident that the Pistons will not beat the lakers this year, if they make it that far, now would having carmello put them over the top? probally not, but it puts them a hell of a lot closer, and having a melo would make the pistons a hell of a lot stronger not only now but in the near future. This is the problem I have with that. If melo is on the pistons. Prince still probably makes that block. Lets just see if they survive this series, because if Indiana just makes their shots, they can easliy outscore the pistons every game... The pistons needed a guy like melo, the pacers have go to scorers, as do the lakers, spurs, and kings.... That IMO will be the pistons achillies heel..