Toronto wouldn't push the button on any deal about acquiring a point guard that time because they were waiting on Steve Nash and his decision
Yet he's drafted Brandon Knight, Monroe and Drummond who all look to be closer to stardom than bust. His free agent evaluation is subpar though...actually it's just terrible.
Dumars didn't really make so many 'stupid' moves. Some of his moves were smart and just didn't work out because the owner died in 2009 and he didn't have the freedom to make any big trades until 2011. It happens, owners die and it can get messy. His free agent signings were ok, they were slightly overpaid atm, but he had to spend the cap space. I'm sure he looked at them as assets and his plan was to flip them. He had a similar approach when he built that championship team. So it works, it's smart, he just wasn't allowed to move his assets when the owner died, and the assets declined. His only really bad move was picking Darko. But Presti picked Jeff Green over Noah, traded for Perkins over Tyson Chandler, and wasted a lotto pick on Aldrich. People take risks on healthy talented centers. So, everyone messes up sometimes, even the best ones.
And btw, they now have Brandon Knight, Stuckey, Monroe, Drummond. All young, all looking like average NBA starters at the very least, and some of them with clear star potential. All of them were steals for where they were drafted. And on top of that, the Pistons can sign a max free agent next summer. Welcome back to contention.
Plus, it's not like Darko was a pick out of nowhere, people were clamoring about him and Chad Ford had him ranked really high.
Drummond probably played like crap on purpose in the Ncaa Tournament so he could lower his stock and get drafted by a better NBA team.
Doesn't strike me as someone that shrewd, or someone willing to forego millions of dollars by tanking his draft status -- unless I'm not picking up on sarcasm, which, in that case, disregard.
Picking Darko high might be understandable. Picking him over Anthony was not. It's not as bad as picking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan, but it's kind of similar. Like I said, Dumars is not a bad GM. He just needs to be more progressive in his talent evaluation. His picks are okay but not great. Monroe and Drummond are pretty much can't misses at their draft positions. They have sucked for some years now and have collected some good young prospects. I trust that Dumars won't mess this up. Definitely a promising team.
What picks did they have to draft Knight, Stuckey Monroe and Drummond though? I think Dumars is a decent GM, but I really find it funny people take a look at a roster and say the GM's amazing because there's all these good players, but then the team had been collecting top 10 picks every year since Billups left the team. I do give him props for drafting Drummond though, I'd probably have drafted Henson if I was the GM there, Drummond just looked really flaky in his interviews, and getting owned by Hasheem Thabeet certainly didn't help his case IMHO.
Oh Come on, I went through every page looking for the Luis Scola pic and it's not here. This was the perfect time to use it.
7,8,9 and 15. The NBA isn't a "Who can build a contender with 14th picks" contest. Considering these aren't exactly Presti-high picks, it's very impressive to hit 3 in a row. It's too early to tell for sure with Knight and Drummond, but the signs are good. Stuckey was a 15th pick way back in Billups days and was considered a reach at the time, btw. For a 15th pick, he's awesome. Dumars signed an aging Billups to a long, expensive contract because it was the right thing to do, they were still contending. Then a few years later he started a retooling process by getting rid of Billups for expiring. Unfortunately, the owner died right after and he couldn't finish it. And now, 3 years later, he sits with a solid young core because he drafted extremely well. That's great in my book, all things considered.
Nice alleyoop dunk tonight... <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/r29-f79VnLs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Will be interesting to see what kind of player he becomes. The potential of Drummond-Monroe is intriguing though.
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Drummond is on a very short leash in Detroit, and a lot of what one may scan in a box score as his production on that team is actually just empty stats in blowout losses. It is the Pistons, after all.
