With all the hype surrounding Lebron and 'Melo many ppl have forgotten Darko. As much a great coach as Brown, I tend to think he's being too tentative on Darko's PT. Sure the kid needs time to adapt to NBA but only giving him scrub time of only 2 min is unacceptable. I'm comparing Darko's situation to what Yao faced last year. Both are foreign, carrying high expectation and highly talented. Until Yao had a breakout game (and got himself settled) he was too a figure in the background. But the difference is that Rudy actually gave Yao minutes as a backup centre for Cato, whereas Darko is playing behind Wallace, Okur and Rebraca. Sure Pistons have high expectation to finish as 1-2 seed in the East (unlike us last year) but Brown needs to take a gamble on Darko to stand up, otherwise his team will go out again in the playoffs. Maybe I'm speaking too early as only two games have been played but it is sad to see potential untapped. BTW do u think Darko can breakout like Yao this year? When?
not to be rude at all. but i think larry brown is probably doing what he sees best. he has a lot of stuff to learn and he is probably learning plenty at the moment in practice against other NBA players. Once he feels comfortable with that he will see more playing time. I wonder how good this kid will be though.
There are some big differences between Yao and Darko. 1. 6 inches and about 60 pounds. 2. Yao was a rookie at age 22. Darko would be in his senior year of highschool were he an American. 3. The Pistons are coming off a season in which they went to the Eastern Conference Finals. It isn't as though they're in a rush to throw Darko to the wolves. Have you read about Darko's experiences since he's been here? He says himself he needs to get much stronger to play in the NBA. The Pistons chose him knowing that he may not be a contributor to their team for a few years. I don't know why you expected him to play immediately. Jermaine O'Neal never had more than 15 minutes a game of playing time until his 5th season in the NBA if I recall correctly. Lebron and Carmelo are in situations where there just isn't anybody on the team better than them. (and they're unusual talents for their age). You can't expect every 18 year old kid to be able to walk right into the league and contribute. Most of them just can't. See Jermaine O'Neal, Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, Al Harrington and even Tracy McGrady. Kobe Bryant didn't get many minutes until towards the end of his first season either. Before this season I think Moses Malone (in the ABA), Kevin Garnett and Amare Stoudamire have been the only guys to come straight out of high school and immediately play big minutes for their teams. And Amare Stoudamire was actually older than some guys who had a year of college under their belts. He was 20 years old as a rookie. If Darko is ready to contribute to the Pistons you can bet they're going to play him. If he isn't, there is absolutely no reason they need to rush him. They're in a very good position to develop him for the future. You'll just have to wait until he's ready.
I don't see what the rush is to get him out on the court. Detroit has plenty of good big men so they have all the time in the world to let him develop into a star. And I don't think Detroit drafted darko with the immediate future on hand. If they wanted results right off the bat they would have drafted melo imo.
He turned 18 six days before the Draft. He was drafted on strictly the potential of being a legitimate Center with offensive ability. Cause Big Ben's skills only shine on D. If they wanted immediate impact they would have drafted Melo. He could outplay Hamilton and Prince right now. But Joe D is banking on the future with Darko.
I think it has to do with 2 things: 1. The Pistons are a top E. Conf team and don't have time to waste trying to develop a player. Maybe he'll come around in the 2nd half like Prince. 2. Brown doesn't like playing rookies much and wants a 9 man rotation. I think people need to be patient with Darko. Sort of like Tskitisvilli and Cabarkapa. Wait a few years and they might turn out to be special players.
I was surpised that Detroit had little interest in Melo. By the time Darko is ready to be a force in this league, LB probaly will be almost done with Detroit. Melo made more sense for what Detroit is trying to accomplish right now.Maybe Darko will payoff in a few years but its going to take time, he dosent have an NBA body right now and his coach is not in any rush to get him on the court(hardly played in the preseason)
Melo is good but he has a lot of learning to do also. He only had one year of college also. They also already have Hamilton.
Ben Wallace: 11.7 ppg, 16.3 rbg, 3.67 blks, 2.33 stls Elden Campbell: 10.3 ppg, 5 rbg, 2.67 blks, 1.33 stls (24mpg) Mehmet Okur: 8 ppg, 6rpg, 2blks (22.3 mpg) Who should sit? I'm thinking no one. (and their other center gets 6.7mpg and is shooting 67%) Detroit is loaded right now with big guys and has no room to play Darko, but don't let anyone fool you. Darko was the consensus number two pick ahead of carmello Anthony. Denver would have taken him over Anthony. Detroit knows that the gap between the East and West is not due to swingmen, it's due to centers. Darko's 7'1 and 250 as an 18 year old. In a couple years he's going to be gigantic and everyone else on Detroit is going to be in their prime. They're building for a championship run. They'll take some public relations lumps for a year or two, but so what? They lead the league in attendance last year, they'll still have a very good chance of making the finals, and there was no guarantee Carmello would even start in Detroit. Prince is not a superstar, but he is a great defender (see his handling of Iverson and McGrady back to back in the playoffs) and a well rounded offensive player.
Darko is impressive and all, but because of the logjam in the pf-C positions and darko's inexperience on a good team, i think he's going to get boki-ed
