The guy has skills and is only 20. He would definitely be their best 4th big man ahead of Davis or Cato. Why did Detroit trade him?
IIRC, they were trying to free up money to re-sign Big Ben, Billips or another vital player at the end of the season.
They had enough money to re-sign Ben and Chauncey before the trade. They traded Darko because they had too many guys in front of him and he wouldn't see the court for at least two more seasons there (and he'd be a free agent by then), he asked for a trade (through his agent and Dumars generally grants the wish of a guy who wants out of Detroit), and because it was just a bad environment for an impatient kid (he kind of gave up trying because he knew whether he was good or bad or great or in the middle it didn't matter in regards to him playing because he wasn't going to). Darko is very talented, but the kid needed a change of scenery. Larry Brown really messed with his confidence and there was no way he was going to regain it playing 4 minutes every other week. Orlando got a steal, but Detroit got some money relief (which is always good even if you don't need it) and a do over with a draft pick.
Because Milicic would never develop in Detroit and still be making around 6 million dollars a year as the second overall pick. Even if Darko turns out to be the second coming of Jermaine O'neal with Orlando, this was the right move by the Pistons. They have a championship caliber team. They can't afford to mess with the rotation by giving Darko playing time.
Why did Portland trade Jermaine O'neal? Detroit, has too much depth at the 4 just as Portland did back then. Granted, Darko may never turn out to be as good as O'neal he wasn't getting playing time and also they were able to dump Arroyo to have money to re-sign other key players.
Exactly. Looking back at the draft, how much better would Detroit be with Melo, Wade or Bosh? They'd have a dynasty going
Rasheed Wallace wasnt on the team at the time and it was projected that Darko would fill in that role. Not to mention Tayshaun Prince became a much better player than anyone expected. Also, Corliss Wiliamson and later Antonio McDyess filled the 6th man role so he couldnt really do anything there either. Detroit was and still is stacked and Milicic just couldnt get any playing time. As for picking Darko, remember hindsight is always 20/20. EVERY scout thought Darko was going to be amazing. No GM would have turned him down with the number two pick. It just turned out that the draft that year was incredibly deep and Detroit missed out on some superstar players but theyre still winning so we'll give them a pass. If any other team fumbled that pick, we'd be calling for the GMs head but Dumars has constructed an incredible team so we'll let him off the hook this once.
Actually you are wrong about them not thinking Prince was going to be good because he is the reason they did not draft Carmello.
You guys realize that Denver didn't even want to draft Anthony, right? Everyone had Darko as the number two pick in that draft. Denver was trying like mad to move up from three to two so they could take Darko. The rumor was they offered Camby to move up one pick. Darko was very highly thought of. Dallas had their coach suspended and fined for having an illegal workout for Darko when he was 16. "They should have" this or that is just blah. Why didn't anyone spend a first rounder on Michael Redd? Why wasn't Ben Wallace drafted? Why... Detroit didn't reach and take a guy no one else thought was good (like Cleveland did with Langdon), they took a guy that would have been the top pick in many drafts. It didn't work out for them.
Sadly, this is (mostly) true. I don't believe Camby was offered, but I can't prove it. I do know we were frantically trying to move up to 2 to get Darko. Also, FWIW, we were also trying to acquire the 5th pick from Miami so we could draft Wade as well.
Darko has skills. he reminds me of sam perkins. not explosive, deliberate but with a good post game and a long range shot. probably a better passer. what I've noticed in seeing him in limited action he knows how to get position close, something he could help Howard with.
hindsight is 20/20. They though he was the next great center, but it turned out not to be, atleast not in detroit. You are not gonna find a Yao Ming in every draft. How ironic. Darko got mad praise before he even came to detroit, yet Yao was projected to crash and burn. LOL
The only game I've seen him in was against the Rockets and he didn't look too bad. His stats over the last five games are 6.4 Reb, 2.0 blocks, 7 points on 54% shooting in 24 minutes. He could end up like Jermaine O'neal, burried on a bench then traded and starts to shine. Or he could be a bust.
you do realize even though denver gave their team to melo, he still shot like 38% for the first 3 months of the season before finally bringing it up? u think a guy like that would have made it in detroit back then?
Speaking of which, didn't Washington end up trading Wallace to Portland because he wasn't getting any PT behind Chris Webber and Juwan Howard? That'd be wierd, in a "six degrees of separation" kind of way...
I'm surprised Darko was willing to be moved. Under normal circumstances, he could move the Pistons to Orlando and the Magic to Detroit. I guess he was feeling generous that day.
