First of all, he let Okur go who is now averaging 18 and 9 with the Jazz. Okur could have been their starting Center or PF right now. Second of all, he traded Darko and Arroyo (a good pg) for Cato, who will be leaving in free agency. And Darko is looking at a potential MIP with the Magic next year. And lastly, he let Ben Wallace escape his grasp as well.
The sad thing is they were all money motivated moves. Especially the Darko move, that was pretty much only to free up space to re-sign Wallace.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CB4AllStar @ Jul 5 2006, 06:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>First of all, he let Okur go who is now averaging 18 and 9 with the Jazz. Okur could have been their starting Center or PF right now. Second of all, he traded Darko and Arroyo (a good pg) for Cato, who will be leaving in free agency. And Darko is looking at a potential MIP with the Magic next year. And lastly, he let Ben Wallace escape his grasp as well.</div>Well Joe D had to let go of Okur to re-sign Sheed but I wish we kept him now that Big Ben is about to sign w/ the Bulls. Darko had a chance this past season to show off his potential but he took himself out of the rotation and the result was him and Arroyo getting traded. I'll admit it backfired on Joe D when he made the trade to re-sign Ben, but you really can't blame him for that. He made a generous offer especially after seeing Ben in the playoffs, the Bulls just had the $$ to offer. Even tho most likely it might look as if we will take a step baCk this season, I am excited about Maxiell(who could become the next Big Ben), Amir Johnson(who has as much potential as anyone in the league) not to mention we still have 4 from the core(Sheed, Prince, Hamilton and Billups). Can't forget that Hunter is coming baCk along w/ McDyess and we might finnaly see Carlos Delfino fullfill his potential. The loss of Big Ben hurts a lot but the future looks bright HoLLa baCk
Joe D added Rasheed Wallace who catapulted us to a championship. He has got Tayshaun Prince for us, and now has locked Tay up for longterm. Okur wouldn't have stayed with us with the money the Jazz were offering anyways. Joe D is one of the best GM's of the decade so far.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CB4AllStar @ Jul 5 2006, 09:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I said the last 2 years. Before all that stuff happened buddy...</div>2 years ago we got Rasheed. In that time he locked up Tayshaun Prince, in fact that was earilier this year.
actually we locked up Tay the last summer. But over the last 2 years i actually like what Joe D has done. Sure he lost the most popular player on teh team but that was more of Ben stabing everyone in Detroit's back more than anything, but he drafted Amir Johnson who will be something special and Jason Maxiell who is a tough player and like someone said reminds me a lot of Ben. He also drafted Will Blalock who should have gone about 20 spots earlier and was a steal at 60. If Joe can get Chauncey under contract for 5 or 6 more years i would give him a B+ over the last 2 years which is much higher than should be given after losing a franchise player
He's played it safe the past few years, trying to keep this nucleus together so they can win as many titles as possible. The problem is, the strain on these players is just as high as it became for the Bad Boys. It's time for some fresh blood, and that means all this talk about the great young guys has to turn into action on the court, affecting wins and losses, the way Memo Okur and Tayshaun Prince once did.
Some of this might be a repeat but here are my reasons why Joe D. has done a great job. First of all he locked up Tayshaun for many years. Great move. Then he traded Darko and Arroyo to Orlando for Cato and a first round pick. I like this move simply because Darko was giving up on the team. He wasnt working hard in practice and didnt seem like he was enjoying being on the bench of a championship team. If your not happy, your not going to perform. It turned out to be an even better move when they signed Tony Delk for the rest of the year, who is a better PG than Arroyo. Sure Darko may pan out to be a solid player. But it wasnt going to happen with the pistons. And who knows, Orlando's roster doesnt look too impressive to me. They might get a lottery pick out of it. I know they have a lot of young talent. But other than Howard, none of it is really PROVEN talent. Good move. He let ben go. It hurts the team. But would have hurt them more if ben had re-signed. I am VERY glad that Joe didnt match the offer from Chicago because Ben has approx 1.5 years left in him of doing what he does. He wanted at least 4 years, so we gave him 4 years. Chicago just gave more money. He will be an Allen Houston in 2 years. A "why did we give him so much money" player. After 1 or 2 good seasons in Chicago, people will quickly forget what he did for them and start to complain in the 3rd and 4th year. This gives us some room to work with the salary to lock up players that we want to keep in the future and possibly players that we want to pick up in free agency. Great move for the future of the team. Drafted Alex Acker and Amir Johnson with what were considered to be "throw away" picks. Johnson was considered to be a high school player that entered the draft too quickly. But Joe D recognized the fact that the D league was going to be used as a minor league system starting that year and he could let Amir develop there without the fear of losing him to another team. Same situation with Alex Acker, but he played one year at pepperdine. They both are doing GREAT in the D league and will be solid players. They will either be solid contributers for the pistons or great trade bait in the future. Great move.
