Time off will hurt Milicic Sean Deveney - SportingNews It has been a lost summer for Pistons F/C Darko Milicic, who broke his hand in the final two minutes of the championship-clinching fifth game of The Finals. Because of the injury, Milicic has not been able to get in much offseason work. This is the second straight summer of inactivity for Milicic--last summer he was dealing with a messy buyout negotiation with his European team. All the time off has hurt his development. In the meantime, the Pistons have loaded up on big men, with PF Antonio McDyess and F/C Derrick Coleman joining a front line that already included C Ben Wallace, PF Rasheed Wallace and C Elden Campbell. Playing time likely will continue to be scarce for Milicic in his second season. . . . There has been talk about the wear and tear the past year has had on Larry Brown--he coached Team USA in the Olympic qualifier last summer, took the Pistons to the NBA championship and spent this summer leading the Olympic team. There has been speculation Pistons management expects Brown to take a leave of absence when the NBA season begins, but there is no truth to that. "It's not even an option," says one Pistons exec. . . . Although his team had a terrible finish at the Olympics, Serbia and Montenegro PG Igor Rakocevic played well in the tournament and in the exhibitions leading up to it. He played in 42 games with the Timberwolves in 2002-03, and his play this summer drew the interest of a handful of NBA teams. He won't be back in the league this season, though, having signed with Valencia just before the Olympics. It's only a one-year deal, so if he continues to improve, he could get an NBA contract next summer.
Y doesnt Detroit just trade Darko I wonder whats gonna happen to him next season y dont they just trade him somewhere like the Sonics where he would get a chance to play
They wont trade him. darko will get a chance when the time comes and now he has to take advantage of learning from BEN and Co.
That's funny because when I read Bosnian's post I thought, "damn that would be a good idea" but then I scrolled down and read i3crossover's post I thought, "ok, that's a better idea." Pretty funny to me.
The Pistons should not trade Darko at this stage in his career. He was drafted as a project pick, and is still just that, a project. Playing alongside Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace everyday will help Darko develop and right now he doesn't need to get minutes to improve. Darko is still very young, and the Pistons don't need him to play big minutes. When the time comes for Darko to play big minutes for Detroit, he would of gotten huge benefits from playing behind the Pistons big men in practise, and be more than ready for the NBA.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting i3crossover:</div><div class="quote_post">They wont trade him. darko will get a chance when the time comes and now he has to take advantage of learning from BEN and Co.</div> Thats probably ture But wasnt Rebraca suppose to develop the same way like Darko so what happend y did he get traded to ATL later
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting princevince119:</div><div class="quote_post">darko should play 40 minutes/game because its funny when he gets dunked on</div> Seriously...I really think Darko has a chance to be a very good player. Adjusting to the NBA and going up against very tough/mean guys is much different than what Darko was used to. When he gets a bit more muscle and strength he will be able to show off his finesse game without being rattled. This may sound crazy but in 4 years Detroit could be laughing that they took Darko over Melo.
I criticized the way they used Darko before, but Joe Dumars was able to prove me wrong with a championship. While I don't know how great his potential is, I'm content to sit back and make sure that I don't get proved wrong again.
I have to admit that I've had moments when I though Darko was a total bust. But the truth is that I have never seem him play except a few garbage minutes here and there. Every person that is quoted that has actually seen this guy in practice seems to swear by him. Seriously, has anyone EVER read anything negative about this guy's potential from someone in the NBA loop? I haven't. I do however feel bad for the guy. Think about it, you're only a teenager, you get super-hyped up by the media going into the draft, make the covers of a few magazines, get picked #2 ahead of an already star like Carmelo, don't get any playing time, play like Sh*t when you did get minutes (remember the missed dunk?), have the entire US media claim that you're a bust and that they should have picked Melo, then breaks your hand playing garbage time in the championship game and can't even make the celebration parade, and your team goes ahead and trades for another big-man? I just hope that he has the right work ethic and keeps on practicing. With this kind of luck, there may be a concern that he could just give up and never fulfill his potential.
