<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">AUBURN HILLS - Dale Davis saved himself some grief by heeding Rasheed Wallace's advice this summer. Wallace tried to recruit Davis to sign with the Pistons last season after he was released by New Orleans. Davis opted to finish out the season with Indiana and started for the Pacers against the Pistons in the Eastern Conference playoffs, a series Detroit won 4-2. Davis' decision cost him a chance to play in the Finals for the second time in his career. Back on the free-agent market this summer, Davis decided to rejoin forces with Wallace as a backup center with the Pistons. "I missed it the first goaround, but now I'm here, so I'm not going to let Rasheed rag me too much," said Davis, a 15-year veteran who signed a two-year, $7 million contract. "I'm with him now, so I guess we'll do some rolling over other folks." Davis, who was introduced to the Detroit media along with fellow free-agent signee Maurice Evans on Tuesday, still looks at his return to Indiana last season with fondness. Davis played nine seasons with the Pacers before making stops in Portland, where he played with Wallace, and Golden State. He was traded to New Orleans in the Baron Davis swap last February, then promptly released. "It was a situation with Indiana where I guess we got rolled on, but at the same time, it worked for me," he said. "A lot of people had a question Could I still play the game?' I had some tough years out there in Golden State and my last year in Portland. I hadn't had a chance to play a lot of basketball, and by going to Indiana, at least that showed I can still play the game." Davis essentially replaces Elden Campbell, who retired after the season. However, Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars promises that Darko Milicic will get more opportunities to play this season under new coach Flip Saunders. "Our plans haven't changed for Darko," Dumars said. "Flip is going to give him more minutes to get him started this year and put him out there at certain times during games and kind of spoon-feed him. We'll bring him along slowly. Having Dale here doesn't change the formula we've had the last five years. We always keep a stable of bigs." </div> Source
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"Our plans haven't changed for Darko," Dumars said. "Flip is going to give him more minutes to get him started this year and put him out there at certain times during games and kind of spoon-feed him. We'll bring him along slowly."</div> Isnt that what we've been doing for the last 2 years now? Anyway, good to hear the Flip is willing to play him alot more, hopefully they stick by this, because we heard the same thing at the beginning of last season, and look at what happened to that.
