Official Detroit Pistons thread

[AMP]

Khris Middleton. Whoops! They traded him with knight for Jennings. Bad trade for the Stones in retrospect.

[Kstat]

Khris Middleton. Whoops! They traded him with knight for Jennings. Bad trade for the Stones in retrospect.

I believe the word "defense" was involved....so no.

[AMP]

Middleton allows just 0.68 points per possession in isolation, which places him in the 82nd percentile. (Klay Thompson is in the 77th percentile.) And when defending pick-and-rolls, Middleton allows just 0.63 points per possession?good for the 88th percentile. Don't be surprised if his name pops up in Defensive Player of the Year conversations multiple times over the next five years. And don't blink if he makes an All-Defensive Team this season.

Oh ok.

[AMP]

In his last dozen games he's averaging a stellar 16.2 points (54.2 percent FGs, 91.3 percent FTs), 1.6 threes, 5.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.1 steals.

2.1 steals? Guarding 2s, 3s, and 4s? While shooting nearly 50% from the field and over 40% from 3.

Too bad he was a throw in. Hopefully SVG to the rescue.

[froot loops]

That offseason was dreadful, the trade and the Smith signing. Standing pat would have been soooooo much better in hindsight.

[fontes91]

The last two times Joe had money to burn were dreadful. And I'm tired of hearing the Karen Davidson excuse.

[jaadam4]

Joey D's "throw in's" on trades sure aren't helping this team now when you include Arron Afflalo as well

[Malto Marko]

The last two times Joe had money to burn were dreadful. And I'm tired of hearing the Karen Davidson excuse.

Stop being tired of hearing that because she is the single biggest reason the Pistons became the laughing stock of the league.

Mr. D was a formidable rudder.

Mrs. D was looking to cash out.

[jaadam4]

Did someone post this and I missed it?


What if I were to tell you, the Detroit Pistons nearly had their superstar.

What if I were to tell you, this wasn't just any superstar, but perhaps the best player of his generation.

No, we're not reliving the Allen Iverson almost trade in 2000 that was nixed by Matt Geiger.

Sunday night, ESPN's Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose, the former Fab Five standout, interviewed Lakers star Kobe Bryant, out now with a busted shoulder for which he recently had surgery.

Near the end of the show, Simmons asked Bryant a few emailed questions. The one that piqued our interest was "is it true that you nixed your own trade to Detroit in 2007?"

Bryant: "That is true."

Simmons then asked if Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and a slew of draft picks were involved in the deal, all of which Bryant confirmed as a Photoshopped Bryant in a Pistons No. 24 jersey whipped off the screen.

Here's Bryant's explanation: "I said (to the Lakers), 'I gave you a list of teams that I'm comfortable being traded to. That wasn't one of them. So no.'"

But that's OK, right? From 2007-2011, Bryant only went on to win one NBA MVP award, two All-Star MVPs, two NBA titles and was the MVP of both Finals in 2009 and 2010. From 2007-2013 (when his body really began to break down), his points-per-game averages read like this: 28.3, 26.8, 27.0, 25.3, 27.3.

Meanwhile the Pistons have been to the playoffs just twice since 2007-08, and not once since 2009. During that time, they've struggled with attendance, team identity and frankly holding on to a head coach until this season, where the head coach is his own boss.

Ouch

[fontes91]

Stop being tired of hearing that because she is the single biggest reason the Pistons became the laughing stock of the league.

Mr. D was a formidable rudder.

Mrs. D was looking to cash out.

Joe still decided to give Gordon and Charlie V the contracts. Followed that up with Josh Smith. All were terrible, terrible. (I posted that in my Barkley voice). I'm well aware that the pending sale of the team had Joe's hands tied for a few years. When he was given the green light he made bad decisions.

[fontes91]

When Trader Jack was first given the GM position with the Pistons his first trade offer was to the Lakers. He offered the entire Pistons roster to the LAL for Magic Johnson. Oh what might have been.......

[froot loops]

I won't defend the Karen Davidson ownership. When Bill Davidson was owner they said they had a solid succession plan. That turned out to be false. I don't fault the wife for wanting to cash out, if you don't want to run the thing you shouldn't. But they kind of went about the thing all wrong. And it happened at the wrong time, that was a period where a bunch of teams were theoretically for sale. Now hardly any of them are and I'm sure the Pistons could go for 100-150 million more than they did that short time ago.

Anyways, the silver lining of the Karen Davidson ownership was she did handcuff Dumars. Lord knows what other damage he would have done. He had the midas touch for about 5 years, after that it was very bad. A few decent draft picks and thats about it.

[AMP]

Joey D's "throw in's" on trades sure aren't helping this team now when you include Arron Afflalo as well

!

[Kstat]

Afflalo sure seems to get traded a lot. Joe obviously made a mistake by giving him away for cap space, but he hasn't found a team willing to hold on to him, either.

Even portland is just renting him for 3 months to back up Wes Mattthews.

[AMP]

You are right. The Pistons were ripe with talent a la Ben Gordon for a bazillion dollars. Affalo was a great dump!