Official Detroit Pistons thread

[The Oracle]

Agree about Isiah, not Isaiah.

[froot loops]

Maybe he thought it wasn't going to happen with him in OKC and he was probably right. Isiah was on a stacked team that had a clear trajectory, the Thunder have been languishing around the almost good enough level.

[fontes91]

Maybe he thought it wasn't going to happen with him in OKC and he was probably right. Isiah was on a stacked team that had a clear trajectory, the Thunder have been languishing around the almost good enough level.

Reaching, because OKC played great in the playoffs and was up 3-1 on GS. With the emergence of Adams I liked their chances.

Doesn't matter. He had every right to do what he did. But I do understand why people have problems with the choice.

[*JD*]

To me it's not so much that he wanted to move on via free agency or whether or not he is in his prime - he clearly is. What I find hard to accept is that he left for the team that beat him in the WCF, and after they were up 3-1.

It'd be like Isaiah leaving for Boston right after the '87 ECF. There is no way in hell Isaiah would have done that.

Isaiah Thomas is on Boston.

Now, if we're talking Isiah Thomas, he probably wouldn't have but, once again, there wasn't that option in 1987. UFA didn't come until a year later.

[*JD*]

The guys in the Pistons Forum are doing a Fantasy Basketball (money) league and have one more opening. Go here for info:

http://detroitpistonsforum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=311956#post311956

[*JD*]

Pippen, Malone and Payton weren't superstars at that point. They were on their last legs. KD is MVP material.

Orlando is a good comparison if Hill wouldnt have been hurt. THANK YOU SO MUCH GRANT FOR BIG BEN!

Malone averaged 20.6 points and 7.8 rebounds the year before he went to the lakes. He was old but still effective.

Payton was an all-star the year before, averaging 20.4 points and 8.3 assists. He was 34 so call it late-prime.

Pippen was 33 and had averaged 19.1/5.2/5.8 the year before and won a title.

While KD is entering or in the middle of his prime, these other guys weren't washed up when they bolted their other teams and everyone thought the lakes had made themselves THE Superteam in the summer of '03. They just got worked by a hungrier, more cohesive, better coached (that year) group in June of '04.


pands- I seem to remember Joe was going after Ben Wallace, regardless of the Hill S&T.

[*JD*]

Reaching, because OKC played great in the playoffs and was up 3-1 on GS. With the emergence of Adams I liked their chances.

Doesn't matter. He had every right to do what he did. But I do understand why people have problems with the choice.

Yeah, OKC seemed poised to take the next step this year. Maybe they weren't mentally strong enough? Maybe they were? We'll never know.

[froot loops]

pands- I seem to remember Joe was going after Ben Wallace, regardless of the Hill S&T.

Correct, time has made people remember this as a true trade but it really wasn't. Hill was going to Orlando regardless. Joe targeted Wallace as a plan B, after the fact Joe convinced Hill to lobby for a sign and trade to get more money. Pretty smart on Joe's part.

[fontes91]

Isaiah Thomas is on Boston.

Now, if we're talking Isiah Thomas, he probably wouldn't have but, once again, there wasn't that option in 1987. UFA didn't come until a year later.

I forgot that spelling corrections come in threes here.

Only way we'll know if ISIAH Thomas would have contemplated leaving for the Celtics after '87 had UFA been an option would be to ask him. I see no chance. Not only would he be going to the team that tore out his heart, he'd also have to take less years and less money to do so. Just don't see it.

KD had every right to go. He'll probably get a couple rings. But I sure hope not.

[fontes91]

Malone averaged 20.6 points and 7.8 rebounds the year before he went to the lakes. He was old but still effective.

Payton was an all-star the year before, averaging 20.4 points and 8.3 assists. He was 34 so call it late-prime.

Pippen was 33 and had averaged 19.1/5.2/5.8 the year before and won a title.

While KD is entering or in the middle of his prime, these other guys weren't washed up when they bolted their other teams and everyone thought the lakes had made themselves THE Superteam in the summer of '03. They just got worked by a hungrier, more cohesive, better coached (that year) group in June of '04.


pands- I seem to remember Joe was going after Ben Wallace, regardless of the Hill S&T.

Karl Malone was 40! How can you compare that to KD at 27?

And Payton (at age 34) had been traded to the Bucks the year before. He wasn't leaving the Sonics. He had no roots on the Bucks. Again, no comparison to KD who left a team up 3-1 in the WCF to join the team that beat him.

And Pippen left a team that just lost Jordan. No comparisons IMHO.

[jaadam4]

Exactttly. Not even in the same realm

[froot loops]

None of those guys had the chance to do what Durant did. That's the part you are ignoring. I don't understand the attempt to attribute some sort of heroic loyalty to these players. Especially someone like Isiah, we loved him as a Piston, but decisions since he retired do not suggest an altruistic guy above chasing a ring by free agency.

In the end it matters if you win a ring for these type of players. Right now when the move is fresh in your mind it seems like the criticism is really legit. If he wins a title, not many will begrudge him how he won it. Lebron faced the same type of criticism, probably even more, it doesn't matter now.

[froot loops]

Plus, even though Malone was old when he jumped it is very relevant. Malone was one of those guys. He stayed with the Jazz for all those years, he was a guy who should have retired in Utah. He still chased a ring, it didn't work out but if it did his career would be looked at a little more favorably.

[jaadam4]

That GS team is going to be sick

[chemiclord]

I don't understand the attempt to attribute some sort of heroic loyalty to these players.

Nostalgia and the (flawed) memory of a "better time." The game when I started watching was infinitely better than the one before and the one that came after.

It's the same sort of nostalgia that says that championship teams from the 70's and 80's would beat the monsters of the NFL in the present.