Simple, 2004 was 22 years ago

Father time is still undefeated

Mental skills decline with age

Darko wasnt some sort of Anthony bennet pick, there was a legit argument

I was 14 at the time, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for someone who was connected enough to know what was going on.

I do remember at least anecdotally, that we as fans didn’t hate drafting Darko at the time. I wanted Melo to be a better offensive weapon than Prince, but Darko did seem to fill a hole in the roster.

the big one was signing billups for not much yea he was not really valued for his career so far but his last season in minny was good.

tayshaun i mean late picks its whatever.. guys can say yea i knew he was goin be good and you just gotta be like sure

sheed idk it was a big trade but idrk the dynamics of it

stackhouse for rip I wonder what people thought at the time

It was leaguewide consensus that he was a top 3 player in that draft, calling it a mistake is hindsight.

It was all Dumars

Ben Wallace was an undrafted throw in in the Grant Hill ‘trade’ . … Hill was the ‘next michael jordan’ who was leaving in free agency, but detroit got a few crumbs thrown in so Orlando could pay Hill more… Chucky Atkins was the other piece that Detroit got in that, a role player guard who was part of the Sheed trade that put them over the top. That was in 2000.

2002 saw a lot of moves - Stackhouse was all star scorer in his prime, one year from a 29.8 ppg season, and centerpiece of a 6 player trade which essentially swapped him and Rip … That was thought to have future payment expectations as a motive…and took place in training camp (!) Either way, credit Dumars

https://www.nba.com/pistons/features/big-deal-late-summer-stunner-swapped-out-stackhouse-hamilton

Dumars also drafted Tayshaun Prince that offseason and signed Billups who had been bouncing around the league, despite being heralded at start of his career.

And then he got Larry Brown as coach…

Pistons were a good team …(and that was part of why he drafted Darko over Melo and Wade, thinkin

But the icing on the cake was the 3 player mega deal for Sheed mid season. Pistons gave up depth and pieces for star player.. backup guards (Bob Sura, Lindsay Hunter, guard Chucky Atkins , Zebraca, as backup center, and 2 FRP for Sheed, and guard Mike James . Hunter returned to the pistons a week later after being waived bv the Celtics.

Darko was analytically the best player in that draft.

It’s a mix. Some stuff Dumars did well, drafting Prince, signing Billups for cheap and fleecing MJ with a declining Stackhouse for Rip.

The final championship part was arguably dumb luck. After the huge stinker of drafting Milicic, the team was better than anyone expected but Larry Brown was about to quit due to lack of bigs. Out of desperation, he “overpaid” for distressed asset Wallace (Hawks did a nice bit of flip on him). Wallace turned out to be THE missing piece against all odds.

Dumars had a legit great run of finding underrated players. 

he then went on to absolutely destroy that team with bad decisions (Iverson trade, drafting Stuckey, Ben Gordon contract, Charlie V contract, Josh Smith contract…)  

Darko was pretty heralded at the time, as others have said, but man this nickname is brutal:

He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 2003 to 2012. Nicknamed “the Human Victory Cigar” for only playing in blowout wins or losses, Miličić is the fifth-youngest player and the youngest foreign player to have played in the NBA, the youngest player to have played in an NBA Finals game, and the youngest player to win the NBA championship.

The same way that most of the GMs that look like ultra geniuses tend to look like idiots within the next 5 years. A lot of it is just good luck with an occasional smart decision. Eventually the luck runs out. The players you got that were undervalued are now appropriately valued and want more money, and the GM needs to find ways to replace lost production.

Ah the dumbass paradox. Bites me again

Only acquired Ben Wallace because Grant Hill wanted out, and Ben wasn’t even his first choice in return I believe.

Darko was the consensus #2 pick tho

I am a Pistons but if we drafted Melo yes we probably dont trade for Sheed but that means we re-sign Mehmet Okur and the pick we sent to Atlanta was used on Josh Smith. So I would have rather have had Melo, Okur, and Smith than Sheed even though it got us a title and a Finals trip the next season. We would have legitimately been a dynasty.

The team would pay 3.9mil then be reimbursed 1.45mil out of the league fund at the end of the season effectively making it the vet minimum of a 2 year experience player. It says it right there.

This is what unions are for.

It’s been around forever.

The league didn’t want vet players to be kicked out of the league for cost saving young players..

So they are paid based on years of experience (minimums go up as cap goes up), but the team is charged only the amount equal to 2 years vet, with the league making up the difference and the cap hit also set up accordingly

no the cap hit is 2.4m

the actual salary for 10+ years of service vet is 3.9m right now. the NBA just subsidizes the 1.5m difference.

It’s between 3.9-4.9 million based on years. League covers 2 million of it or only 2 counts against salary cap.

in 2017, the vet min cap hit is at 1.47m. The 2.4m is the salary amount for players more than 10 years of experience, which is now at 3.87m. DeAndre Jordan is at 3.87m of salary regardless, but instead of 2.4m of cap hit which would’ve been the case of a 1 year deal, he’s at 3.87m cap hit because it’s multi-year.

Except that the handshake deal is against the rules. Doesn’t matter if some teams do it and get away with it.

And plenty of teams could be suitors for a vet minimum deal. Even if it’s a 3rd/4th string center that will only play a few minutes every few games. Miami is looking to fill out their roster with vet minimum players.

Sure, if the argument is that the Pels could have circumvented the cap with a handshake deal for a minimum contract player, yes, they could have done that… and DJ would have needed to be a willing participant. So yes, the front office is really stupid if you create a whole hypothetical scenario that paints them that way.

For all we know, the Dumars had a conversation with the owner about whether the risk of getting busted for cap circumvention is worth $3M and the owner could have said “no”. This is just outrage reporting with very little real information.

Dumars admitted to not fully scouting Darko and relying on hype and a couple workouts