Beating a dead horse again!! Detroit shoulda picked Melo!

[Yuma]

Watching the Nets and Pistons debacle, wrestling match, oops, I mean basketball game, one thing was horribly clear, the Pistons do not have enough fire power offensivly to beat the Nets. They only had one guy that could shoot last night on the Pistons. I couldn't help but wonder, would the Pistons have been better off selecting Melo and his 20+ points a game over their bust, I mean bench warmer, oops, prospect Darko. The Pistons arguably would have won 1 of the 2 games in NJ and should be up 3 to 1 if they would have had Melo on their team. I know everyone thought I was nuts when I said they should take Melo over Darko, but at least in this year's playoffs, the Pistons would have been a force in the Eastern Conference with Melo on the squad. I know Darko is a project who will reap benefits 3 to 4 years down the line. However, in 3 to 4 years his rookie contract will be up and probably some other team will reap the benefits of his play, not the Pistons, that is if Darko is still in the league. Watching Darko play last night made one thing clear, Lampe is 10X further ahead in his development than Darko is. Darko makes Lampe look like an All-star! At this point in their careers, I think Phoenix will get more out of Lampe than Detroit ever will from Darko!

 

[George O'Brien]

Watching the Nets and Pistons debacle, wrestling match, oops, I mean basketball game, one thing was horribly clear, the Pistons do not have enough fire power offensivly to beat the Nets. They only had one guy that could shoot last night on the Pistons. I couldn't help but wonder, would the Pistons have been better off selecting Melo and his 20+ points a game over their bust, I mean bench warmer, oops, prospect Darko. The Pistons arguably would have won 1 of the 2 games in NJ and should be up 3 to 1 if they would have had Melo on their team. I know everyone thought I was nuts when I said they should take Melo over Darko, but at least in this year's playoffs, the Pistons would have been a force in the Eastern Conference with Melo on the squad. I know Darko is a project who will reap benefits 3 to 4 years down the line. However, in 3 to 4 years his rookie contract will be up and probably some other team will reap the benefits of his play, not the Pistons, that is if Darko is still in the league. Watching Darko play last night made one thing clear, Lampe is 10X further ahead in his development than Darko is. Darko makes Lampe look like an All-star! At this point in their careers, I think Phoenix will get more out of Lampe than Detroit ever will from Darko!

Larry really wanted Melo but was overruled. Every scouting report said that Darko will become a star in the NBA, but he is really young. In theory being on a team that doesn't need him right away is better than getting thrown to the wolves and being a huge flop. But for a team like the Pistons that is so close to being an elite team, having an instant contributor like Melo would have been my choice.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

i was one of the few touting melo as being potentially better than bron. i was unconvinced that bron could dominate so soon. i was proven wrong on the bron account, but definitely born out in my belief in melo. w/o knowing much about darko i thought melo should have been the selection. a front line of melo and wallace and wallace w/ billups and rip in the backcourt would have been EXTREMELY difficult to defend.

 

[fordronken]

This Pistons team is not going to win any championships in the next couple of years. The important question then, is if they would have a better chance, down the line, with 'Melo or Darko. If the talent potential is really all that close, you go with the big guy. Time will tell, though.

 

[F-Dog]

FWIW, if Darko were in this year's draft, we'd probably be talking about Dwight Howard and Emeka Okafor battling for the #2 and #3 spots right now.

 

[George O'Brien]

Here is the 2003 nbadraft.net profile of Darko:

Darko Milicic
Birthdate: 6/20/85
NBA Position: SF/PF
Ht: 7-0
Wt: 245
Int Team: KK Hemofarm Vrsac
Hometown: Novi Sad, Serbia-Montenegro
Telebasket Profile Stats

Pronounced (MILL-eh-check)

Strengths: Solid athlete who can run the floor and jump like few others his size ... Creative scorer who understands how to set-up his defender off the dribble ... Excellent finisher when receiving the ball on the break or out on the perimeter as he can cut to the lane and even dunk in traffic ... On defense he is an excellent help defender who shows promise of being an adequate shot-blocker ... Does a very good job of using his long arms to grab most rebounds around his area despite usually being physically out-matched by his opponents ... Can be a nightmare for opposing players to defend due to his versatility as he is too quick for most power forwards and too tall for most small forwards to defend in the post ... Excellent ball handler for his size ... Plays extremely aggressive and wont back down from a challenge ... Competitive, he'll do whatever it takes to win ... Shows court awareness beyond his years as he will adjust his game according to how the defense plays him ... Can shoot the ball from 20 feet with consistency and even has the ability to extend out to the three point line ... Has a very high basketball IQ and sees plays before they occur ... Good passer who is blessed with solid court vision. Double teams rarely bother him ... Shows soft touch around the basket ... Owns a solid hesitation dribble move he uses to bait his defender out of the paint. As soon as his defender plays his shot, Milicic will dribble into the lane for the quick lay-up ...

Weaknesses: Has problems at times holding his position on the low blocks due to his lack of body strength ... Offensively his back to the basket skills are still in the developmental stages as he prefers to face the basket ... Needs to continue to improve his upper body strength although this should be no surprise when you consider his age ... Unlike most young players defensively he shows above average skills but it's the basic stuff he'll need to improve on ... Perimeter defensive skills such as anticipation and playing the passing lanes ... As far as working on his low post defense, strength and experience are the main detracting factors ... Tends to put the ball on the floor a little too much after getting an offensive rebound ... Ball protection is a area of concern as he can get careless at times ... Needs to work on getting rebounds out of position ... When posting up Milicic should improve on getting wider so he can give guards a bigger target when they pass into the post ...

Matthew Maurer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Milicic is aggressive, he has an all around game. He’s strong on the boards. He has good ball-handling skills. He is quick, with a great understanding of the game (he is smart as a fox). He can kill you from the perimeter but he’s never gonna be a center. It would be such a waste for such a talent to be battling against 280 pounders. No Nowitzki, no Gasol should ever be playing in the paint. Only when playing against a zone defense of 2-3 or 2-1-2 is it logical to have an all-around tall guy causing troubles in the weak side of the opponents’ defense. 2-4 is for him. He's tough as nails against tall men of 210-220 pounds. I don’t see many PFs’ of 210 in the NBA. He will never play center in the NBA because it would be a waste of his talents.

-Dimitris Armadoros

He is one of the biggest hopes of Yugoslavian basketball in his generation and that alone is something, considering the strength of Yugoslavian basketball. Very tall, agile, mobile player with tons of upside. Just has to continue to develop and he's a future NBA player. His outlook is very good considering the Yugoslavian basketball system is very good at developing players. He was thrown into the Seniors level this year and did a very impressive job for 16 year old.

-Uros Velkavrh

Possibly the top NBA prospect at any age in Europe. He plays in Hemofarm. He dunks in traffic, dribbles and goes 1 on 1 like a guard, scores on the pull-up jumper, passes well and blocks shots. I've never seen a player like him at 16! NEVER!

-Cristian Biagini

Notes: Has an incredible 7-5 wingspan.

nbadraft.net

I'd trade the #2 pick for him in a heartbeat.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Melo would have had half the production in detroit as he did in Denver, dont forget that. Larry Brown never plays rookies, and Melo would not have any sort of offensive freedom.

Darko was the good pick. They didn't need a SF, Prince showed flashes again in these playoffs he is solid enough. Darko is getting tons of practice in, and by all accounts, he has improved a lot. If he were on another team, I bet Darko would have put up good enough numbers that this discussion would never take place.

You can no longer look at short term effects in the NBA. 1 season doesn't mean a thing. Did you also think the Pacers got ripped off when they traded Dale Davis for a young, unproven Jermaine Oneal?

 

[Joe Mama]

Who knows how good he really is at this point? It's possible that Darko would have been another rookie of the year candidate if he had played on a team like the Phoenix Suns with a thin frontline and a willingness to throw young players into action right away.

When they drafted Darko over Anthony they also could not possibly have known that Atlanta and Boston would agree to such a bad trade to give the Pistons Rasheed Wallace and a legitimate shot at a championship. I'm a big fan of Tayshaun Prince, but if he was replaced in the starting lineup by Anthony, Detroit would be a very legitimate contender. They could still bring Prince off the bench for Anthony or Hamilton.

Joe Mama

 

[Yuma]

Who knows how good he really is at this point? It's possible that Darko would have been another rookie of the year candidate if he had played on a team like the Phoenix Suns with a thin frontline and a willingness to throw young players into action right away.

Joe Mama

No way Joe. I've seen this guy a bunch when he gets in the games, and he is light years BEHIND Lampe, even. This guy is a mess. No footwork, he can't defend, he has no dribbling ability, and no shot. He is a 7 foot, no skill guy right now. He doesn't even grab boards. I don't know what the scouts saw, but right now Lampe looks way better than Darko, and everyone here says Lampe isn't ready to play. At least Lampe shows flashes of being good. I may be wrong, but right now Darko has more signs of being just a journeyman center in the NBA at most.

 

[scotsman13]

joe i dont think that melo would have gotten off the bench this year with the pistons. larry brown does like to play rookies at all. he sure wouldnt have gotten 1/5 of the touches that he got in denver and we would have heard melo crying all year that brown wont put him in. and that he is really better then labron. heck i am shocked that we havent heard him crying that he is being left off the olympics team.

in denver melo had the freedon to be a major scorer in his rookie season almost any other team in the nba he wouldnt have gotten that chance.

 

[Joe Mama]

No way Joe. I've seen this guy a bunch when he gets in the games, and he is light years BEHIND Lampe, even. This guy is a mess. No footwork, he can't defend, he has no dribbling ability, and no shot. He is a 7 foot, no skill guy right now. He doesn't even grab boards. I don't know what the scouts saw, but right now Lampe looks way better than Darko, and everyone here says Lampe isn't ready to play. At least Lampe shows flashes of being good. I may be wrong, but right now Darko has more signs of being just a journeyman center in the NBA at most.

well, you couldn't possibly have seen too much of him because he only average to 4 minutes per game this season. I'll take your word for it though. What little I've seen of him was just not enough to get a good field. I saw him make some good plays, and I saw him make some bad plays.

Joe Mama

 

[Chaplin]

well, you couldn't possibly have seen too much of him because he only average to 4 minutes per game this season. I'll take your word for it though. What little I've seen of him was just not enough to get a good field. I saw him make some good plays, and I saw him make some bad plays.

Joe Mama

LOL

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing! He's seen him a "bunch"?

How does a guy in Yuma see PISTON games a bunch, let alone watch the games where Darko actually plays?

 

[George O'Brien]

It has been widely reported that Larry Brown REALLY wanted Anthony. I'm guessing he would have seen a lot of action, but nothing like he got in Denver.

It will be interesting to see if Darko ever lives up to his pre-draft hype. I think there is a very good chance that Lampe will turn out to be the better player, but it is still too early to tell.

 

[Chaplin]

It has been widely reported that Larry Brown REALLY wanted Anthony. I'm guessing he would have seen a lot of action, but nothing like he got in Denver.

It will be interesting to see if Darko ever lives up to his pre-draft hype. I think there is a very good chance that Lampe will turn out to be the better player, but it is still too early to tell.

Way, way, way too early to tell. I can't hardly believe some people are actually entertaining the thought of Lampe being a better player. There's a possibility, sure, but I refuse to believe that Dumars is the biggest idiot in the NBA.

 

[George O'Brien]

Way, way, way too early to tell. I can't hardly believe some people are actually entertaining the thought of Lampe being a better player. There's a possibility, sure, but I refuse to believe that Dumars is the biggest idiot in the NBA.

As far as I can tell, everyone projected Darko to be a star - not just Dumars. I hate going for projects, but I would love to do a deal with the Pistons to get him but I think they have the patience to wait.

The big plus with Lampe is that he has actually show something in his brief periods of play. It is not just a rumor - he can flat out shoot the ball. The rest is just stories about how he's looked in practice.

Beyond anything else, Lampe is likely to be a lot bigger than Darko for most of his career - taller and heavier. Darko is projected as PF while Lampe will be big enough to play center. In this case, "better" may be relative to the team needs.

 

[Joe Mama]

As far as I can tell, everyone projected Darko to be a star - not just Dumars. I hate going for projects, but I would love to do a deal with the Pistons to get him but I think they have the patience to wait.

The big plus with Lampe is that he has actually show something in his brief periods of play. It is not just a rumor - he can flat out shoot the ball. The rest is just stories about how he's looked in practice.

Beyond anything else, Lampe is likely to be a lot bigger than Darko for most of his career - taller and heavier. Darko is projected as PF while Lampe will be big enough to play center. In this case, "better" may be relative to the team needs.

Darko is already listed as being taller than Lampe although they may both actually be 7'0" tall. Darko definitely isn't as big as Lampe, but I remember reading that he could easily carry 260 pounds or more. Right now he is listed at 245 pounds. Lampe is listed at 240 pounds, but he is clearly bigger than that. I would guess he is 260-270.

Joe Mama

 

[Yuma]

LOL

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing! He's seen him a "bunch"?

How does a guy in Yuma see PISTON games a bunch, let alone watch the games where Darko actually plays?

NBA TIcket on DirecTV! I didn't mean he played a lot of minutes, but I have seen him. get into quite a few games this year, but usually in the 4th in a blow out either way. So he's usually playing against bench players. You have to remember that, and he looks really bad against those guys!! For example, he came in the other night, and he had a couple turn overs and fouls in just a couple minutes. No boards, no points. Kinda like he's in the mode Luc Longley was in when he played for us. That being said, Olawakandi looked EVEN WORSE than Darko last night because Darko was trying to stay out of the way, where Olawakandi was turning over the ball every time he touched it, and they kept giving it to him a lot!!

 

[Yuma]

Way, way, way too early to tell. I can't hardly believe some people are actually entertaining the thought of Lampe being a better player. There's a possibility, sure, but I refuse to believe that Dumars is the biggest idiot in the NBA.

How do we know he isn't? It's not like Dumars has a long record as a GM in the NBA! I actually like Joe Dumars. A lot better than Isiah Thomas. I just don't think we can say Joe wouldn't make a mistake without having a track record to disprove this. They did show Joe in the stands after Darko threw a ball away out of bounds, and he looked pissed!! I know I would be pissed at a guy doing a turn over in a playoff game, but I thought it looked like there was more to it than just a regular turn over.

 

[Chaplin]

NBA TIcket on DirecTV! I didn't mean he played a lot of minutes, but I have seen him. get into quite a few games this year, but usually in the 4th in a blow out either way. So he's usually playing against bench players. You have to remember that, and he looks really bad against those guys!! For example, he came in the other night, and he had a couple turn overs and fouls in just a couple minutes. No boards, no points. Kinda like he's in the mode Luc Longley was in when he played for us. That being said, Olawakandi looked EVEN WORSE than Darko last night because Darko was trying to stay out of the way, where Olawakandi was turning over the ball every time he touched it, and they kept giving it to him a lot!!

With no real game experience yet, what do you expect? Lampe looked absolutely lost most of the time he was in the game as well...

 

[Joe Mama]

With no real game experience yet, what do you expect? Lampe looked absolutely lost most of the time he was in the game as well...

Exactly. Cabarkapa didn't look very good at first, but once he started getting some real minutes he looked like he was going to be a big contributor. Of course then Danny Fortson had to go knock him out and screw him up for the rest of the year.

Joe Mama

 

[George O'Brien]

I think playing helps.

Amare had some nice moments before Googs got injured, but he did not turn into the ROY until he got a chance to play all the time. Barbosa made huge gains in his performance after getting a chance to play all the time.

I'm not sure that having a guy play for three minutes at a time really works for most players. There are some great bench players who play with frenzied energy for short periods, but most guys need a few minutes just to get warmed up.

The problem is that inexperienced players make lots of mistakes and it is painful to watch for any coach.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Exactly. That is one of the reasons Detroit is in a great position. They didnt draft this kid to be great now, they knew he was a project. He can go at Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and Okur all day in practice. When he starts to get regular time, I bet after a couple games he won't make near as many mistakes.