You do not have the correct version of the Flash Player Plugin. Click here to get it.
We reserve the right to edit your question for the sake of brevity or clarity.
Archives: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | FAQs
Ben (Kalamazoo, Mich.): What do you think is the most plausible move the Pistons could make before the trade deadline?
Langlois: It’s been widely speculated that Tayshaun Prince is the Piston most likely to be involved in a trade-deadline deal. I agree to this extent: If the Pistons make a headline-grabbing trade, Prince is likeliest to be at the center of it. But it would surprise me less if, say, Kwame Brown got traded, simply because it’s a lot easier to move a modest, expiring contract. There are teams in the West who could use Brown, especially if they should run into the Lakers in the playoffs. Portland, Denver, Oklahoma City and Utah are all teams who might have interest in a 7-footer who is known as a stout defender and solid rebounder. Brown’s expiring contract would be additionally attractive. Ideally, Joe Dumars in such a deal would get back a young player who isn’t critical to his trade partner’s playoff push this season but has long-range potential. If Prince, indeed, is the one traded, there are two possibilities: that the Pistons get back a good player with more than the one year remaining on his deal who fits the long-term plan here, or the Pistons essentially trade Prince for expiring contracts and future payroll flexibility. I’m sure the first option is Joe D’s first preference. If push came to shove, would he do a deal where the primary takeback was cap space? We’ll find out in 10 days.
Langlois: Great points, Mike. The NBA, to a far greater extent than the other major sports, is heavily dependent on getting a premium draft pick every once in a while and having the good fortune to have that pick in a year where there are truly franchise-altering talents available. You can win consistently in the NFL, MLB and NHL without ever picking in the top 10, but as you’ve noted, it’s very difficult to do in the NBA where one person has a far greater proportional impact on the game than in other sports. (Quarterback would be the exception, but a Pro Bowl quarterback is almost as likely to come from a round other than the first – Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Kurt Warner and Matt Schaub are examples off the top of my head.) It’s also important to note that while almost every team in the NBA with a chance to win a title at one point had a high lottery pick, the inverse isn’t necessarily true. Having a high lottery pick gives you a chance, but some drafts don’t produce any players capable of that level of greatness and many players picked in the top five turn out to be average or worse. In the year Orlando took Howard, Emeka Okafor – a decent player, but not an All-Star by any means – was the clear-cut No. 2 pick. The Lakers have defied the odds with shrewd trades – and the allure of Los Angeles doesn’t hurt. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar demanded to be traded from Milwaukee to either New York or Los Angeles, which propped open the window of opportunity there for many years. Shaquille O’Neal chose to leave Orlando for Los Angeles. But getting high draft picks from the Jazz and Cavs and converting them into Magic Johnson and James Worthy was shrewd, as was trading Vlade Divac to the Hornets for a high school guard, Kobe Bryant, drafting a high school center 10th, Andrew Bynum, and moving quickly to get Pau Gasol from Memphis before the story leaked and Memphis had the chance to get cold feet – as it likely would have when the reaction to the deal became public knowledge.
Mike (Sylvania, Ohio): With Joe’s recent comments about not taking back an expiring contract in a trade for Rip or Tayshaun, I and many others would be disappointed if he didn’t make a significant move before the deadline. There’s just too much of a logjam at the two and three spots and not enough talent everywhere else for him not to make a move.
Langlois: So would you and many others be happy if he made a significant move that removed someone from the logjam but brought back a player at one of the positions of need that couldn’t really play? There were no “comments” from Joe about not taking back an expiring contract. I suspect you’re referring to a Yahoo! story that doesn’t cite any source, but says teams calling about Prince and Hamilton are being told Joe Dumars wants value in return for either player and not merely expiring contracts. Well, think about that for a second. We’re two weeks before the trade deadline. Of course he’s going to be asking for value in return for them. If push comes to shove on Feb. 18 and he really wants to move one or the other, maybe his stance will soften and he’ll take expiring contracts as the primary motive. Nobody puts all their cards on the table this early in the process. Those GMs calling to inquire were hoping they could get something on the cheap. Remember, they haven’t made their best offer yet, either.
Langlois: John Kuester brought Steve Hetzel with him from Cleveland and Hetzel works extensively with the younger players developing their shots for all types of situations. Just yesterday I watched him work with DaJuan Summers extensively on taking bounce passes as he’s cutting along the baseline or from the wing and taking runners off one foot with either hand or coming to a two-footed stop while hoisting a push shot like Parker has perfected. Yes, he’s worked with Stuckey extensively, as well. That would be a very nice addition to Stuckey’s game, and he’s actually attempted a few lately, but the more valuable addition for Stuckey will be more consistency on his 18-footers – and, yes, he works on that tirelessly, often the last one off the practice court.
Langlois: It would take assets that the Pistons can only reasonably be thinking about converting into a restocked frontcourt, not another perimeter player.
Andrew (Ann Arbor, Mich.): When is the organization going to transition from the goal of “making the playoffs” to “playing the rookies consistently?” There is no reason why Austin Daye shouldn’t be playing 30 minutes a game and DaJuan Summers 18 minutes a game.
Langlois: Sure there is. Even if you concede the goal of making the playoffs is all but out of reach now, there are many practical reasons why Daye and Summers aren’t going to get those kind of minutes consistently. Maybe you do that in the last two weeks of the season, Andrew. But with 36 games remaining? When you haven’t had the team you expected together essentially all season? The Pistons have a lot of money and a big piece of their future invested in Rodney Stuckey, Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. They need to play those three first and foremost. They need to play Ben Wallace because without him, an inconsistent defensive team becomes flat-out porous. They need to play Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton for practical reasons. From now until the trade deadline, for sure, they need them to show they can perform at customary levels if the Pistons, indeed, have any interest in moving one or the other to further facilitate their transition. If the trade deadline passes and they’re both still here, not much changes, really. They’ll still be candidates to be traded in the off-season and will need to re-establish their trade value. It’s not a given that the Pistons will trade either one, though, and in that case, what’s the point of alienating them by sitting them to give playing time to rookies who haven’t beaten them out of jobs? My gut feel on this is you rarely do young players a favor – or, ultimately, your franchise - by giving them playing time they haven’t earned.
Langlois: In their heart of hearts, I’m sure they’re conflicted to a degree. They see Rasheed Wallace in Boston, Chauncey Billups in Denver and Antonio McDyess in San Antonio all playing for teams fighting for playoff seeding and believing if the breaks go their way, they can win a title – exactly the feeling the Pistons have had for pretty much the entirety of their careers here. But they’ve also taken enormous pride in wearing those Pistons jerseys and they know the environment here is created to put players in the best possible position to succeed, which they also know isn’t the case everywhere. Management in the Bad Boys era gave the principle players in winning back-to-back titles the choice of staying or being traded elsewhere, and players like Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer and Joe Dumars chose to stay even it was clear the Bulls and others had passed them by. Winning a championship creates a powerful bond between player and city/franchise/fan base.
Langlois: My guess is that who signs the checks is last on the list of reasons a player chooses a team. Chance to win a title, coach, GM, reputation around the league for treatment of players, convenience in getting to and from arena/practice facility, weather, nightlife, quality of life … all of those things come ahead of who sits in the owner’s suite. As long as there are enough zeroes in the contract offer, the owner who’ll have to make good on the offer just isn’t much of a factor. Baron Davis, one of the two most coveted free agents that summer, signed with the Clippers two years ago and Donald Sterling probably has the worst reputation in the league among owners.
