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Sign up for E-newsJoe Dumars Q&A - Part II
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KEITH LANGLOIS: If it’s fair to say the greatest need as you look at your roster is to get bigger and better in the frontcourt, what do you see is the most likely way to address that – trade, free agency or draft?
JOE DUMARS: I know it sounds like a cliché, but all three of them. It really is. When I say all three, I mean that. You can certainly target that position in the draft and primarily look at the bigs in this year’s draft. When you are talking trade, you certainly are talking about adding a frontcourt player at this point. And in free agency, you’re not going to go out and target guards for our team. It’s a really honest answer to say all three. You use all three avenues. If that’s what you’re trying to add, you don’t exclude any of those avenues.
KL: At this point of the season, you’ve been projecting that you’d pick anywhere from 20 on down for many years. How does the fact that you’re sitting at 15-28 today … are your marching orders different to Scott Perry and George David for the type of players you’re scouting in colleges this year?
JD: Listen, even in years where we’ve been picking in the 20s, I made sure those guys scouted from top to bottom, from one through 30. It doesn’t change at all now. The fortunate thing about our situation and the way we do things, no matter where we’re picking, it doesn’t change our draft strategy. We’re going to know – all these years, we felt like we knew the top of the draft. Even when we were drafting 25 and 30 and 28 we felt like we had a handle. On draft day if a trade comes up and you end up with the 10th pick in the draft, you wanted to know exactly who that was. Right now, we’re doing the exact same thing. You always put a little more of an emphasis on the area that you’re picking in at that particular moment, but also I’ve always said to the guys, if I pick up the phone and call you and say let’s talk about the 28th pick and who’s going to be in that area, we should be able to have a real conversation about who that is and what we think is going on in that area.
KL: You started this by saying the one positive has been you have been able to assess individuals and especially the young guys you didn’t expect to have to play this much. Let’s talk about Jonas Jerebko first of all. What have you learned from him over this first half-season?
JD: That he fits the profile of a Piston. Tough, hard-nosed, plays hard every night. One of the best attributes about Jonas is that it really doesn’t matter who he’s matched up against. He plays hard and gives you the same effort and intensity no matter who it is. This year, he’s guarded the absolute best players in the league and I never saw his approach change. That stands out about Jonas as much as anything. Just his approach to whoever he’s matched up against, you know he’s going to bring it. That’s great for us. Great.
KL: Austin Daye?
JD: Austin has grown as the season as gone on. You’ve seen his confidence just increase and increase and increase. He’s just strength and conditioning away from being a really nice piece here. He’s just strength and conditioning away from really being able to help us. We like him. Austin has a confidence about himself on the floor. You don’t see him shy away from taking shots. He sticks his nose in there – he gets knocked down, because he’s not strong enough. But I always say that when you see him getting knocked down, that can only happen if you’re sticking your nose in there. If you’re never getting knocked down, then that means he’s staying away from the action and he’s not.
KL: I know when he was drafted, one of the things that appealed was his versatility. He might be even more versatile than you imagined. He’s been playing the two. I talked to him last week and he even registered a little surprise that he’s held up as well defensively as he has at the two. I asked Q if he sees a future for him at that spot, at least in spot situations, and he didn’t miss a beat and said absolutely. Could we possibly be seeing a 6-11 two guard?
JD: I think throughout his career you’re going to see him playing two and three. I just think that with his ballhandling skills, ability to shoot and ability to defend with his length – he’s blocked more 18-foot jump shots than I’ve seen anybody block. Just kind of reaches up and surprises guys and blocks the shot. I think there’s no question you’re going to see him playing two and three, at 6-11. He’s shown he can hold up there.
KL: The guy fans haven’t seen too much of is DaJuan Summers. We see after practice, that guy is an NBA-level deep shooter already. What else about his game do you see that you like?
JD: Physical strength. He’s just the opposite of Austin. He is physically strong enough and has the body to play at this level. He simply is caught in a numbers crunch. We just don’t have enough space right now. But he’s certainly a young guy we like. He’s certainly a young guy that we feel has a future. And he’s the kind of guy that fits here. His personality, his professional approach, his toughness, his ability to be versatile, play inside-out, he fits what we’re about and his time will come. And what I’m saying to you right now is almost verbatim what we’ve sat and said to him – you fit, versatility, your toughness, inside-outside, your time will come, be professional, be prepared. All the things I’m saying to you right now are verbatim what we’ve said to him.
KL: Injuries aside, and I know that’s a big one, is there anything about this season that’s disappointed you?
JD: There’s only one thing – we’re used to winning more than we are now. We’re used to winning games that we’ve lost this year. That’s disappointing. No matter if you’re going through a transition or not, you’re not going to feel good about that. You’re not going to say, oh well, we’re going through a transition, it’s OK. No, it’s not OK. So if there’s anything I can say, it’s that we don’t like losing. No matter what the situation is, no matter if you’re going through a transition and no matter if you’re hurt, it doesn’t matter. We never show up and say well, we’re going through a transition and we’re hurt and we have a lot of guys out, so it doesn’t feel as bad. Yes it does. It feels just as bad as it did four years ago, five years ago, three years ago. It feels just as bad, because mentally and emotionally, you can’t allow yourself to get to the point where it’s OK. No matter what the excuse is, it’s not OK.
KL: I’m sure you’re watching the principles here to see how they’re reacting to losing. Are you seeing what you would hope to see from them to see how they’re reacting to this bit of adversity?
JD: You always evaluate. You absolutely always evaluate what’s going on – when you’re winning and when you’re losing. Yeah, that process never stops. The easy answer for that is yes, you evaluate all of that as you’re going through this.
KL: I’ll get you out of here with this one: In the second half of the season, what is the most significant thing you hope to get accomplished?
JD: I hope that by the end of the season, I can give you a full evaluation of our team. Individuals, we’re starting to get a pretty good grip on that. Team-wise, it’s really, really tough to tell you who we are right now. For the second half of the season, that’s what I want to be able to do.
