Response To Potential Nuggets-Pistons Trade
There was an interesting article in hoopsworld.com about the Pistons and Nuggets possibly working together for a trade. The author suggested that the Pistons would trade Billups, Wallace, and Antonio McDyess for AI, Marcus Camby and Kleiza. He even went so far as to suggest that the Pistons would even trade Billups for a package involving Marcus Camby (oh - Billups is a hometown Denver guy – what a great fit!). My response: you must be crazy.
First of all, we’re talking about players on the Pistons who have won a title and made the Eastern Conference finals for 6 straight seasons. We’re talking about multi-year All-Stars here. Joe D isn’t stupid. You’re not going to get pennies on the dollar here. Yes, everybody’s on the block but Joe won’t trade just to trade.
Let’s break this proposal down for a second. Alright – AI for Billups. Possibly. But Joe has already come close to trading for Iverson but hasn’t pulled the trigger. AI is 33, dribbles too much to be paired with Rip in the backcourt and would take minutes away from Stuckey. Next – Wallace for Camby: are you kidding me? Please, you’re wasting our time here. Wallace is as good as Camby defensively and he’s younger and way better of a scorer. If you’re a Nuggets fan I could see why this trade proposal would excite you, but from our end, there’s no way. We’d just as soon keep him and have that $13mil+ salary come off the books next year. And finally, McDyess for Kleiza. Again, this is silly. McDyess is the perfect teammate, has a very reasonable salary and was often the hardest working and best player the Pistons had this postseason. He’s the perfect veteren big man to come off the bench, so he’s actually far down the list of players we want to deal. Kleiza?
The only way that Joe would pull the trigger on something involving the Nuggets is to get Carmello Anthony in the package. Either with AI or without him. Then we’d talk. But until then, that’s just a pipedream.
June 5, 2008 at 5:51 pm
You mean, pick up Carmello to make up for Darko?
The scuttlebutt from Mlive is that they’re looking at ditching Billups for a younger guard, which could make sense. Stucky, I hope, will come into his own.
And what we really need is a dominant center. Unfortunately, there just aren’t that many in the league who we can pick up right now.
Oh, and one last thing—a lot of this is why I really prefer following “foreign” baseball to basketball. I feel like in baseball, I have a pretty good idea regarding the stats, and can understand who’s a good trade and who isn’t. Basketball? Well, I watch the Pistons when I can, and the Lakers (kinda, but they’ve been inescapable). Aside from that, there’s not really a good index of what you can expect to get out of a guy like there is in baseball, at least not to the same granularity.
June 5, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Yeah, js, I see what you’re saying. You really gotta be an NBA junkie to know what’s a good trade. I’ve been watching a lot of the NBA vets now since they were in high school – my friends and I used to make fun of Chauncey Billups’s name when he was a McDonalds high school All-American out of Denver – when he landed with Detroit we had already followed his career since then. I have to admit that NBA basketball is one of my obsessions in that I read espn’s daily dime article every single day since the start of the season, even preseason, and pretty much follow everything that is going on. Probably not too healthy, but it’s one of the ways I keep myself busy. Fortunatly for us Pistons fans, Joe D lives, sleeps, and eats NBA basketball 24-7. He knows what he’s doing and he’ll make a good move for us.
But yeah, compared to baseball, you can’t just look at the stats in basketball. A guy’s stats somewhere doesn’t always mean much – there’s a lot to factor including how the player will fit in with the team mojo and chemistry that’s already there or trying to be established.
June 10, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I guess that’s a big part of the difference—for me, while i like the NBA, I only really follow the Pistons. For baseball, I care about the whole MLB. I used to love football, but year after year of the Lions just killed it for me. Now I can’t be bothered at all.
June 10, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Yeah, I’m totally the same way…Everyone goes nuts for the NFL, but I only care about and watch the Lions. Baseball is fun to get into, but it sure is better when the Tigers are being competitive.
June 13, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Even when they’re not, I dunno. The first year that I went to more than five games was when they had their record loss season, so I kinda got used to the sad, sad state and learned to love it. Sure, it’s better when they win, and ‘06 was phenomenal, but I still love seeing them day in and day out.
This season, so far, has been a heart-breaker though, just because they could have been so much better than they are. I mean, I still think the problems of their ‘07 collapse are there (pitching pitching pitching), but they could have been really interesting to watch. Instead, they’re a constant reminder of how good they could be.
June 13, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Hey man, three in a row! If the rain holds up, they’ll go for four tonight. And look at the last two games they’ve won – a 5-1 Verlander gem and a 2-1 Rogers gem. It’s all pitching, you’re right about that.