ESPN to profile former Pistons player Darko Milicic, 'the NBA's biggest bust'

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ESPN to profile former Pistons player Darko Milicic, 'the NBA's biggest bust'
I'm still in disbelief Darko was drafted with a free #2 pick and so much talent there on the board. He was always gonna be a huge gamble and there were so many sure things. I've seen it argued that they don't pull off the Sheed trade and get with ring without drafting Darko but even if that is true at the time Dumars didn't know that and still pulled the trigger.

I mean couldn't he have drafted Melo and later traded him to a crap team for another lottery pic? Simply kick the can down the road a bit. What was he thinking?
 
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Supreme Leader Reinscarf said:
I honestly think if he was drafted to any other team he would have been a good player
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They called him the human victory cigar. All that crap he went through probably damaged his development and he likely never became the player he could have. He was like 17 or so when they drafted him. Still a kid and that mockery had to ruin his confidence. I think one of the first playoff games he got into he broke his hand too.
 
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winb83 said:
ESPN to profile former Pistons player Darko Milicic, 'the NBA's biggest bust'
I'm still in disbelief Darko was drafted with a free #2 pick and so much talent there on the board. He was always gonna be a huge gamble and there were so many sure things. I've seen it argued that they don't pull off the Sheed trade and get with ring without drafting Darko but even if that is true at the time Dumars didn't know that and still pulled the trigger.

I mean couldn't he have drafted Melo and later traded him to a crap team for another lottery pic? Simply kick the can down the road a bit. What was he thinking?
Click to expand...
This has always been my stance since '04. Even "if" it doesn't work out because of Larry Brown's coaching style (who ironically would bail on the team anyway, 2 years later) you at least have a superstar level talent on your bench, on a rookie contract, that teams would be lining up to trade for. And assuming there's no butterfly effect that causes Sheed to not still blow up in portland, the same opportunity and need to snatch him would likely still be there.

If all the same variables of '04 that worked for the Pistons were still there: i.e. Wade and Lebron still in their infancy, the "nets"/"pacers" struggle offenses being the best the east has to offer, and the lakers at their most toxic chemistry wise + the injuries... then Detroit is still in a great position that year while giving themselves much more cushion in the years to come. As things turned out tho, they essentially were a gate keeper team after '05; good to great in the regular season only to have their struggle offense exposed in the playoffs.
 
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