F.A. SIGNING: Pistons sign Chris Wilcox

[Higherwarrior]

i share much of your frustration. but AA was no defensive enforcer. not IMO. he wasn't going to play much at all anyway and we did need a big.

whether he's the answer or not is debatable. i don't think anyone is expecting him to be a bigtime player for us. but he can be a very capable one. there is still the chance we could sign ben or someone else at the vet minimum.

and yes- i most certainly wanted blair.........but wilcox is NOT undersized- he's 6-10 and 240. not sure how you see that as undersized.

wilcox is a fairly good rebounder and did average about 14 & 8 for a while there. since then he's either been in bad situations or has simply been nicked up and gone downhill. while i'm not overly thrilled with the signing, i can at least see the logic of it. he is a 26 year old player who we signed for half the MLE which i have no problem with. he is still a very capable player and also young enough that his best days could be ahead of him.

i'm not holding my breath for him to be a great player. but if you asked me if i'd trade AA & sharpe for wilcox, i'd say yes everytime. afflalo has zero athleticism and there were few if any minutes for him. so making a move which allows us to get a halfway decent young big is OK by me.

i do have a lot of issues with our offseason overall- the lack of a big trade for one. but this is one move i'm not too critical of.

[Glenn]

I agree with what you saying, P, I've been singing the same tune for two weeks now.

I do find it funny that Afflalo has become a legend all of a sudden.

[Glenn]

I'm more upset that we wasted another 1st round pick than I am that Afflalo isn't here anymore.

If we had made a better pick, then that pick would still be here and contributing.

[GrantBell]

Afflalo was the truth. I hate that he's gone.

[micknugget]

I agree with what you saying, P, I've been singing the same tune for two weeks now.

I do find it funny that Afflalo has become a legend all of a sudden.

It's not that Afflalo is a legend. It's that many of us saw him as part of the teams future. He is a young player who has shown poise, hit some clutch shots for us, and was what we thought the team was looking for. A hard worker who didn't complain about PT, played very well defensively (hell, he frequently covered LeBron in the playoffs and did as well as anyone.) and still had upside.

Giving him away essentially for free made it that much worse. If we are rebuilding, does dumping Afflalo for fucking Wilcox make any sense? Joe keeps saying one thing and doing another. Keep Curry, fire Curry. Good work ethics & locker room presence to bad work ethic and locker room presence. It's like he bi-polar.

[Uncle Mxy]

Is Wilcox a bad locker room presence? He's been in some shitty team situations... does that make him shitty?

[Higherwarrior]

afflalo didn't have that much more upside IMO. he's a nice kid and a hard worker. but players like him are a dime a dozen.

and i said he was a bad pick when we picked him. so i see no sense in keeping him around just to try and justify the pick. he is a very, very average player. i wish him well and i think he'll do OK in denver. his shooting is improving and he may do well in that style of play. but he's not somebody i'll miss.

especially since he's #3 on the depth chart anyway. can you really be upset to lose a guy who MIGHT play 5 minutes a night? and whose upside is very limited.

[Zekyl]

he is very gifted. he just has never lived up to his talent.

Darko?
Kwame?
We've had our C's with potential that haven't had the drive to reach it. I don't expect him to make the jump. I expect him to be exactly what he currently is - servicable - just like Kwame.

So we traded Afflalo for this?
.....
We gave away a hard working young player that could shoot and was willing to defend PLUS he had an expiring contract in order to have enough cap space to sign this dude!

Afflalo wasn't going to get any playing time with our current roster. We had to get a center. Take the names off of it and it doesn't seem quite as bad.
Team A has 2 All-Star caliber SGs and a #3 SG that plays solid defense but will not crack the rotation this season. They are desperatly thin up front and can move #3 for an athletic PF/C that will provide depth and rebounding.

Team A should make that move. Plus, on a 2 year contract, Wilcox can be the backup C next season when Kwame expires. People seem fine with keeping Kwame for $4m, but they're upset with Wilcox at #3m? Compare the two players and tell me why Kwame is so much better. It isn't like we can't move Wilcox as an expiring contract next offseason if we want to dump him.

Why didn't we Draft Blair? If we wanted an under-sized PF ...

When did Wilcox become an undersized PF? He's 6'10" and can play some C. Comparing him to drafting Blair doesn't fit.

He is a young player who has shown poise, hit some clutch shots for us, and was what we thought the team was looking for.

When did Afflalo become our clutch scorer? I don't remember any clutch shots from him.


Has anyone considered that Joe hasn't made a big trade for a young C because none were available? Teams have wanted to get under the tax level, I'm sure, but does that mean Charlotte is going to give away a piece of its foundation? Does that mean the Raptors are going to dump Bosh instead of trying to make a run at keeping him or S&Ting him next offseason for something much better than what we had to offer? Same with Amare. Does it mean that the Clippers want to dump Kaman, a young big that may be a great fit next to Griffin, or Camby, a vet presence who's still got some talent and is expiring? They dumped Randolph and now have a solid 3-man rotatio in the frontcourt, but they're going to dump one of those pieces just to clear the salary? Maybe we haven't made this grand trade that will save our franchise because we never had one available. If you think that Joe didn't have a decent outlook on his options before the first day of free agency, that's silly. Just because free agency hasn't started doesn't mean he wasn't calling around to see what bigs were available via trade.

Is Wilcox what I wanted at C? Not at all, but that doesn't make this a terrible signing that should have us calling for Joe's head. He fit under the cap, provides depth in the frontcourt, and can be moved as an expiring contract next season if it doesn't work out.

[Kstat]

solid signing for the cash. Still need a defensive big.

If Ben Wallace signs on, I'll be satisfied with the roster.

[Uncle Mxy]

This isn't about Afflalo vs. Wilcox. We overpayed Gordon by one Afflalo-unit -- that's not Wilcox's fault. Wilcox seems like an ok enough signing for the price, in my book.