michael rosenberg=gets it

[b-diddy]

im sure this will be moved, but im convinced no one reads the darko thread anymore, and this is a article well worth reading.

MICHAEL ROSENBERG: Lately, Milicic's play has been respectable

April 7, 2006

A whole new Darko

Here's how Darko's numbers per 48 minutes compare in Detroit and Orlando:



DET ORL
G 25 22
REB 9.4 10.4
AST 3.4 2.9
STL 1.0 1.0
BLK 5.1 5.2
PTS 12.9 17.8

Tonight, the Pistons face one of the most promising young players in the NBA.

Darko Milicic.

(OK, and Dwight Howard, too.)

Darko is like the girl you knew in high school, who wanted your attention but never got it ... until you saw her later, and she was suddenly stunning and blonde, except in Darko's case, he was a blond before he left.

Orlando's Darko looks nothing like the Darko you thought you knew in Detroit.

Darko is supposed to be a stiff, but since arriving in Orlando, he has averaged 5.2 blocks per 48 minutes. If he had played enough to qualify for the league leaders, Darko would be second in the league in that category -- behind only Alonzo Mourning, one of the great defensive centers ever.

Darko is supposed to be clueless offensively, but he is shooting 53.7% with the Magic. If he had played enough to qualify for the league leaders, he would be fifth in the NBA in shooting percentage.

Darko is supposed to be incapable of contributing to an NBA team right now. But if he played as much as teammate Howard -- and kept up his rate of production -- Darko would be averaging 13.7 points, eight rebounds and four blocks per game. And the more Darko plays, the better the Magic become; Orlando, which has been out of the playoff hunt for months, has won nine of 13.

Darko is supposed to be one of the worst draft picks ever, but if he were eligible for this summer's NBA draft, and we all knew what we know now, he would be a sure top-five pick.

He might even go No. 1.

Seriously. After all, Florida Gators sophomore Joakim Noah is considered a likely lottery pick, and Darko is not just potentially better than Noah -- he is better right now.

I know, I know: Darko should be more advanced than Noah, because he is older. Except for one thing.

He's not.

Noah is 21; Darko is 20.

Think about that: Darko is also younger than Tigers kid pitchers Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya. And younger than Michigan State sophomore point guard Drew Neitzel. He is 12 days older than Michigan quarterback Chad Henne, and Henne is still considered young for a college quarterback.

OK, so Dick Cheney was young once, too, and he never lit up the NBA. But it's not just that Darko is young; he is young and playing quite well.

And this leads to the question:

Did the Pistons make two colossal mistakes with Darko? Were they wrong to draft him when better players were available, then wrong to trade him for spare parts?

Maybe. Sort of. Not really.

(Am I waffling enough?)

Though nobody wants to admit this now, the Pistons were one of many NBA teams who loved Darko in the 2003 NBA draft. Some other teams would have picked him over Carmelo Anthony, and most would have taken him over Dwyane Wade. Ultimately, that's irrelevant -- the Pistons were the one with the pick. But it's worth nothing.

The Pistons' plan -- develop Darko behind a title contender -- made sense. Joe Dumars just didn't realize how much Darko needed to play -- and how much he would sit.

All Darko did here was improve in practice and accumulate rust. By the time he was traded, he obviously wanted out, simply so he could play. And since he wasn't going to play here any time soon, the Pistons had to trade him. (I don't buy any nonsense about saving money so they can re-sign Ben Wallace. If the Pistons thought Darko could thrive here, he'd still be here.)

To sum up: With a series of perfectly logical moves, the Pistons got absolutely nothing out of the No. 2 pick in the draft.

And for that, media folks would normally criticize Dumars. But Dumars' team has the best record in the NBA. That is the whole purpose of his job: assemble the best team in the NBA. So ripping him for wasting the pick is like concentrating on Cindy Crawford's mole -- it says more about the ripper than the rippee.

Tonight will be just another chapter in one of the most bizarre NBA draft tales ever. The way this deal has gone, we can expect Darko to score 30, and the Pistons to win by 40, which would prove Dumars right and wrong, all at once.

(Glad I could clear that up for you.)

[Black Dynamite]

~rolling eyes at the title~

[Kilo]

Detroit will get a close look at the frontcourt juggernaut the helped create tonight. Dwight Howard and Darko Milicic will own this league for years to come.

[Black Dynamite]

Detroit will get a close look at the frontcourt juggernaut the helped create tonight. Dwight Howard and Darko Milicic will own this league for years to come.

Atleast you finally came out the closet.

[Darth Thanatos]

Is Kilo a Pistons fan?

[Black Dynamite]

Is Kilo a Pistons fan?

no. He's a Darko fan. Nothing but overhyping things to say about darko. Kiss of Death talk about the pistons. B-diddy is too. Though i think he just lip servicing himself into believing his own hype.

[MOLA1]

Darko's going to be very fucking good.

I don't think he'll be a superstar, but he'll be a very, very good big man.

Darko wanted out, he got out.

Kilo's going off the deep end with being so pissed about it.

Last time I checked we had one of the greatest front courts of all time.

Ben, Sheed, Dyess


W/E tired topic.

[Artis Gilmore]

[Gecko]

Yeah lets completeley forget the fact that Darko still gets routinley dominated in the post, plays very soft, lacks heart and still after all this time has a conditioning problem.

[Black Dynamite]

Yea. I could be a lil' more down the middle about darko if his cult of supporters didnt use terms like "future juggernaut" to describe him. I'd take back a disguntled okur over keeping a happy darko all day. The idea that this orginiztion damned itself, or did something worth regretting in trading Darkhead remains a silly overhyped notion.