Somebody needs to help me out here. Like most people, I drank the 'Joe Dumars is an excellent GM' Kool Aid. Well, this summer has made me pour my glass right down the drain. His moves have defied logic to the point that his entire tenure needs to be re-examined. That whole Darko Millicic pick is looking more and more like the norm and not the exception now. Is Dumars another Isaiah Thomas, or am I hitting him a little too hard here? When it's time to evaluate GMs, you look at a few things: draft picks (not just who they took but when they did it), free agency (who they signed and who they let leave), and trades. And then you look at the wins and losses. You can make smart picks but if they add up to a losing team then you failed. So how does he fare? Let's see:
Trades:
Overall, he's done a good job here. Three of the starting five on the 2004 title team were acquired by trades, so he clearly knows what he's doing here. He was able to turn what was looking like a free agent loss in Grant Hill into a sign and trade that landed Ben Wallace. Rip Hamilton was acquired for Jerry Stackhouse, who was a better individual player but didn't fit in as well with his teammates. And he got Rasheed Wallace in a three way deal for essentially a bunch of bench players a first round pick. Nothing to hate on there. Trading Chauncey Billups for Allen Iverson did what it was supposed to - create cap space for this summer and beyond. There have been other deals, but these are the most significant ones. Top to bottom, Dumars grades out well here.
The Draft:
Not bad overall, but the one miss was huge. The Pistons are usually drafting in the late teens or the twenties, so it's not like he's had a bunch of lottery picks to work with. He's gotten starters like Tayshuan Prince and Rodney Stuckey at 23 and 15, respectively, and quality reserves like Jason Maxiell at 26 and Aaron Affalo at 27. He also landed a future All Star center in the second round when he picked Mehmet Okur at 38 in 2001. And then there was Darko. With the 2nd pick in the 2003 draft, when Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Carmelo Anthony were all on the board, Joe Dumars decided to worship at the altar of potential and go with Darko, a phenom from Europe who wasn't even getting big minutes on his home team and was all of 18 years old. The rest is history; Darko was a colossal bust as a Piston who couldn't convince any of his coaches to give him any serious run. With 30 games left in his third season, Dumars finally gave up and shipped Darko off to Orlando. This gaffe looms especially large now when you look at what's happened to the Pistons frontcourt. All-Stars like Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace are gone, and in their place are Charlie Villaneuva (more on him later) and Kwame Brown. Taking a stud power forward like Bosh would have lessened the blows from aging and departures of the two Wallaces significantly. At the same time, Darko's presence on the roster and the need to let him develop forced Dumars to let Okur leave just as he was coming into his own. Right now they could have Okur at center and Bosh at power forward, but instead you have Villaneuva and Brown....ugh. It's obvious that Dumars knows how to pick players; he's unearthed some real gems considering he has to pick late almost every year. But his one high lottery pick was awful, and had an awful domino effect. You can't just ignore that.
Free Agents
And now we get to what really caused me to write this in the first place; Joe's free agent signings. Until this summer, I had no beef with them. His only real big free agent pickup had been Chauncey Billups, and that worked out pretty damn good for everyone involved. He's signed supporting players like Antonio McDyess and an older Chris Webber, but no one else Earth shattering. Until this summer. That's when he threw almost $100 million combined at Ben Gordon and Villaneuva. WTF?
First, Villaneuva. In his career best season he averaged 16 points, 6 rebounds and shot 44 percent from the field. Those are good small forward numbers, but Villanueva has been advertised as a power forward for his whole career, and at 6 foot 11 he's pretty much stuck at that position. He's never averaged more than 6 rebounds per game in four seasons, never averaged 30 minutes of playing time, can't hold on to a starting job (he's started a little less than half the games he's played), and shoots as many three pointers per game as he does foul shots. And yet he was worth 5 years and $40 million. If you compare him to the scale it's not so horrible, but he's still a guy you probably don't want starting for you if you want to contend. Remember, Toronto gave up on him after a good rookie year and traded him for an injury prone barely six foot point guard who didn't shoot well (TJ Ford), who they traded away two years later.
On it's own, that's a 'I wouldn't have done it but it probably isn't the end of the world' deal. But when you couple it with Gordon's 5 year, $55 million deal it's awful. Gordon is a sixth man masquerading as a starter in that he puts up starter's numbers, but his overall performance on film over the course of a full game is full of holes. He's undersized for a shooting guard, doesn't defend well, and is streaky as get out. He's good to have on your team, but he shouldn't be your anchor. And on top of that, bringing him in just continues the same problem that started last season with Rip Hamilton and Allen Iverson, where neither man wanted to come off the bench because he felt he deserved to start. You think Hamilton will want to sit for Gordon when he didn't like backing up a Hall of Famer in Iverson? And do you think Gordon, armed with a $55 million contract, will be content as instant offense off the bench? This has the making for another mess in the backcourt. Good luck with that, Joe.
Note: I wrote this before the Chris Wilcox signing. Having him in the frouncourt helps, but he isn't a great player by any stretch of the imagination.
Final verdict
A lot of good, some bad, and one awful draft pick in Darko. You can't minimize his building of a championship team with late draft picks and castoffs from other teams. Outside of Darko, his draft picks have mostly been good ones. His trades have mostly been good; to my knowledge, no one has fleeced him in any player swaps. But I don't like his free agent moves this summer at all, especially since he blew a lot of cap space on those guys to stock what will likely be a 40 win team. But despite those reservations of mine, and my flushing of the Kool Aid down the toilet, I still say he's a good GM. I'd hire him anyday.
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