Detroit Pistons' President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars, from left, stands with draft picks Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5), Tony Mitchell (9) and Peyton Siva(34) while they hold their uniforms at the NBA basketball team's training facility in Auburn Hills, Mich., Friday, June 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
By drafting Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with the eighth overall selection instead of local favorite Trey Burke, the Pistons created a firestorm.
Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars only turned up the heat on the already hot seat he sits upon after a disappointing season and the firing of yet another coach.
Not only is Burke, the consensus national college player of the year at the University of Michigan, well known and extremely popular in this town, Caldwell-Pope was unfamiliar to the vast majority of Pistons? fans before the NBA Draft.
It doesn?t necessarily mean Dumars made the wrong selection. It was a gutsy choice, and perhaps a sign the Pistons are headed in the right direction.
Would I have taken Caldwell-Pope, a highly productive player in a non-descript college program at the University of Georgia, eighth overall? Probably not. Would I have been suggesting the Pistons missed with their first-round selection had it been Burke instead? No.
What I don?t agree with is this premise the Pistons passed on the next sure-thing great NBA star in favor of a player with little chance to have impact.
The easy out for the Pistons would have been to select Burke, sell a few more tickets by building a marketing campaign around him and then continue to flounder on the floor ? even if they feel he isn?t the right fit.
Dumars? assertion the Pistons lack a consistent scorer with size from the wing is a correct one. They also need a player in the two-guard spot who can defend top-line NBA scorers. They see that in Caldwell-Pope, who is a shade above 6-foot-5.
This notion Brandon Knight, apparently held by the majority of fans and media, is done as an NBA point guard is ridiculous. He has had growing pains thrust into a prominent role after leaving the University of Kentucky as a freshman, but he played well at times, too, in two NBA seasons. He is being judged too harshly, unfairly and far too soon.
Dumars was the master of one of the biggest draft blunders ever when he passed on Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade in the 2003 NBA Draft in favor Darko Milicic. Continued...
Burke is a tremendous talent, but he is undersized by NBA standards. He is not nearly the same sure thing as Anthony and Wade coming out of college. The Pistons picked eighth overall this season, not second overall like in 2003. It makes the Darko comparison absurd.
Caldwell-Pope was a big-time recruit out of high school, who was a proven performer in college. Darko was a figment of Dumars? imagination ? and many, many others. There is a lot more legitimate game tape of Caldwell-Pope than there the wavy, 1980s quality video of Darko dunking in a league less athletic than many rec leagues.
But on draft day 2003, it was a sacrilegious to suggest Dumars had made a monumental mistake. Those of us who did, were in the vast minority and treated as if we didn?t know the difference between the 3-point stripe and free-throw line.
The major reason at the time was because the Pistons were winning and Dumars couldn?t have been more popular and trusted. It was justified. Dumars had just re-tooled the Pistons into a team that would soon win the NBA title.
Now, the perception has completely changed. I?ve heard it said a few times in the days following the draft that Dumars has really put his job in danger. Well, he was already in that situation.
Dumars knows Burke well from his association with his son, Jordan, who attended Michigan. He played in the same backcourt with one of the greatest undersized guards of all-time, Isiah Thomas. If he thought Burke was another Isiah, he would have taken him.
Seven other teams in the draft passed on Burke. The team that selected him ninth overall, Minnesota, immediately flipped the choice into two later selections in the first round, 14th and 17th, in a trade with Utah. It wasn?t like he was dealt for Kevin Durant.
It?s not like Dumars and the Pistons were the only NBA entity not believing Burke isn?t the next Chris Paul. This was widely regarded as the weakest pool of players in any NBA Draft, yet there wasn?t exactly a clamoring to take Burke early in the lottery phase.
I don?t know if Dumars made the right selection.
But it?s clear he did what he felt was right to help the Pistons where it ultimately counts ? on the floor and in the standings. Continued...
For that he should he be saluted rather than lambasted.
Pat Caputo is a senior sports reporter and a columnist for The Oakland Press. Contact him at pat.caputo@oakpress.com and read his blog at theoaklandpress.com. You can follow him on Twitter @patcaputo98.
Source: http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2013/06/29/sports/doc51cf6a813e7c3775435509.txt
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