Stop Bashing Joe Dumars for Detroit Pistons' Problems

I've dealt with the whining and crying from all of you so-called Detroit Pistons fans long enough.

Of course, Joe Dumars is mostly to blame for the current state of the Pistons, but all of these attacks on his credibility seem a little bit unwarranted.

Let's go back to the Darko Milicic debacle. Any general manager who had that No. 2 pick that year was taking Darko. Period. The debate for the No. 1 pick that year was between Darko and LeBron. No one else. Period.

Dumars was just unlucky the Pistons landed the second pick. And if you think about it, power forward was the only position of need at that time, and who would pass on getting the next Dirk Nowitzki (as every NBA scout and personnel person was billing Milicic as)?

Dumars also had the luxury of picking whoever we wanted. At that time, Chris Bosh was a 205-pound  string bean who wasn't nearly as polished. We didn't need Dwyane Wade or Carmelo Anthony at that time.

And like I said earlier, the only general manager who would not have made that pick was Cavs General Manager Danny Ferry. Cleveland was the only team that would have taken LBJ No. 1 that year.

If anyone is to blame for the Darko disappointment, it's Larry Brown more than Joe Dumars. Milicic was not developed into the force he could have been, instead he was banished to the bench behind the likes of Corliss "Big Nasty" Williamson, Darvin Ham, and Elden Campbell.

In the end, Darko was not all bad, remember it was trading him that got us, wait for it, Rodney Stuckey!

And speaking of Stuckey, give the kid a break. He was only in his second year this season, and he did miss valuable time with an injury last year. Now he has shown flashes of dominance, but at 6'5" and 205 pounds, he needs to develop a post game so he can be more of an offensive threat, while also improving his court vision and defense.

Now back to Dumars. Stop complaining about this past season!

It was foolish of anyone to think we were going back to the Eastern Conference Finals this year. We were too old and predictable.

Teams knew what was coming and stopped it every time they saw it. So Dumars had to make a change. He told us up front that the trade for Allen Iverson was a business move more than a basketball move, with hopes that Iverson would integrate.

But when it became obvious that Iverson had lost a step, we were stuck.

But hey, at least we got the cap space. And don't give me that mess about no elite free agents want to come here. This isn't football where players chose a team based on climate.

NBA players want to go to a team that has A) a good supporting cast, B) good management, and C) where they can get the most dough.

We have the No. 15 pick in the draft and plenty of cap room. That is more than enough to get this team turned around.