Poll: How many rings for Melo if drafted by Pistons

[KG Living Legend]

 Brought up by RH in another thread. Thought it was an interesting concept. He's a hard-headed, but at least two for me.

[Birdman]

I say 1..did Detroit win it in 2004?

[Donoghus]

2.

Gets one that rookie year then is enough to put them over the hump in that 7 game series against San Antonio in the '05 Finals.

To me, the interesting questions arise starting with '05-06.  Do they get past the Heat in the ECF then subsequently beat DAL?  What happens in '07 against Lebron? Then, what happens against the New Three Celtics in '08?   

How does Melo's ego evolve in those years?  Is he happy?  Team player?

[KG Living Legend]

2.

Gets one that rookie year then is enough to put them over the hump in that 7 game series against San Antonio in the '05 Finals.

To me, the interesting questions arise starting with '05-06.  Do they get past the Heat in the ECF then subsequently beat DAL?  What happens in '07 against Lebron? Then, what happens against the New Three Celtics in '08?   

How does Melo's ego evolve in those years?  Is he happy?  Team player?

 TP, The Don.

 Ben and Rasheed Wallace were only 29 in 2004, Billups was 27, Rip 25 Prince 23

 With Carmelo Anthony. Most likely tougher by environment. Wow.

[Erik]

Based on what Chauncey said about his personality (he was only happy if he scored 30, win or lose), he would have requested a trade fairly quickly into his career if he wasn't putting up 30 a game, and it seems like with that roster, he wasn't going to have the opportunity.

Unless of course they just gave him the ball on offense and played their defense.

[Celtics4ever]

Zero, the Detriot teams in the early 2000s was a team,  Melo would have made that a sideshow.

[Moranis]

The thing is I don't know if the Pistons trade for Sheed if they have Melo instead of Darko and I'm not sure they win the title that first year without Sheed.  I also wouldn't bet on them winning any after that.  If they still acquire Sheed then they probably win a couple but I don't think they get Sheed and thus I voted 0. 

As an aside I do think Melo's career is much different if he went to Detroit as I think they had the veteran leadership that he would have respected and he wouldn't have learned so many bad habits.

[bdm860]

Anywhere between 0-5 seems reasonable to me. 

If you want to argue the high side, they went to 5 straight ECF and I believe were Eastern Conference favorites everyone of those years, how could adding an All-NBA player at their only non-All-Star position not help them out?

On the other hand, despite some great moves to put together that title team, I have little faith in their management.  Just a series of bad moves after they won it all in 2004 (and some before that too, like drafting Darko).

Summer of '04 after winning the championship, traded 6th man Corliss Williamson for Derrick Coleman who only played 5 games for Detroit before he was cut. 

Lost Mehmet Okur, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Greg Monroe for nothing. 

Failed to shake things up with the Billups for Iverson trade.  Instead team went backwards.

Lost the Brandon Jennings for Brandon Knight/Khris Middleton trade.

Made terrible big free agent signings with Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva, and Josh Smith.

Thought Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond, and Josh Smith could be the front court of the future.  Considering the direction the NBA has gone since, could not have been more wrong.  Like betting everything on Blockbuster over Netflix in 2010.

Just so it's not all bad, was a very good non-lottery drafter.


All that to say, what would Detroit have done with Carmelo?  Traded Tayshaun Prince for Robert Swift or Sebastian Telfair or Marcus Banks?  Let Rasheed Wallace walk in the summer of '04 because they have Carmelo and Prince as their forwards?  Traded some other key member of the team to make Melo happy?  I have serious doubts they would have made the right moves.  Kind of like how we look at OKC now and think what if they kept Harden, Durant, and Westbrook,  but with the Piston's demise being quicker and much worse.

Edit - or as Moranis said I was typing my response, maybe not have even traded for Sheed in the first place.

Lot of ways Detroit could have screwed up despite drafting Melo.

[Csfan1984]

3 doesn't seem unreasonable but 1 for sure.

[moiso]

Zero, the Detriot teams in the early 2000s was a team,  Melo would have made that a sideshow.

I'm leaning toward this.  Detroit was the only modern team to win a title without a superstar.  Everyone on that team embraced their roles and played for the greater good of the team.  Melo was never a championship level superstar and he almost certainly would have had a negative effect on that team's chemistry.  Darko was definitely better for that team

[KG Living Legend]

Based on what Chauncey said about his personality (he was only happy if he scored 30, win or lose), he would have requested a trade fairly quickly into his career if he wasn't putting up 30 a game, and it seems like with that roster, he wasn't going to have the opportunity.

Unless of course they just gave him the ball on offense and played their defense.

 Your living in the Old Melo Space Time continuum.

 It's possible that a reduced role in the beginning, couples with people like Ben and likely Rasheed Wallace yelling at him as a rookie could have changed his entire destiny.


 See the movie Mr Destiny with Michael Caine and Jim Belushi.