« Reply #45 on: January 31, 2009, 03:26:33 PM »
The trade for AI was never about this year. It was about rebuilding.
He made one drafting mistake.
He also put together a team that won one title, made it to the finals twice and multiple conference championships without having a NBA Superstar.
So yes, he is a good GM.
He chose Rasheed over Okur, which was a fairly large mistake as well.
How so? How many deep playoff runs did the Pistons get? Rasheed is a better player. He is one of the top NBA defenders. No, between those two, he made the right choice.
No, his mistake was to get an offensive minded head coach that was a bad fit for the defensive minded Pistons. They started worrying about getting all 5 starters to the all-star game and putting up big offensive numbers. They needed another defensive minded coach to replace Larry Brown.
you are significantly underestimating Okur, who is a younger better version of Rasheed. Okur is a better rebounder, more efficient scorer, and a better passer. The Pistons would have been a better team with Okur than they were with Rasheed. Rasheed was kept because of emotion, but Okur was and is a better player and would have made the Pistons better the last five years (though I don't know if the difference between Okur and Rasheed would have been enough to get them over any of the teams they lost to, though I think he could have made the difference in the cavs series).
Wallace is simply the better player. He can play defense. He can post players up.
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