Comments on: Pistons and Raptors neared draft-day trade that could’ve involved Brandon Knight, Jonas Valanciunas and two others

By: Revken

Revken — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 13:32:30 +0000

Yeah, that makes more sense to me. If Raptors thought Cleveland would take Valanciunas, then they may have been willing to trade. But when he was left on the board, they nabbed him instead. I can see them wanting to do a Gordon for Calderon trade – Rudy Gaye is basically a SF version of Gordon.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:52:17 +0000

that was a rumor i read also, and langlois’ report would make some sense if that was the case.
but joe had been making lots of noise about biyombo, the same kind of noise he’d made about stuckey and daye before drafting them. the detroit media was pretty much counting on biyombo, the unknown sleeper, being detroit’s pick. one thing about joe d is that he might not talk a lot to the media, but what he does say – or at least what he puts out there – is usually true and consistent with what he does.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:16:03 +0000

I’m pretty convinced Thompson is the guy the Pistons wanted in that draft.

By: frankie d

frankie d — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:10:54 +0000

agreed.
bad reporting.
this entire scenario makes no sense whatsoever.
what is the point?
imho, joe probably was targeting biyombo all along. that is what he was telling his media people and it made sense.
but joe screwed up because he let his plans be known and charlotte moved ahead of him and picked him up.
which is why they took biyombo first, let joe take knight and then took walker.
they knew he was after biyombo – because joe always leaks that stuff to his guys in the national media; everyone knew about both stuckey and daye weeks before the draft – and this time it bit him in the butt cause charlotte had similar designs on biyombo and weren’t going to gamble on joe blowing smoke about him.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:54:23 +0000

Why does it matter who drafted them? The point is that players from Europe are not necessarily steals or busts. How terrible would it be if your GM could only learn from his own successes and failures and not everyone else’s? But, just in case that arguments isn’t convincing, lemme throw in Jerebko.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:49:00 +0000

Yes, but, Joe didn’t draft any of the guys that you have listed. He drafted Darko with the 2nd Pick in the 2003 Draft.

By: Mike Coop

Mike Coop — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:21:46 +0000

Could the Pistons have been moving up to get Knight, who many projected to be top 5? Or possibly sneak in front of the Wizards to get Vesely? I also think its very likely both teams were targeting Jonas V. And the Raptors were keeping their options open in case he went at 4, but since he was available they just took BPA and stayed at 5.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:48:09 +0000

Or perhaps Dumars and Colangelo didn’t realize that they were both targeting the same guy because they were not revealing their cards in discussions.

By: tarsier

tarsier — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:45:55 +0000

That’s like saying Rodney White was a bad pick so Dumars should never draft another black guy. There have been plenty of steals and busts from Europe, just like in any largish demographic. Has anyone forgotten about Nowitzki, Stojakovic, Parker, Rubio, Divac, etc.?

By: Pistons87

Pistons87 — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:36:14 +0000

That’s just bad reporting by langolis. “likely pistons would have had V”? Uh no, that’s who the Raptors wanted so obviously the trade never happened. Likely if he went to the cavs as a lot of people thought they were looking to move down because they didn’t like anyone else there. My guess is that Pistons really wanted Thompson to fill out the frontline and knew the good bigs would be gone by 8.