The biggest mistake was not taking the Butler swap. After cashing in with a late first rounder in what was considered a very deep draft, Dumars still could have tried to resign either Prince or Butler to try to swap him out later to a contender.

Not according to his numbers this year, he’s not. His contract might not be an albatross, but his age and decline in shooting percentage mixed with being signed long-term make me skeptical there’s a team that would give a first round pick for him out there.

“his game isn’t REMOTELY predicated on the athleticism players tend to lose as they head towardss their mid-thirties.”

You predicted something similar about Hamilton, I believe. That’s working out quite well for Chicago.

Letting him walk would have been a mistake. Extending him so he can retire here would be a bigger mistake. Joe left himself with nothing but bad options, but the best thing he could do is turn Tayshaun into another first rounder. Probably a late one. So be it.

My take on JJ is as simple as this: Jonas a part of the “young core” that Joe overvalues to the point of absurdity. The cupboard is so bare, and there’s so little flexibility for this year AND THE NEXT TWO, that Greg Monroe looks like Kareem, Brandon Knight looks like Isiah, Stuckey looks like Jordan and JJ looks like… uh, I dunno, Josh Smith?

The bottom line is that these guys aren’t a “good young core,” they’re good young pieces. And there’s a big difference between the two. These guys are not good enough to build around; they’re the kinds of players you surround LEGITIMATE core players with. Joe overvalues these guys as individuals and as a unit. He’ll never think he’s getting enough for them. This alone makes any trades involving these prohibitively unlikely.

Add to that the fact that the team itself is so poorly constructed that nobody is showcased at all. This team has been less than the sum of its parts since 2009. The only player on this roster who legitimately makes his teammates better is Monroe, and he’s the most untouchable. And (1) he doesn’t do it consistently enough to be a true full-time hub for the offense, and (2) guys he assists have to work pretty hard by being active and making basket cuts to take full advantage of it; he’s not one of these guys who draws so much attention that he just has to hit an open man for a clean look.

AND on top of all that, there is absolutely no pressure whatsoever on Joe (internally or externally) to do his job. He gets applauded for sitting on his hands, because he resisted the chance to make a move. Dude can’t lose. He’s got an inexplicable leash, and he’s got automatic incremental help coming intermittently in the future. Every year, he gets a promising young piece in the lottery (by mere virtue of being awful and suffering another excruciating season of misery and futility); this offseason he’s got a few small expiring contracts that are inherently movable simply because they’re expiring; next offseason Rip will have fallen off the books, and he’ll have two huge dead weight expiring nightmare contracts to try to pawn off on unsuspecting suckers, assuming he hasn’t already amnestied one of them.

The bottom line is that Joe seems completely unwilling to do anything to significantly shape the future of this team in any way. It’s one thing to try rebuilding on the fly, which shouldn’t be hard as long as you have flexibility (as the Pistons had in 2008); you just have to make good decisions. Joe tried that, but he only failed because he made terrible decisions. Look at Denver; they did it the right way by maximizing their assets and options. But once you’re terrible and have no flexibility, you need to shake things up in order to break the cycle of mediocrity. When you’re bad and orchestrate your roster to win as many games as you can, however few they may be, it’s just a long, slow slog out of the gutter. And anybody could sit in his chair and wait for things to get better, because they will as a matter of course.

I wouldn’t expect any activity at the trade deadline, simply because Joe doesn’t have the vision, guts, or options it would take to turn this team around by action. In all likelihood the team gets turned around by inaction, if at all. The front office will tell us that they’re waiting for the summer to make moves, but they still probably don’t make any waves then. It’s probably a full season before we see any real change. If Joe were smart, he’d do something to make us significantly better or worse (personally, I’d try to trade Max and Tay for junk and picks), but history dictates he won’t. He’s too stubborn and proud and stupid, so as long as he’s in charge we’re stuck in limbo.

JJ does not look as athletic as he once did, but not much less either. It’s a real disappointment that he hasn’t improved since his rookie season. Although I did always consider him a Taj Gibson type of player.