Yes, Portland — first-round exits the last three years and a 41-41 record the year before — did a great job of not getting stuck being mediocre. 

“but they are obviously being a lot more proactive and aggressive and trying to fix their problems.” 

They’ve definitely been more proactive. The biggest reason: They have better players to work with. 

“and in the meantime joe sits around with his thumb up his behind and continues on in a half-rebuild/half-playoff push that is leading to at least 2-3 more years in the wilderness.”

Hasn’t Dumars pretty clearly said he wouldn’t make a move that helped the team only this season and not in the future? Moves like signing Wilkins don’t necessarily mean the Pistons are selling out for a playoff push. There’s a reasonable case to be made Wilkins will make Daye better in the long run. Will that happen? I have no idea. You don’t either. Is that the better plan than gifting Daye playing time? I don’t know. But it’s a reasonable plan.

I wrote this in another comment a few weeks ago, and really believe it: the Pistons, along with the Lakers, Spurs, Celtics and Bulls, are the league’s elite, flagship franchises. Those teams have all earned that with their success over the last 30ish years. To me, it’s not acceptable for those teams to miss the playoffs for more than three consecutive years and this will be year three for the Pistons. You just don’t dare go much longer than that when you have a franchise with the history this one has and jeopardize ruining that status.

As far as the blueprint to actually get there, I dunno. Could be a draft pick, a signing after an amnesty and Monroe taking another huge leap forward. Could be a trade. I don’t really care all that much about the how. The result should be continued, sustained improvement and a playoff spot. Short of that, it’s probably time for the team to move on from Dumars.

Like I’ve said, I would’ve loved to see a trade made today. The logical side of me just believes that most likely, there was nothing on the table that would’ve had any benefit except for maybe salary relief at the expense of giving up an asset, and that, to me, is not a positive move.

STRAW MAN STRAW MAN STRAW MAN

What was or wasn’t offered last year when Prince was playing better and had an expiring deal is IRRELEVANT to this year’s trade deadline.

“this year, the local papers reported that joe received calls on prince and he obviously did not trade him.”

Right. But what if those calls were to offer shit? Or to say, “We’ll take Prince’s contract if you give us your pick or Knight or Jerebko?” “Offers” or “interest” doesn’t mean there was a market for him. It could mean that people were trying to vulture in and get an asset out of taking on years/money of a contract.

“those are two very specific examples of situations where he did not make trades of some sort that were available.”

Uh … the second example has zero specifics in it.

“and what is insane is the idea that casual fans who read papers and/or websites are supposed to have indepth and detailed knowledge”

Uh … you don’t have to have in-depth knowledge. But you should at least know something that was offered. Last year, it was reported that Butler/first was offered, so that can easily be judged as bad or good. This year? We just know that “offers” were offered. I don’t think that’s enough info to say it was a failure to pass on it. You can choose the mystery door if you want. I’ll stick with hanging onto Prince into the offseason to see if something better comes along.

“to argue that  fans cannot make logical judgments about available information”

I’m not arguing that fans can’t. Fans can and do. You just aren’t making logical conclusions in these threads today. I’m saying that I can’t logically judge whether Dumars failed by passing on offers if I don’t know whether the offers are shit or not. If a team offered an expiring contract for Prince? Then yes, that was a fail. If a team offered to take Prince for an expiring if the Pistons gave an asset too? Then I would say Dumars made the right decision to pass.

“in fact, i find your dishonest allusion to my not being specific enough hilarious.”

I find your need to write thousands of words to say very little and your need to copy and paste everything John Hollinger writes hilarious. But C’est la vie I guess.