I didn’t want to respond to this but I realize I didn’t explain what I meant by the statement: “market in his favor”, very well.  So, here goes:

Instead of bidding for the best players services and paying a premium because everyone is attempting to acquire this player.  Joe goes for players that appear to be reaching their prime and show the possibility for improvement.  Thus, playing less for this player because the demand is less and the perceived value of this player is less.  This is what I meant by the market being in his favor.  If everything works out like it did for Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton then he fields a pretty good team without going over the cap.  This is simple economics. 

This failed with CV and Ben Gordan but his full plan never materialized.  So we will never know how that would have worked out because individually the players are fair to good but together as a team they could be better than they are individually. 

We also have to remember the options that were available at the time.  That wasn’t exactly a strong free agent class.  And if Joe would have waited too long he might not have been able to move players and receive cap flexibility because their value would have declined over time.  Joe did the best he could with the hand he was dealt.  This is all you can ask from your GM.  It’s too easy to look back and say that this worked and that didn’t and then critisize the person making those decision when, if you honestly think about it, there is not much you could have done differently.

Do you really want to take the chance on that when you already have a guy who can draft and has already assembled one championship team from a complete mess before?

I disagree that Monroe, Knight and Drummond were all “no-brainers.”  Monroe looks like he should have been the top pick right now, but there were plenty of doubters in 2010.  If he had been the sure pick, he would have gone sooner.  Several teams ahead of us worked him out, and then passed on him.  We didn’t work him out, so Dumars had to decide to go with a guy he arguably knew less about.  I give him credit for making a good choice.  The jury is still out on Knight, and surely is for Drummond (though the early returns look good).  Both of those guys could still turn out to be disappointments, so I wouldn’t say either one was the sure choice.  Drummond especially was a gamble, because he was widely viewed as having high bust potential.  Henson would have been a safer pick.  Joe went for the guy with higher upside (and downside), and if Drummond becomes a star he’ll look like a genius – and the guys who passed on him will look dumb.  

I’m not even going to start debating whether signing Tay was a good basketball idea, but to say he’s been a great leader? From all that we’ve heard, he’s been less than a leader than everybody else. Maggette, who has had no history with the Pistons until they traded for his expiring contract, is already much more of a veteran leader, teaching the young guys and especially Drummond. Stuckey encouraged guys to practice all summer, Monroe has led through example, even Knight, who’s just entering his second year, has been pushing guys to practice hard. You don’t think if Tay was also doing this stuff that Langlois would write something about it? He’s gone out of his way to praise guys who were leading and being positive. It just seems like there was nothing of the sort to write about Tay.

Tay was the only guy who wasn’t with the team in the summer, he’s the guy who said that he came back to start (implying he won’t take well to the coach’s decision if he wants to bring him off the bench). To me it sounds like he feels he’s doing everyone a big favor that he agreed to re-sign.

I don’t actually hate the guy, he used to be one of my favorite Pistons, but I don’t like his attitude the last couple of years, and I don’t like the contract he got. Which is Joe’s fault and not his, but if he decided to stay, he should at least be more positive and cooperative about it. 

Consider this, Joe has a formula.  He always tries to obtain the best player where the market is in his favor.  He does occasionally over pay for these players but we are a mid market team without the free agency draw.  It would appear he was trying to do the same thing with Ben Gordan, Charlie Villanueva and Carlos Boozer (with Rodney Stuckey) that he had done before with Rip and Chauncey.  At the time that looked like an interesting team on paper that would eventually need tweeking but could possibly have made some noise. 

If Dumars had the opportunity to see his plans through, who knows what the team would have looked like.  So, what I am essentially saying is that Joe is a really good GM with a plan who learns from his mistakes (think Minnesota).  As others have said.  We are lucky to have him.  And when you take his mistakes in their proper context it is easy to understand why those decisions were made. 

Honestly, who thinks that Afflalo is a future hall of famer?  At the time he needed a power forward for the season.  Yes, that knucklhead has moved on but we are in pretty good shape right now.  We also have a potential replacement for Afflalo.  So, I can’t understand why people want Dumars fired.  Not all change is good.

I’m not saying he’s terrible, if you look at his overall record I’d still give him a mostly positive grade, but lets not forget there have been quite a number of mistakes, including some that are still crippling the team (Daye and CV taking up roster spots, Tay taking up rotation space).