The Knicks may hire one or two guys from the Pistons organization but as long as they don’t get Joe D. or Tom W. they will have no chance.

Joe D. and Tom W. are the brains of the Pistons organization. Can a student surpass the teachers.

Not very likely in this case.

The Knickerbockers need alot more than that…..I’m just sayin….

I forgot about Tony A. and Arnie K.

Crucial cogs to the Pistons engine

Correction:

My bad.

Mike A.

Did Ronzone scout Darko? I’m just saying…

Ronzone is worth paying to stay. The Pistons have some good young players so they can afford to draft some Foreign players to stash away in the Euro Leagues for a couple years.

Continuing to draft well like the Pistons have the last three years will keep the player payroll low. Good scouting is worth the investment.

The Knicks outta hire me to scout in Europe. I’d travel around, Rome to Paris, Athens to Barcelona, watchin’ b ball. I’d smoke some of that Amsterdam green, and tour the Red Light District. I’d scour the Ringestrasse in Vienna and the amber beaches of Lithuania for tall but Euro-soft ballers. I’m perfect for this gig. Given their hiring practices in recent years, I think I have a shot!

FYI: Charley Rosen listed the players in the NBA who he thinks highly of. There are 8 Pistons on the list (he sure does love that backcourt!).

“STRAIGHT SHOOTING
This one is for the blog-heads who insist that I hate every player in the NBA. The following is a list (ah!) of those players whose game and demeanor spark my respect. They may not all be superstars, and my admiration certainly hasn’t precluded my criticizing them, but here they are.

Guards
Arron Afflalo, Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Darrell Armstrong, Chauncey Billups, Steve Blake, Keith Bogans, Kobe Bryant, Jose Calderon, Maurice Evans, Monta Ellis, Derek Fisher, Manu Ginobili, Rip Hamilton, Lindsey Hunter, Royal Ivey, Andre Miller, Steve Nash, Anthony Parker, Tony Parker, Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo, Brandon Roy, Thabo Sefolosha, Rodney Stuckey, Jacque Vaughn, Dwyane Wade, Delonte West, Deron Williams and Louis Williams.

Forwards
Trevor Ariza, Renaldo Balkman, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Elton Brand, Nick Collison, Glen Davis, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Matt Harpring, Udonis Haslem, Grant Hill, Andre Iguodala, Jared Jeffries, Jason Maxiell, Antonio McDyess, Paul Millsap, Eduardo Najera, Ira Newble, Andres Nocioni, Travis Outlaw, James Posey, Leon Powe, Tayshaun Prince, Malik Rose, Michael Ruffin, Brian Scalabrine, Darius Songaila, Hedo Turkoglu, Ime Udoka, Gerald Wallace, David West, Brendan Wright and Thaddeus Young.

Centers
Andris Biedrins, DeSagana Diop, Jeff Foster, Pau Gasol, Nene, Fabricio Oberto, Joel Przybilla, Kurt Thomas, Ronny Turiaf and Yao Ming.

Make of this what you will — and I know you will."

THAT WOULD BE THE GREATEST TEAM IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND!

But also prohibitively expensive, at least as far as payroll goes…

Man, QD – including Maxiell over LeBron! I bet the Cavs don’t make that trade ;)

Rob, the Amsterdam RLD is almost over. Better hurry, Germany is better for that sort of thing anyway.

Getting back to hoops, John Calipari’s name has been floated around both the Knicks and Bulls openings. I can’t see Ronzone making what’s essentially a lateral move unless he got a serious increase in salary (which the Pistons would probably try to match). Mr D is probably worth more than Dolan.

Whoever made that list is obviously not talking about good players, but players he likes personally. No LBJ, No Melo, No Sheed, No Dwight Howard, no Amare, no Chris Bosh, etc.

What a waste of space.

I read his articles often. The reason there’s no Lebron, Melo, etc. is (I believe) because he thinks they are good players but not as good as their hype.

Rosen really likes what you might call (and I hate this term, given what these guys are paid) “blue collar” type players. The type that go to work, do their job, play tough D, don’t complain. I can see why Sheed isn’t there, nor Lebron “I hurts my wittle pinky!” James, nor Amare “Kick the floor like an eight year old” Stoudamire. I’m not so sure about Bosh (I guess you could argue he’s soft), but I do think DTFICH has a point about Howard.

Kinda scary: Boston sat their “Big 3” and beat Charlotte by 23. If Cleveland sat their “Big 1” they would’ve gotten killed. I think we can ink Boston in for the ECF.

We sat our Big 3 and trounced the Twolves. Something tells me this is gonna be a rough ECF…

I’m not that worried. A couple of reasons…one, how many playoff series has Pierce, Allen and KG won? Two, Flip is going up against the one guy I know he can outcoach. Three, if we have to, we can go 11 deep (and this just in, apparently Flip has just figured out what Joe D knew all along), and I think in a long series this will be a factor. Remember, the Bad Boys went 10 deep (and that was a pretty awesome bench, too..Salley, Rodman, Buddha, Microwave, Long).

I was amazed at Rosen’s list, then I saw Grant Hill, and then I lol’d.

Before we talk international scouting with anyone from Detroit’s front office with any credibility whatsoever, one has to detail and dole out responsibility for 2003’s Darko Milicic, Carlos Delfino, AND Andreas Gliniadakis. They nullify Mehmet Okur.

Also, Knicks drafting of foreign players ( http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/NYK/draft.html ) looks extremely similar to that of the Pistons ( http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DET/draft.html ), in the sense that nobody TRULY ‘not-from-around-here’ was selected and imported until the last 10 years.

This is much like every other team around the league, since the sport just didn’t offer itself to international markets nearly as much . . . not until the 1990s, that is.

In essence, the Knicks haven’t ‘badly neglected’ the overseas market. They’re overreacting . . . or maybe Detroit stinks at it, too, depending on point of view.

Side note of major importance . . .

Knicks fans, in reality, are not pissed off at the ‘poor quality’ of their foreign picks . . . they’re still mortified from “le dunk de la mort” . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5z5NuwYHF0

What European markets fail to understand about the great sport we love dearly . . .

When someone, such as Weis, the Knicks 1st round pick in 1999, gets dunked on like THAT . . . that person can never again be allowed to touch the ball. They are truly, for all sporting purposes, dead.

And so Knicks fans are still upset they didn’t snag Ron Artest, especially. Even if not Ron, they are upset over missing James Posey, Andrei Kirilenko, HECK, even Kenny Thomas . . . all would have done better in their eyes. Cal Bowdler, even. I mean, anyone . . . ANYONE . . . but Weis.

Detroit fans were able to get the taste of Darko out of their mouth while high-fiving and partying up and down the streets in the summer of 2004. New York fans have been watching that moment in time every day for the last decade.

Still, the world’s tiniest violin plays for James Dolan.

No one should answer for Andreas Gliniadakis — the last pick in the draft is supposed to be a flyer. And Delfino hasn’t exactly flopped. They can’t all be starters, especially when you’re not talking about lottery picks.

I look at the positive way the 2007 kids played, and I see how Delfino still can’t shoot, and I’m going to agree to disagree on Delfino’s floppage.

Also, I’m not attacking your boy J. Peterman Ronzone as much as I am two-pronging Joe’s general average draft work AND the general overrated status of the foreign players.