Morning Shootaround: Celtics Pistons Trade Rumor, Amir Johnson, More Draft Talk, and a Message for Joe

It has been a busy couple days, full of rumors and trades.  Pistons Nation wonders if Joe Dumars should have considered the Celtics alleged offer a little more.  I didn't like it when I first heard about it and I don't really like it much more now, but Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo! doesn't know what the hell Joe Dumars was thinking rejecting the trade.

Speaking of Kelly Dwyer, Matt Watson of Detroit Bad Boys has a response to Dwyer's opinion on the Amir Johnson trade.  Dwyer assumes Johnson didn't have "the drive or interest in doing much of anything last season" when that was certainly not the case.  No one would know that better than Mr. Watson himself (except for Amir of course), who has the luxury of interacting with the Pistons before and after every game.

Life on Dumars writes a letter to Amir Johnson touching on Amir's time with the Pistons and his future.  Personally, I don't think Amir was used fairly during his stint with Detroit.  I think a fresh start will do him well.  That being said, if he was going to continue to get minimal minutes, he definitely was not worth the $3.6 million he was set to make this season.

I thought I had a pretty good list of mock picks for the Pistons in tomorrow's draft, but Pistons Nation has pulled the Jack of spades on me.  If you're interested in what every website that has ever had a mock draft has to say for the Pistons picks, head over here now.  I guess that's why he's been tabbed as Need4Sheed's redheaded step-child by an anonymous reader.

John Davis over at Pistonscast thinks the sensible pick for the Pistons at No. 15 is Louisville's Terrence Williams.  Mr. Davis thinks that with Williams' versatility and lock-down defense he will soften the blow if the Pistons wind up trading Richard Hamilton and/or Tayshaun Prince.  I like Terrence Williams, but I don't know if he'll be available at No. 15.  If he is, the Pistons definitely can't go wrong with him in my opinion.  Also, make sure you subscribe to Pistonscast's episodes.

The Free Press takes a look at past No. 15 picks.  Hopefully the Pistons can land a Steve Nash or an Al Jefferson and not a Frederic Weis or Reece Gaines.  Life on Dumars came up with the idea first, but how dare he leave out 1994. Seriously, kudos to LoD for probably inspiring The Free Press to come up with their look at the past 15 No. 15 picks.

Michael Rosenberg of The Free Press has a message for Joe Dumars: Spend now, Pistons! Don't wait until next year.  Some people think Dumars is clearing all this cap space to wait for the esteemed 2010 free agent class.  Dumars has been on record as saying he intends to spend the Pistons' cap space this off-season, and it makes complete sense.  The worst case scenario is the Pistons' offers get turned down this off-season and have a ton of money to dangle in front of guys like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and that other guy next off-season.   However, the chances of the Pistons winning a bidding war for one of those three are slim and it'd be a shame to get to that point and lose out on all these free agents.  I'm a big supporter of the "get better now" campaign.

AEM from The 5th Corner, an all North Carolina blog, held an interview with Bob from Detroit4lyfe regarding the state of Rasheed Wallace and the Pistons upcoming draft prospects.  AEM wonders what the Pistons plan on doing with UNC alum Rasheed Wallace and what the Pistons think about the 2009 UNC draft class.  AEM concludes the interview by asking Bob's opinion on where bloggins may wind up going.

Dan Feldman is holding a little Draft Trivia on just how important the draft is for teams.  Head over to Piston Powered and see if you can answer the five questions he's put together.  Answers will be revealed later today or tomorrow. 

There's a pretty funny re-mix video making its way around the blogsphere of Allen Iverson's famous "practice, we're talking about practice!?" rant.  I saw it first on MLIVE, posted by Dave Dial.  Head over and check out Iverson's practice soliloquy.