Detroit Bad Boys

Was the recent addition of Ronald Dupree simply a move to add more bench depth or a precursor to another trade? A. Sherrod Blakley suggests it might be the latter:

There’s speculation that Dupree may give the Pistons another athletic player off the bench in case they deal [Carlos] Delfino in a sign-and-trade package. Atlanta’s Al Harrington, one of the top free agents still available, is a player the Pistons might pursue.

Speculation among whom? Well, forum posters, for one. I don’t see any deal for Harrington happening — Delfino most certainly does not fill a need for the Hawks, as the knock on them is that they’ve acquired too many swingmen in recent years. There’s also chatter in the MLive forums about a potential deal with the Hawks involving Zaza Pachulia, which blows my mind since he’s a legitimate starting center at just 22 years old — what possible reason might the Hawks have for moving him?

That said, I can’t help but look at the current roster and think that we’re not quite done. I don’t think we’ll pull off a blockbuster, but I won’t be surprised to see Dale Davis’ expiring contract and one of those first-rounders from next year moved before training camp.

Speaking of Carlos Delfino, he’s created a mini stir among some fans due to some comments he made in an interview with a newspaper in Argentina in which he seems to suggest he wants to be traded.

I say “seems to” because the interview is in Spanish, and there doesn’t seem to be a consensus among those that speak Spanish as to what he really meant: Justin Rogers from Full-Court Press has a Spanish-speaking co-worker who loosely translated Delfino’s comments to say:

“As for me, I do not want to stay in Detroit because I want to be developed as a player on a team where I can play.”

But over at PistonsForum.com, a member who is a professor in Argentine literature says a more precise translation is less worrisome:

“[It] isn’t “I do not want to stay in Detroit” but rather “I would not want to stay in Detroit”. The sentence sounds somewhat odd, even in Spanish (but since when were pro basketball players grammarians!).”

Seems to me like he’s saying he wouldn’t want to stay in Detroit if he’s not going to receive more playing timeAny Spanish-speaking DBB readers want to weigh in? — but following the Mo Evans trade, that shouldn’t be a problem. And the rest of the article doesn’t make it seem like he’s in a rush to leave Detroit — for instance, the Full-Court Press translation also provided this tidbit:

There are better things to come. I still have one year on my contract in Detroit, the coach is still new, and now that Ben Wallace has gone to Chicago, anything can happen.

As you may remember, this isn’t the first time a translated Carlos Delfino interview resulted in controversy, and that turned out to be a simple misunderstanding. He has a fan in Joe Dumars,After all, it was only a month ago that Dumars said this: “[Delfino’s] going to be here. We’re not trading him and he’s not going anywhere. That was one of those situations where I would have liked to see him play more this year. Flip (Saunders) and I talked about that. He provides a skill we need — he can put it on the floor, break down defenses, get to the rim and play in the open court. We need that.” so I’d be shocked if the Pistons include him in any deal except a sign-and-trade that brings back Harrington or Bonzi Wells — which looks like a pretty big pipedream.

In any case, you know it’s the offseason when we’re splitting hairs about what tense a player used when speaking in a language we don’t even know . . .

Pistons bring back Dupree [MLive.com - link spotted on Need4Sheed)
Carlos Delfino still not happy?