Highlights from today’s presser from Keith Langlois’ blog:
* Dumars saying significant change was his desire and that “everybody’s in play. There are no sacred cows here.”
* Dumars saying the last 10 minutes of Game 6, when the Pistons squandered a 10-point lead and lost going away, was “a microcosm of the last three years.”
* Dumars saying that as he walked out of The Palace after that game, he felt a “sense of calm. I’ve seen enough.”
* Dumars saying “this team became way too content and did not show up with a sense of urgency to get it done.”
Honestly, this is exactly what fans should want to hear. Stay tuned.
Update: Also, I should note, Michael Curry was not named the coach, but it shouldn’t take long for us to find out if he really is the leading contender. From the AP:
“This will not be a long, drawn-out process,” Dumars said about a replacement for Saunders. “The next coach is going to be handed a good team. You worry more when you don’t have the players to compete at the level you need them to.”
And my favorite quote:
“The idea you can make yourself bad and make yourself good again, that’s a farce,” he said. “I have no interest in completely ripping the team down. Will I look to making significant changes? Yeah, you’re damn right I will.”
Tonight I light candles at my Joe D shrine and pray our leader has the wisdom to lead us to a golden age of triumph, with our trail marked by the corpses of our rivals.
No, this is scary and sounds like players are on sale.
Cisco - one thing that the highlights don’t include is Joe saying that he won’t have a fire sale…
* Dumars saying “this team became way too content and did not show up with a sense of urgency to get it done.”
That exact quote could have been used after Miami and Cleveland.
Love Joe, but did he take a course on “stating the obvious”. This was old news two years ago.
But now, what can you get for anything we’ve got that we would want???
IN JOE WE TRUST!!!
Man. Is Hooper in play too?
Looks like Joe D is finally going to rain a shit storm on this team like it has never seen. GO JOE!
Dumars must be pissed. He put together a roster that talent-wise was more than capable of winning it all. He put his faith in these players when everyone last year was saying to blow it up. They let him down.
“Dumars must be pissed. He put together a roster that talent-wise was more than capable of winning it all. He put his faith in these players when everyone last year was saying to blow it up. They let him down.”
If he’s pissed at anyone, it might be himself. His handiwork didn’t stand up to the challenge posed by the handiwork of Danny Ainge.
I don’t get it. I can live with scapegoating Flip despite him doing a damn good job (though I’m worried there’s no suitable replacement out there), but I’m with Cisco that Joe sounds kinda maddened here. If you can’t get anything good for Rasheed and picks, package him with another one of the core 4 (I vote Tay based solely on value), but there better be 2 of them left on this team come November.
And while I love and trust Joe, this is the same speech of years’ past, just heightened intensity. Not impressed with this.
I don’t really see what major changes we can really make that will actually improve the team. The biggest need I see is a guy who plays with intensity and fire, someone who’s going to say screw you guys and take over when we come out flat. There’s not a ton of guys like that out there.
Joe is on WDFN honest is all I can say
Joe basically said in the press conference that he won’t give away his players for 75 cents on the dollar. He said if it was up to him, the team would look dramatically different come October, but he’s not guaranteeing anything because he won’t give away more talent than he’s getting back. If you actually watch the press conference, it doesn’t seem like Joe’s in the same frame-of-mind that he was the past 2 offseasons at all. He’s less concerned about changing the players’ mentality and more concerned about changing the players, period. It seems as if he really means business this time and is more intent on doing whatever it takes to win than he’s been the past couple of years. In the past he’s been less resistent to guarantee an overhaul, but today he all but confirmed that no one player on the roster is safe, and everyone has an equal chance of wearing different colors in October.
a. flip isn’t a scapegoat, he’s an offensive specialist that’s about 2 years behind the learning curve. there may not be anyone out there obviously better than him, but he dug his own grave. tay playing 40mpg against the celtics and fading like a poster in the sun defines flip’s tenure here. as does amir sitting on the bench while sheed delivered a steaming pile of shit in game six.
b. sheed is gone. joe’s not going to give him away, he may still be on the team when the season starts, but he won’t be here when the trade deadline comes.
As long as Arnie Kander won’t be traded…
actually chicago is interviewing him for the head coach job. they’ll take anyone we let go.
If by handiwork of Ainge you mean the McHale Green Light Special, then yeah, we should get Hammond to trade us Michael Redd, a couple of 1st rounders, and Mo Williams for a pack of cigarettes and all of our ‘deep bench’ guys.
I’m always wary about something being what fans should want to hear when it sounds like a bunch of things that fans are actually saying.
Sauce197 makes a good point. The two teams in the Finals, LA and Boston, did some highly unusual and obscenely one-sided deals to get there. I think it was Greg Popovich that said if he was the commissioner in a rotisserie league and somebody tried to trade Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol, he would have voided it. And Boston arguably got more for less.
Anyway, I hope Joe doesn’t panic and make a Mavs or Suns like move.
“Yeah, you’re damn right I will.”
I love you Joe! You still have the fire to get a Championship, it’s too bad no one else shares that same fire.
that trade was a crime. simply not have kwame on your team makes you better. it’s like someone paying you several thousand dollars to let them remove a boil from your ass.
‘Sheed stays, period. Not only is he going to retire a piston, but he’s going to be Joe’s consigliere, serious. This I know.
We need Arnie Kander bad. I hope Maxiell explodes in ‘09, I expect huge things from him
Kyle:
Yeah, I mean if we could have traded Darko for Gasol, we would have won it all in ‘06 and probably ‘07 too. And if we had traded one good player and a bunch of odd parts and wound up with Garnett and Ray Allen, we probably would have won it all this year.
Joe Dumars should fire the shitty players as well. They always hold the coach accountable and not the washed up, lazy players. They are we ones responsible for the miscues, lazy play and lack of talent needed to win
Championships. Joe Dumars should take responsibility for not doing more to ensure the Piston made quality trades and obtained better quality ball players that what they currently have. Think about it, they have been ousted three years in a row, is it really the coach’s fault or the players ????? They should have made significant changes after the second year.
who’s got a link to video of the pc? from the sounds of things i’m wondering how clear joe d’s mindset was heading into this decision (and those to come.) he sounds TOO pissed.
JackDutch…go nba.com/pistons and you can watch it.
thanks, jim.
Wow, I love Joe D’s comments. Can’t argue with a word he said.
I think it will take an awful lot to get either Stuckey, Johnson, Affalo or Maxiell.
Though I doubt that Joe D. would trade Stuckey or Johnson unless we are talking about getting an all star quality player who has the personality qualities that Joe is looking for to get us the title next year.
Kyle:
Yeah, I mean if we could have traded Darko for Gasol, we would have won it all in ‘06 and probably ‘07 too. And if we had traded one good player and a bunch of odd parts and wound up with Garnett and Ray Allen, we probably would have won it all this year.>>
Actually Pierce next to KG was the key to the Celtics getting to the Finals.
He came up huge in game #7 against the Cavs. He played a great series against us including shutting Tay down, for all intents and purposes.
I’m sorry, but I’m tired of hearing what a “damn good job” Flip did. Yes, in the regular season he was terrific - I don’t dispute that. But when your team is the #1, #1 and #2 seed in the East, shouldn’t you have at least ONE Finals appearance in those three years? And given that we lost to three different teams, it’s not like it was just an impossible hump to get over. We underachieved in the postseason.
@LB, re: there better be two of the core left
He’s pretty adamant in the video that he does not like the rebuilding process and doesn’t think “you can get magically good by being bad.” He specifically says he won’t rip us apart. I think Joe has what most of us have in mind — keeping some of the core, trading some of it.
I think Dumars should make a play for Jermaine O’Neal. Image him taking Sheed’s place in the lineup.
Personally I wouldn’t like to see O’Neal, he’s often-injured and unhappy, (although who isn’t with the Pacers). Guys I’d like to see are Elton Brand, Josh Smith, and realistically or not, Dwyane Wade. I think they’d all be available, with Wade being the hardest to get.
I think Joe’s short list of coaching candidates should have included: Billy Lam, Isaiah and Mark Jackson. I think all three would command respect from the players, fire them up and relate to them well. Isaiah and Mark would help Stuckey develop and Billy Lam would set a fire under Sheed.
I don’t think Joe D should get rid of Sheed or any of the other starters. He should add a few free agents that are gritty, blue collar players that will fit in the system. I think Ron Artest(player option), Andres Nocioni and Eduardo Najera are all available. In addition, I think Ryan Gomes would be a good, young talent to add to the team that can score off the bench.