Archive for the '2008 Draft' Category

Plaisted and Washington head to Europe

Published by Matt Watson on July 31, 2008 in 2008 Draft, Contracts and From the news. 10 Comments

We knew from the start that one of the reasons the Pistons drafted Trent Plaisted and Deron Washington was because they were willing to start their professional careers overseas. Well, it’s happening. Plaisted will spend 2007-08 in Italy. From Daily Herald, a newspaper in Provo, UT:

The former BYU center, who forfeited his final year of college eligibility, has signed a one-year contract with a top-level Italian team, Angelico Biella (also known as Pallacanestro Biella.)

The industrial town of Biella, which has about 40,000 residents, sits at the base of the Alps and has no soccer team.

“So they’re into their basketball,” Plaisted told the Daily Herald on Wednesday while vacationing in Idaho. “I guess I don’t know for sure, but the plan right now is that I will play a lot.”

[…] “I was on board (with going to Europe),” Plaisted said. “I’m lucky. The team I’m going to is a Division I (also known as Serie A) team that knows my situation and they’re going to allow me to develop and do those things I need to do to improve so I can go back to the Pistons. There’s great competition, and I’m really excited.”

Exact terms of the deal weren’t reported, but I’m guessing he’ll actually end up making more than if he stayed in the states.

Plaisted said the contract details look even better when considering the tax credit and exchange rate.

“I’m not breaking the bank,” he said. “But it’s a good contract.”

All Plaisted will be responsible for is food, gas and cell phone. The rest is taken care of by the team, plus he’ll be given six round-trip airline tickets.

Washington has yet to sign a contract, but the Pistons are helping him find a team. From Pistons.com:

The Pistons have been working with Washington’s agent and using their network of European contacts to secure the best situation possible for him and hope to land him with a team in either Italy or Spain soon. Before Washington has to leave for abroad, they hope can take part in some or all of the three weeks of voluntary workouts Michael Curry has scheduled in Auburn Hills for August.

“We sit down (with his European coaches) and say these are the things we think he needs to develop so in time he can come back – that’s the idea,” Perry said. “And it’s important that he has coaches who have shown the willingness and the ability to develop guys. It’s also important that he has the opportunity to play. It makes no sense if he’s not going to get minutes on the floor. That will be an integral part of where he’s going as will the living situation. You want him to have the opportunity to be in a place where he’ll enjoy living a little bit because that will be a part of the adjustment.”

The elusive Walter Sharpe highlight package

Published by Matt Watson on July 2, 2008 in 2008 Draft and Videos. 14 Comments

Like many of you, one of the first things I did after hearing that the Pistons drafted Walter Sharpe was hit up YouTube. There was barely anything there, but earlier this week the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s athletic department uploaded a bona fide highlight reel. Considering Sharpe played only 12 games for UAB, I’m impressed. (Hat-tip: LanierFan)

All in all, Sharpe doesn’t hold a candle to Deron Washington when it comes to pure jump-out-the-gym-ness, but it’s easy to see why the Pistons were intrigued: he’s got a hell of a wingspan and a big body that looks like it can create space.

He admits that his defense needs work and his offensive game is a work in progress, but the tools are there. If he can bring that reckless energy at the three that Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson do at the four, I think Sharpe could surprise this year, especially considering Michael Curry is expected to place more trust in the team’s younger players than the previous regime.

Walter Sharpe played 40 games in college, not 18

Published by Matt Watson on June 27, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 151 Comments

Keith Langlois has a decent article about Walter Sharpe over at True Blue Pistons. Unfortunately, he also made the same mistake I’ve seen just about everybody make when talking about Sharpe:

Sharpe’s college career consisted of 18 games, or roughly half of one of the four seasons Prince put in at Kentucky while playing in 135 games over his college career.

Krista Jahnke made the same mistake for the Free Press:

Sharpe, who transferred after one season at Mississippi State, played in 12 games last season for UAB before he was suspended.

Sharpe played two years at Mississippi State, not one. I already clarified this twice before — here’s what I wrote last night:

Walter Sharpe’s collegiate career spans 40 games, not 18, as some outlets have mistakenly reported. He played 22 as a freshman with Mississippi State in 2004-05, six as a sophomore, sat out his third year and played 12 last year after transferring to UAB. Everyone seems to be latching on to the idea that his entire career is 18 games long because ESPN and Yahoo and the like are only showing three years on their player profile pages, but he’s from the high school class of 2004, the same as Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Rudy Gay, J.R. Smith, Boobie Gibson, Shaun Livingston, Arron Afflalo, DJ White …)

I’m not picking on Langlois or Jahnke — everyone in the media has overlooked those first 22 games. Granted, they weren’t exactly memorable — he wasn’t a starter and averaged just 2.4 points in 8.9 minutes — but he did play them.

Las Vegas Summer League notes

Published by Matt Watson on June 27, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 8 Comments

Keith Langlois revealed a few interesting names that will be playing for the Pistons on the summer league:

Dee Brown, the former Illinois All-American who played with Utah as a rookie two years ago, will be on the Pistons’ roster. Sammy Mejia, last year’s second-round pick, was going to be but he sprained an ankle recently and won’t make it. Alex Acker will also be on the team and has a shot at sticking with the Pistons next year.

Because the Pistons will have three draft choices on the team – as well as Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo, Cheikh Samb and Amir Johnson – they won’t be filling it up with a bunch of other notable players. That’s an unusual number of players for a Summer League team who have already cinched roster spots or have realistic NBA futures.

In case you missed it, here’s the schedule:

July 11 - Detroit vs. L.A. Lakers, 5:00 p.m. PST on NBA TV
July 13 - Detroit vs. L.A. Clippers, 7:00 p.m. PST
July 15 - Detroit vs. Milwaukee, 3:00 p.m. PST
July 17 - Detroit vs. Dallas, 1:00 p.m. PST on NBA TV
July 18 - Detroit vs. Charlotte, 3:00 p.m. PST

Unless noted, the games won’t be televised. Once upon a time it was possible to purchase some kind of video package to watch games (or at least highlights) online — no word yet if that will be an option again this year. I hope so, because that’s a stacked roster, at least as far as summer league rosters go.

The draft was underwhelming, but that’s probably a good thing

Published by Matt Watson on June 27, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 65 Comments

That was … interesting. I don’t think anyone outside of 5 Championship Drive thought last night would go the way it did, passing on guys like Chris Douglas-Roberts, Mario Chalmers, DeAndre Jordan, Joey Dorsey and Nathan Jawai twice (and Bill Walker three times!). DBB reader Fuj summed up my feelings, and I’m guessing many of yours:

I thought Joe fleeced everyone when we traded down and CDR was still there, but then…blah. And then Bill Walker was there, but then…I’m sure you all were feeling it too. I left the bar feeling like we should have used the trade w/Seattle to address our two biggest needs: take the best center prospect left with the 32 pick and Walker as backup SF with the 46. I don’t know what happened here. In Joe we trust I suppose.

Instead of any of the guys rumored to receive a promise — instead of any names most people actually recognize — the Pistons ended up with a narcoleptic who’s played 18 games the last three years, a 6-foot-10 (and a quarter!) big man who plays small and an amazing athlete with a reputation for flopping and playing dirty.

(Quick note: Walter Sharpe’s collegiate career spans 40 games, not 18, as some outlets have mistakenly reported. He played 22 as a freshman with Mississippi State in 2004-05, six as a sophomore, sat out his third year and played 12 last year after transferring to UAB. Everyone seems to be latching on to the idea that his entire career is 18 games long because ESPN and Yahoo and the like are only showing three years on their player profile pages, but he’s from the high school class of 2004, the same as Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Rudy Gay, J.R. Smith, Boobie Gibson, Shaun Livingston, Arron Afflalo, DJ White, etc … I now return you to your regularly-scheduled post …)

Is there a method to this madness? Or will this end up being the most disappointing draft since 2003?

Time will tell, but I found this explanation by Keith Langlois comforting (hat-tip: several readers in the comments, with Quick Darshan being the first):

Joe Dumars was smiling like a guy who knows something about Walter Sharpe that nobody else knows. He watched “a ton of tape” on him and brought him in to work out, holding him over for a second day.

“He’s good, man, he’s good,” Dumars said. “Handles it, shoots it, long and smooth.”

Dumars said Sharpe will be a small forward in the NBA, though he was playing out of position at UAB as a power forward.

As for Sharpe’s history of off-court trouble - arrested for disorderly conduct, academically inelgible, shot two years ago though it appears he was an innocent victim - Dumars said almost all of it traces to the narcolepsy only recently diagnosed. He said Sharpe is now on medication and that “he says it’s changed his life.” Dumars said he’s talked to “more people in Alabama than I care to remember” and is perfectly convinced Sharpe has a firm grip on his life now.

Dumars was apparently ready to take him at 29 when Seattle called asking them to take DJ White. As for Trent Plaisted and Deron Washington, they’re apparently headed to Europe for a year. Dumars told Langlois that he didn’t think there would be a roster spot for more than one rookie, so he didn’t even consider players who told him they wouldn’t be interested in playing a year overseas. Most of us viewed Walker as a potential backup for Tayshaun Prince, but if Dumars thinks Sharpe can fill that role, I can understand not wanting to clutter the roster with redundant parts.

That being said, is there really a shortage of roster spots? The Pistons have five unrestricted free agents — Jarvis Hayes, Walter Herrmann, Juan Dixon, Theo Ratliff and Lindsey Hunter — and I’d be shocked if more than one returned, if that. Since Dumars is apparently only planning on one rookie making the roster, that means there are four other roster spots up for grabs. The Pistons do have the full mid-level exception to spend, but they’ll almost certainly end up filling the end of the bench with minimum wage veterans.

I’m not a scout — hell, I’m not even much of a college basketball fan — but you’re telling me that one of those cheap vets will be more useful (next year and down the road) than a guy like Douglas-Roberts, who simply fills buckets, or a guy like Dorsey, DeAndre Jordan or DeVon Harden, who could someday blossom into a starting center?

Right now, I’m not convinced. But I’m also not worried.

For one, I don’t think the other shoe has dropped. Who knows, maybe in a few weeks when the Pistons pull off their long-awaited blockbuster we’ll understand the true value of an empty roster spot? Or maybe in a year or two when Plaisted and Washington return with a few more stamps in their passport and are ready to contribute to a rotation we’ll have a greater appreciation for being patient.

All I know for sure is that while it’s natural to make an instant judgment on the draft, it’s also completely foolish.

At this point a year ago, I wasn’t sold at all on Rodney Stuckey. Now? I understand completely why he’s Detroit’s only untouchable. (And don’t think Dumars hasn’t been tempted — DraftExpress reports the Grizzlies offered the No. 5 pick and filler for Stuckey, which the Pistons shot down.) When Jason Maxiell was drafted, I thought it strange that the Pistons were wasting their time with an undersized power forward. Same with Tayshaun Prince — surely he’s too skinny to last in this league, right? And back in 2003, I thought it was a no-brainer to take Darko over Carmelo (and honestly, it took me until last year to admit that Darko probably won’t ever reach his potential).

What’s my point? I’m in no way, shape or form enthused about this draft … which is all the more reason to think things will turn out just fine.

If there’s one thing this front office deserves, it’s the benefit of the doubt. I’m willing to wait to see how all of this shakes out.

____

Non-draft-related side note: Thanks for putting up with the extended absence this past week — the move is still a work in progress, but things should get back to normal now that I have an actual internet connection.

(That said, everyone knows the comments are the lifeblood of this site, and those never stopped hopping — traffic actually increased as the front page grew more and more stale. I’m guessing that Baron Davis rumor helped spur that along, but if there was ever a reminder of who drives this site, that was it.)

The “Deron Washington is a Piston” post

Published by Matt Watson on June 27, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 14 Comments

He’s a 6-6 swingman taken 59th overall out of Virginia Tech. He’s being hailed as a so-so offensive player capable of locking down on defense, which sounds like Pistons material to me. For his sake, here’s to hoping he has a future in the league beyond Detroit’s summer league team and training camp roster. Good luck, Deron, you face an uphill battle.

Update: well, at least he has an entertaining YouTube mix, which is more than can be said about Walter Sharpe and Trent Plaisted:

I usually don’t like putting two videos in one post, but this is slick, courtesy Dan Steinberg:

As impressive as those dunks are, Washington admitted to Steinberg that he can’t even palm a basketball. He makes up for it with a 40-inch vertical, though. You might also enjoy this list of YouTube vids courtesy of Wikipedia.

DraftExpress wasn’t impressed with Washington at the Portsmouth Invitational in April:

While there were flashes of ability at multiple points throughout the week, Washington confirmed what we already knew about him: he is a tremendous athlete with a poor basketball IQ and plenty of skill development needed. Defensively he gambled excessively and seemed to play with a reckless abandon that had to make those around him nervous, as his play frequently borders on dirty. Most concerning was his poor body language and the way he just didn’t seem to fit in with anyone else on the team, not cheering his teammates on, and showing very little regard for making anyone except himself look good.

If you thought that was bad, Awful Announcing was appalled by Washington’s performance in January’s Duke/Va. Tech contest:

It was well documented how dreadful Paulus’ flopping was against FSU, but his antics were nothing compared to Deron Washington’s show last night. In a game against Duke the Virginia Tech Forward proceeded to flop, trip players, try to get into the Duke huddle, start a fight with Paulus, AND undercut Demarcus Nelson on a dunk attempt.

[…] It’s one thing to flop and look like a complete idiot (*ahem* Paulus) but actually trying to injure people during a game is unforgivable. That undercut of Nelson was premeditated and dirty as hell. Washington should be suspended for at least a game if not more.

The video that accompanied that post has already been pulled from YouTube, but that sounds pretty awful. In fact, that sounds … like Bill Laimbeer. Hey, I just found tonight’s silver lining!

The “Trent Plaisted is a Piston” post

Published by Matt Watson on June 26, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 66 Comments

Via the Sonics in the DJ White trade, the Pistons take Trent Plaisted out of Brigham Young with the 46th overall pick. He’s 6-10 and a quarter (seriously, ESPN is giving him that quarter inch) but apparently doesn’t play tall, says ESPN.

Bill Walker, once rumored to have a promise from the Pistons, was drafted one spot later by the Wizards at 47.

Plaisted didn’t make a strong impression at the Orlando pre-draft camp in late May. From DraftExpress:

Plaisted struggled to make his impact felt on the court consistently, just floating up and down aimlessly at times and not using his athleticism to finish particularly strong around the basket. You can’t ignore his physical tools, but at the same time, you’d like to see him make more use of it on the glass or defensively. He’s in this draft for good, so he really would serve himself well to bring the intensity level up a notch and having a strong showing in the last day of the camp.

From Keith Langlois:

Keith Langlois: Trent Plaisted of BYU goes 46, presumably to the Pistons. They worked him out. Nice offensive touch. Supposedly more of a finesse player than a banger, though he’s an honest 6-10.

He’s not just an honest 6-10, Keith, he’s an honest 6-10 and a quarter!

Video highlights from FOX Sports. More highlights from his announcement in April that he was entering the draft:

The “Walter Sharpe is a Piston” post

Published by Matt Watson on June 26, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 48 Comments

Okay, that was confusing. Out goes DJ White, in comes Walter Sharpe out of University of Alabama-Birmingham.

To be honest, I don’t know much about Sharpe — and apparently, neither does DraftExpress:

This player does not currently have a completed profile or player blog entries.

Bullets Forever has an interesting profile on Sharpe, who kicked his college career at Mississippi State in 2004-05. This guy has taken one of the oddest paths to the NBA I’ve ever seen:

The promise rapidly morphed into disappointment. Sharpe could never get his act together, as he had multiple issues from tardiness to academics. Despite missing a team flight to a tournament in California in December of ‘04, and skipping a practice, thus being left home for the NCAA tournament in March of ‘05, the door of chances was still open for the kid.

During Sharpe’s sophomore year with the Bulldogs, he missed the beginning of the season due to academic ineligibility and only ended up dressing out six games (averaging 9.3 points and 5.0 boards) before ultimately being dismissed from the team in January of ‘06. Missing another practice was the final straw.

Next stop: UAB. Before even making it to UAB, Walter Sharpe was shot with a tiny bullet in the stomach in April 2006. Curiously, he tried to deny he was shot and attempted to hide his wound from police and medics. In August of 2007, Sharpe was one of five UAB Blazers arrested for disorderly conduct after a night on the town in Birmingham. UAB head coach, Mike Davis, credited the arrest with bringing his team together. No word if other college coaches have caught onto this phenomenon.

After sitting out a year and finally suiting up for the Blazers, Walter Sharpe averaged 14.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in UAB’s first 12 games of the 07-08 season. However, in January of 2008, Sharpe was declared academically ineligible for the rest of the year. He was subsequently been diagnosed with narcolepsy, which has been used as an excuse for academic woes. Sharpe had hopes to receive treatment and suit up for the Blazers in 2008-2009, but for one reason or another, opted to declare for the NBA draft instead.

Not too hard to see why this guy wasn’t on everybody’s radar, I suppose.

Here are his college stats — if you look at that game log, he had some huge games and some quiet ones, though I won’t pretend to judge the quality of competition he faced. Also, 18 games in three years? Huh. (Edit: Sharpe played 22 games as a freshman for Mississippi State in 2004-05 — his ESPN and Yahoo profiles don’t list that for some reason — so his college career spanned 40 games. Better than 18, but he did in four years what a lot of guys do in one.)

From Keith Langlois’ live chat (hat-tip to Jim):

Keith Langlois: Walter Sharpe … major, major sleeper. He had narcolepsy, of all things, that affected him earlier in his career. We know very little about him, except he came on very late in the draft process and is supposedly a very, very athletic player - a shot blocker. Might be a little bit like Amir Johnson. He was academically inelgible in the second half of last season and played just 18 college games. He went to Mississippi State first and then transfered to UAB.

Keith Langlois: It appears the narcolepsy Sharpe suffers from - memory lapses, excessive daytime sleeping - was only recently diagnosed. He was relieved at the diagnoses and believes it was at the root of his other problems. Sharpe was ruled academically inelgible and was arrested last fall for disorderly conduct after an argument and fight at a nightclub. He’s a high-risk, high-reward type of pick. That’s what fans who were screaming for DeAndre Jordan wanted.

Jesse (White Pine): Walter Sharpe worked out for the Pistons, so, presumably, he impressed the powers-that-be. He probably would have been available to us with our later second round picks, though…right?

Keith Langlois: I think the Pistons were convinced he wouldn’t be. I first heard Sharpe’s name mentioned last week. Heard he was really wowing people in workouts. Some mock drafts started slipping his name into second rounds.

Ah, DraftExpress has heard of Walter Sharpe (from Fennis in the comments):

-Walter Sharpe may be a surprising name called on draft night, after conducting strong workouts with teams like Cleveland, Denver, New Jersey, Washington and Charlotte, and showing surprisingly well there. Sharpe, a very highly touted member of the 2004 high school class, only played in 12 games this season before being ruled academically ineligible at UAB. He was later diagnosed with Narcolepsy (a sleeping disorder), but has numerous other red flags on his resume, including being kicked out of Mississippi State for breaking team rules, being shot in the stomach, and then later being arrested for disorderly conduct—all separate incidents.

Some team may regardless decide to take a chance on Sharpe due to his terrific combination of size, athleticism and skill playing both inside and out. One NBA Assistant General Manager told DraftExpress that he thinks Sharpe is a first round caliber talent who may not get to the middle of the second round due to the increasing buzz around him. He still has workouts to conduct with Utah, Detroit and the LA Lakers.

The “DJ White is no longer a Piston” post

Published by Matt Watson on June 26, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 16 Comments

DJ White wasn’t a Piston for long. The Pistons just traded him to the Sonics for the 32nd and 46th overall picks. And with the 32nd pick, the Pistons get … Walter Sharpe.

The “DJ White is a Piston” post

Published by Matt Watson on June 26, 2008 in 2008 Draft. 23 Comments

Wow — I don’t think anyone expected the Pistons to have this many options. With Mario Chalmers, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Bill Walker and DeAndre Jordan still on the board, the Pistons selected DJ White out of Indiana with the 29th overall pick. I guess we should have figured — it was a month ago that word of a promise first leaked.

If you remember, we got a couple of interesting scouting reports on White last month when word of the promise first broke. Here’s Indiana alum PostmanR’s take from Inside the Hall:

He finally reached his potential this year — he was a bear and real consistent. Former McDonalds All-American, averaged a double-double, was Big Ten player of the year. Skill-wise, he’s a good rebounder, he’s got kind of a turn around hook that he can work well but I wouldn’t go so far as to call him “athletic” — he was a bit of klutz at times. He’s a high character guy, had to wade through all the bullshit with the coaching changes and whatnot. I mean, in the late first round, it’s not easy to get an impact guy but you’re getting a consistent hard-worker who can play in a system.

Our own LawyerBoy, another Indiana alum, had this to say:

As a five-star prospect (#15 overall in 2004 for Rivals.com) I was disappointed a lot in D.J. and thought he was inconsistent for the first three years of his career. This year however, the guy absolutely blew me away. I had no faith in him for this year and he wasn’t just good this year, he was DOMINANT during a tumultuous season where he got his 3rd head coach of his IU career mid-season! He has a weird game at about 6′8 245, but he’s like Maxiell minus the freakish athleticism (read: leaping ability & explosiveness) and plus a little more offensive savvy with his back to the basket. White plays his behind off on every single play on both sides. D.J. is incredibly strong and he has a nice midrange jumper with a full compliment of post moves. He could be a useful guy in the league, he may not be.

Update: ummm … nevermind. DJ White just got traded to the Sonics.

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