The Detroit Pistons’ “Futile Four”
Tuesday night during the MLB All-Star Game we posted a question on our Twitter page asking fans who they thought the Pistons’ “franchise four” were in light of the pregame festivities in Cincinnati. In response we got the usual suspects like Chauncey Billups, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Dave Bing, etc.
No surprises really.
What about the other end of the spectrum though?
I’m not talking about forgettable Pistons who were forgettable from the basis of having nothing to bring to the table even before they set foot inside the Palace. I’m talking about former Detroit players who had plenty of promise and hype but fizzled out to become some of the most futile set of corpses in franchise history.
So which former Pistons get the honor of the “futile four”? Lets take a look:
4. Allen Iverson
I’ll preface that when the Pistons originally traded Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyesse to Denver for Allen Iverson I was for it from that standpoint of Joe Dumars undertaking the rebuild. We’ve seen teams in the past try to hold on to Championship lineups for far too long and hurt themselves in the long run.
What happened after the trade was a complete disaster, namely since Dumars didn’t fully undertake the rebuild because he was either handcuffed by the shaky ownership situation or maybe just losing it as an NBA executive. That wasn’t Iverson’s fault.
What was Iverson’s fault was the mentality and attitude he had coming in to Detroit. He assumed he was still the same type of player he was during his Philadelphia days, which he wasn’t. Essentially the sense of entitlement was still there but his game was long gone.
In just 54 games with Detroit during the 2008-09 season, Iverson compiled a .416 shooting percentage and the worst scoring average of his career (17.4). To make matters worse he became an even bigger malcontent when he was subjected to coming off the bench.
In some ways Iverson was a victim of circumstance, but that’s not enough to keep him off this list.
3. Mateen Cleaves
Mateen Cleaves, the former 14th overall pick by the Pistons in 2000 hurt Detroit and their fans on many levels.
First there was the sentiment of Cleaves being the hero coming out of Michigan State having recently guided the Spartans to an NCAA Tournament title. You could also say this was topped off in the sense that Cleaves who was more popular than ever was also a hometown kid out of Flint.
His successes coming out of college though never translated to the NBA to say the least.
Cleaves simply didn’t have the tools to be a point guard in the Association and after just 78 games for the Pistons his rookie season, the former National Champion was on his way out of Auburn Hills. In fact Cleaves would go on to play just a total of 89 more games with various NBA teams before his basketball career came to an end.
2. Josh Smith
You may be seeing a common theme here with guys who didn’t last long on the Pistons’ roster but Josh Smith’s futility while in Detroit is undeniable.
First, like Iverson, Smith may have been a victim of circumstance. Yes, he signed a big contract (four-years at $54 million) but I hate getting on a player for opting to take the money. Basketball is a job for them and I’m sure any of us in that situation would do the same exact thing. Fans wanted much more and I respect that but I’m not going to trash Smith because of a contract offered to him.
What gets Smith on this list was his embarrassing 39.1 shooting percentage from the field, 24.3 percentage from three-point range and the uncanny ability of J-Smoove to chuck up garbage when ever and from anywhere in 2014-15.
To add to just how much Smith brought the Pistons down, the team actually played much better after his departure.
1. Darko Milicic
What more can be said about Larry Brown’s “human victory cigar”? I mean as you can see from the picture above things in the NBA didn’t go quite well for Darko, so much so he had to become a kick boxer which I hear may have been a bigger disaster than his basketball career.
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But to revisit everything that went wrong with the former No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 Draft, yes the Pistons missed out on guys like Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh. Darko also almost literally did nothing in his three years with the team and when he did sniff some floor time he was unmotivated and seemed totally disillusioned with playing basketball. His name became synonymous with draft failure and it’s something that Joe Dumars was never able to live down. Even despite winning the NBA Championship in 2004.
I’ll only ask this to play devil’s advocate. Would Darko have fared better in the NBA if he didn’t play for Larry Brown to start?
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