The 03-04 pistons could nto have had a better year...they won the championship (and im ignoring records and such....only the end goal truly matters). Most likley had they drafted someone else in the draft they still would have won the championship, but at the same time, one cannot be sure. to run of a series of sports and regular cliches, a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. If you asked any fan for a guaranteed championship season (plus 2 not too shabby seasons following it), they would jump on the opportunity. Furthermore, had they drafted wade, or hinrich, or bosh, or anyone else, we can't be sure thye would develop into the player they did. remember, the amazing class of 03 that has preformed so far (with the exception of Josh howard) all were plunged into starting roles on bad teams right away...trial by fire. Would wade be the dominant force he is now were he backing up the best backcourt in the game? Would he have developed his offensive proweress playing with larry brown? Who knows. Furthermore, we have not seen darko play. For all practical purposes, his career is 30 games. He may ahve adjusted to the NBA lifestyle, but surely not NBA games. His 30 games with the magic, in which he was a key reseve off the bench, have a pretty impressive per 40 stat line: 14.6 points; 7.8 Rebouunds; 2 assists, 4 BLOCKS! http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/milicda01.html Darko Milicic Statistics - Basketball-Reference.com* The true indicator of Darko's true talent will be after a full regular season with a team where he plays quality time. HOWEVER; where dumars did mess up is in the run up to wallace's Free Agency. There were rumblings all year that chicago (and we all knew we would) make a run at big ben. So Davidson, the owner of the pistons, being cheap and not wanting to pay the luxury tax, needed to free up salary for big ben, and dumped darko for practically nothing, and then didnt offer ben nearly enough. After next year, I may stand wrong, but right now we can't count darko as a draft bust...a draft bust for detroit yes...but not in general. * Sorry I don't know how to incorporate sources into text.

In 30 games played with the Magic, besides the weak side blocks, 4.74 per/48, what I remember is that had very good per/48 rebounding numbers too, 9.4 total, and was a decent on the ball defender. He shot a very good .507 as well -- mostly layups and dunks.
Playing next to the second coming of the Mailman, Dwight Howard, makes it easy to be effective.  

I could have realized long ago that drinking a lot was wrong.  Now, I have to wait until I'm in my twenties and it'll just get in the way of important shit.

I'll spend the whopping $3.75 on the first thing of Dmitri.