Joe Dumars : Overrated

"Everybody is in play. There are no sacred cows here." - Joe Dumars

Remember those words? Remember how those words gave you hope, gave you excitement, and renewed your belief in Joe Dumars? I do.

Well those words were uttered on June 3rd. Today is September 19th. The NBA season starts in 39 days. And those "unsacred" cows are still here.

Chauncey, Rip, Tay, Sheed, all still wearing Blue and Red. The only new face has a horrible case of eczema. (I mean seriously, Kwame Brown looks like the black version of Norv Turner. Plus he has worse hands than Mike Williams.) This is our huge change?

The point I am getting at is that once Joe Dumars was a god in the city of Detroit. Once? I should say twice. He was king when he won multiple championships, including a finals MVP trophy. And once again, he was exalted as executive of the year when the 2004 Pistons won a championship.

But now, Joe Dumars is exposed for the fraud that he is. That's right. Fraud.

People in Detroit and the Detroit media love to give Joe all the credit in the world. Nobody there is calling him a fraud as I am so unafraid to do. Just look at Rob Parker, who sleeps at the end of Joe's bed like James Woods did in the episode of Family Guy entitled "Peter's got Woods." The "Man of the People," Terry Foster, would never say a bad thing about Joe. In addition, Drew Sharp, if you can call him a journalist, believes the only thing better than Joe Dumars is the last Drew Sharp column.

Joe got such amazing praise for the Ben Wallace trade. But remember that Joe traded local hero Grant Hill for Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins. What few people actually know is that Joe didn't want Ben; he wanted John Ameachi. Joe didn't see this diamond in the rough, instead he got lucky because the Magic wouldn't give up the guy who is most famous for coming out of the closet.

Joe is equally commended for taking a chance on Rasheed Wallace, and using him as the piece that got us over the top. While remains true that Joe ripped off Hawks by sending them Bobby Sura, Zeljko Rebraca, Lindsey Hunter and Chucky Atkins; it should also be noted that the asking price for Wallace was very low. Wallace had a history of bad behavior and attitude, and was being paid 17 million dollars that year. The Hawks would have given the guy away. Any idiot would have know that Detroit needed more, why not take the risk on a guy who costs you nothing?

The Rip trade was completely a result of Jerry Stackhouse wanting so badly out of Detroit, and no GM in their right mind would have believed that Chauncey Billups would have turned into what he did.

All this is without mentioning Joe Dumars HORRIBLE draft record. Lets look at some of his "better" first round draft picks.

Darko Milicic (Over D-Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo...)
Mateen Cleaves
Roddy White
and who could forget Walter Sharpe

Joe may not be the worst GM in the world, but he is certainly far from the best. His record is proof enough. The real fact is, he gets the benefit of the doubt because A) he was a local hero when he played and B) his stupid moves get dwarfed by the even worse GM inhabiting Ford Field.

Turning to this year, this should have been the year where Joe made the big trade to silence the doubters and allow people to praise him for a bold move. In fact, this is really the second straight year where he has stood pat on a team proven to be subservient to the elite NBA teams. But instead, Joe has done nothing with a team he knows can't win it all. They are close, but he can't re-discover that trade making magic when he needs it most. If no one is a sacred cow, then why are they all still here? Does he really believe that a guy with no coaching experience is gonna take the existing Pistons team over the top, Joe? Logic speaks otherwise. I mean seriously, nobody wanted some package of our starting five? The Hawks lost Josh Smith for nothing, we couldn't offer Tay and Amir? Seriously Joe? Take a risk! If you were a good GM, you would have gotten us a player to get this team over the top, not just run the same guys out there with a new, "hip," coach.

Time tells us that it is two years to late for this core. As a result, another early playoff exit is foreseeable.

The upcoming NBA season give me no hope, no excitement, and a renewed doubt of Joe Dumars. Its the same story for the 4th straight year. Its time to see the real sacred cow left in Detroit is Joe Dumars.