Aussie_Wing

Yeh, not a bad post at all. Another one in that class is Nikoloz Tskitishvili. He was drafted 5th overall, yet he's escaped criticism. He's got career averages of 3.0 pts and 1.8 rbs, and he's already been on 4 teams.

Fair enough, I can tell you’re pretty fired up over my posts. I’m not saying that our chances for the Championship have been destroyed, not at all. I’m only saying that in this trade we easily got the rough end of the stick. In my opinion we could have done much better. Yes I agree with you on Arroyo, it’s extremely unlikely he’ll ever amount to anything in this league. I’m not so sure about Darko though, I guess we’ll find out soon enough. It’s the truth that he hasn’t done anything to warrant being kept, but you can’t help but stress when you trade away someone that could be so vital to your future. As I quoted before, it was only a matter of hours ago when Joe Dumars publicly stated that he needs to go to work on finding another PG. Now I know you feel we don’t have anything to offer, but I doubt Dumars would make such a direct statement if he had no intention of keeping it. Realistically all we have to offer is Cato and the draft pick we received, and this may or may not be enough. But I doubt Dumars is confident at Hunter being the back up, especially when he’s only just returning from a major injury. In 2003/04, Mike James and Hunter were the back ups. Last season it was Arroyo and Hunter. Are you saying that for these upcoming playoffs we have to solely rely on an underdone and limited offensive PG? I’ve heard rumours that we may be interested in Jay Williams. Far fetched, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that nothing’s impossible.

Well if you insist that we’re not doing any more deals, then we’re been absolutely destroyed in this trade. I don’t want to hear the nonsense about salary cap relief, there’s no way you would trade way a potential superstar in Milicic for some extra cash. Joe Dumars has been saying all along that he’s been getting plenty of offers for Milicic, however all of a sudden he trades him away for someone who we’re unlikely to keep, and a draft pick that is most likely going to be in the 10-15 range? That’s ridiculous. You can believe that he’s not going to make another deal, but I have confidence in Dumars and I don’t think he would be so stupid as to leave the situation as it currently is. I think we should look at today’s trade as Part I, and more is soon to follow….

Pistons send Milicic and Arroyo to Magic for Cato and first-round pick AUBURN HILLS - Next step for the Pistons - find some insurance at the point guard position. At about 7 p.m. Wednesday, the Pistons and Orlando Magic finalized a trade that had been talked about for over a month. The move has virtually no short-term impact for the Pistons. Arroyo's minutes had been cut to less than 10 a game, and Milicic was out of the rotation. Long-term, though, the Pistons gain not only a first-round draft pick, but also $8.7 million in cap space created by Cato's expiring contract. The Pistons, as of Wednesday evening, hadn't decided whether or not to bring Cato in for a medical examination or simple waive him. He has been out most of the season with a right foot injury. Right now, I have to get to work on finding another back-up point guard, Dumars said. With Arroyo gone, the Pistons are left with 35-year-old Lindsey Hunter, who is just now getting back into shape after preseason ankle surgery, and rookie Alex Acker, who has yet to play in an NBA game."

This is from a Pistons forum, and surprisingly he’s not a Detroit fan. It's just a brilliant post though. "I think you guys won the trade. True, Milicic has 'potential', but you are going to get a chance to get a new lottery pick with the Orlando first rounder, someone talented because they will be in the lottery, and someone who might have something more important than 'potential'. That something being 'heart'. Darko for a first rounder, 8 million in capspace, and clearing a bad contract (Arroyo) is a great deal for Detroit. You can find better uses for 8 million dollars than Darko and Arroyo. Let the Magic figure out if they want to pay Darko 8-10 million per year within two years to be just like Kwame Brown."

Yeh another deal completely. There's massive rumours regarding the Knicks being interested in Cato, well we could send him to NY, and maybe we'll get Jalen Rose in return. We were interested in him during the off season, so maybe we could make another deal. (Even though Rose has a pretty huge contract, hopefully we could work something out )

I honestly believe Dumars will make another deal, he's given himself a week to figure something else out, that's if he hasn't got a deal in the works already. There must be more to come.

Yeh I couldn't agree more, I hope more than anything that Darko becomes another player who doesn't live up to their potential, and ends up floating from team to team in his career. If he explodes in Orlando it will make it unbearable to think what could have been. I know Darko never showed an attitude good enough to warrant time, but seriously we used the number 2 pick in perhaps the greatest draft ever on a player who contributed 152 points in two and a half seasons? Such a tremendous disappointment.

Darko is gone........

Link "The Detroit Pistons traded forward-center Darko Milicic and point guard Carlos Arroyo to the Orlando Magic for Kelvin Cato and a 2007 first round pick, ESPN.com has learned Wednesday."

GOLD FOR AUSTRALIA!!! Dale Begg-Smith takes Gold in the Moguls event.

Well I'm in the same boat. I turn 18 in April, and I don't look my age. I look way younger. And as you said, I'll appreciate it later on, but right now it's kind of annoying

Ah okay thanks for clearing that up. I said Dumars may trade for another PG is because across almost all the Pistons forums, everyone is stressing about Hunter's inability to be the back-up. I know he's only just returning from injury, but even when he's fully fit people doubt whether he can get it done. They say he grinds the offence down to a halt, and he can barely shoot. Judging by these reactions, Dumars may want another PG who can run the offence, and score. Do you think we'll hold onto Cato or dump him?

Well these rumours are really beginning to gather momentum. This is how I understand the deal; please correct me if I'm wrong. We're giving up Arroyo and Milicic, and in return we get Cato and a first round draft pick, probably somewhere around 5-8. We will then most likely dump Cato and his contract which is about $8-8.5 million. Detroit will then spend this money on a back up point guard. Hunter doesn't cut it as Billups' reserve, and I think Dumars already has eyes on Arroyo's replacement. Correct?

I don’t want to believe that these trade rumors are correct. I believe Darko will be a great player in this league, and I don’t want to see him go so easily. During the off season we rejected a trade that would have sent us Harrington in exchange for Darko. That would have given us 10+ points off the bench, but instead we refused to deal Darko. Skip forward 4 or 5 months, after Darko lead the NBA in shot blocking during the pres season, and after 3 long seasons we’re suddenly going to pack it up, and trade him for someone that we probably won’t use? It just doesn’t make sense, I know we’ll get some salary cap relief, but it’s not good enough. I wouldn’t be prepared to trade him for so little in return. I couldn’t care less what happens to Arroyo, but as far as I’m concerned Darko must stay.

Davis Cup, 2-2, it's down to the last rubber. CMON Australia!

Who's the chick on the right? She's hot in my opinion.

Hey guys, when I see images of Ford Field I'm always impressed. I know it's a new stadium, so the facilities would be good. I'm assuming most if not all you have been there. What are your thoughts?

Minutes Per Game Sats: Detroit Pistons: R. Hamilton: 37.1 C. Billups: 36.4 B. Wallace: 36.4 T. Prince: 36.1 R. Wallace: 35.6 A. McDyess: 19.9 San Antonio Spurs: T. Duncan: 35.7 T. Parker: 34.9 B. Bowen: 34.1 M. Ginobili: 27.7 M. Finley: 27.4 R. Nesterovic: 21.6 Dallas Mavericks: D. Nowitzki: 37.8 J. Howard: 34.8 J. Terry: 34.4 M. Daniels: 31.0 A. Griffin: 25.5 D. Harris: 24.2 What observations do you make? Perhaps that Detroit's starters are being overused once again. The Spurs only have 3 of their starters averaging over 30 minutes, whereas not one of our starters is below 35. 6 Mavericks average 20+ minutes, talk about depth... Now to the bench. I get the feeling Flip has a distinct lack of belief in our bench. It seems as though McDyess is the only one that is being used, and possibly Evans. Why not use Evans more, he's shooting nearly 50% for the season, and whenever he gets in he hustles and gives 110%. We're all aware that Arroyo seems to struggle to fit into our system, yet since Hunter's been back he's barely seen the court. I know we're just easing him into it, but if he's ready we might as well play him. He can't be worse than Arroyo. Now I don't see why we don't use Delfino more, he's perhaps the best athlete we have, and one of the best players at driving to the hoop. Yet his talents seem to be wasted. Now I keep hearing Dale Davis was signed to deliver in the playoffs, but I highly doubt he'll see much, if any court time. Only last season for the Pacers he averaged 5 points and 6 rebounds in 21 minutes. Skip forward to this season and he's played only 10 games and he's spent 51 minutes on the court for the entire season! Don't ask me how he's suddenly going to get playing time. Thoughts?

Well Detroit just lost to Atlanta, yep thats right the Atlanta Hawks. But if you want to say everything is fine with this club then that's your opinion. We are 2-3 in the last 5 games, and Dallas and San Antonio are seriously catching us. For a while it seemed as though home court advatage was gaurenteed, however now it's in doubt.

No need to apologies, I was just having a little fun. Every time I hear anything to do with the Winter Olympics I crack up laughing over the Bradbury incident. And realistically, us Aussies only really have a shot for one or two medals during these Games

It's 3:15am, I'm starting to get tired....

Umm excuse me mate, where is the ‘Australia’ option? You never know, we could pull off a few Bradbury’s! One of the best moments in sports, quite unbelievable, I find it highly unlikely you'll ever see anything like it again. Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to the Winter Olympics, I think its great. So many awesome events.

So you don’t have any concerns with the way Flip is handling our bench? I thought Brown had no faith, Flip is just as bad.

Look, I think there are definitely areas of concern for the Pistons. I think it's time to discuss our bench production. We lost to the Pacers yesterday, and our bench was outscored 43-14, that's a massive margin. I know that we don't need a tremendously strong bench, but this is not acceptable. The Pacers had 3 players who played more than 15 minutes, Jones, Harrison and the rookie Granger. For Detroit, only McDyess played more than 15 minutes. Sooner or later, we have to get our bench more involved. The match I saw against Philadelphia was a great opportunity to give the bench an opportunity, however basically no one got a chance. Delfino played 6 minutes. Back to today’s game and Delfino contributed 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, a block and a steal in only 10 minutes. Why not play him more? The starters are being overused and the bench underused, we need some kind of equality.