Ryan (Grand Rapids, Mich.): Houston has waived Terrence Williams. Any chance Joe Dumars makes a run at him? I seem to remember he was on the Pistons' short list when they drafted Daye. If he played well over the remainder of the season, it could give Detroit the ability to amnesty Gordon without hurting their depth.
Chris (Brighton, Mich.): What's the cap hit if we sign Oden off of waivers? His situation reminds me of Antonio McDyess. We know how that turned out.
Dylan (Louisville, Ky.): I took a nap and had a crazy vivid dream. The Pistons signed Greg Oden and Terrence Williams. Arnie was stretching out Greg and Terrence was taken under Tayshaun's wing. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Bill Davidson was speaking to me through my dreams! What are your thoughts on Oden and Williams?
Oh dear. I don't even know where to begin on this one...
I'll start with Terrance Williams. A player that has been in the league for three seasons, never been in the playoffs (ie never played in a meaningful game), whose minutes-per-game average has declined since his rookie season, and finally - A guy who just got cut by a team who attempted to replace him with Derek Fischer. When you add all of those together, anyone with an IQ over 70 would agree that Terrence Williams is not a fucking upgrade to Ben Gordon. And certainly not a player to get excited about by any means.
And now to Greg Oden -
First of all, if your dream consists of Arnie Kander stretching out Greg Oden's legs and Tayshaun Prince "coaching" Terrance Williams, I really don't see how that's a good thing. You know what would be an awesome dream? If the Pistons were playing basketball in the month of June. Try having better dreams next time, asshole.
Secondly, there is a HUGE difference between Greg Oden and Antonio McDyess. McDyess actually had a string of successful seasons, where he was a double-double machine in Denver. And then got injury prone after having surgery on his knees. Greg Oden is nothing more than the guy who Portland stupidly selected instead of Kevin Durant, and has played a grand total of 82 games in his entire career. In fact, if you go to the NBA player's page on NBA.com (where every player in the NBA is listed), you will have difficulty finding Greg Oden. Primarily because he is not on there. Is Oden really going to be the guy that saves the Pistons?
In all honesty, I am not opposed to a Greg Oden experiment in Detroit. But only if the price is right. Quite frankly, I find it interesting that Detroit fans are so eager to roll the dice on an injury prone bust like Greg Oden when they still bitch about drafting Darko Milicic AND signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to long-term deals. What do you do if you sign Oden to a four year contract and does not pan out? I would love to see Greg Oden salvage his career in Detroit and help make the Pistons relevant again, but taking a risk on Oden in hopes that the Piston's training staff can magically revive his legs just because they were able to get Antonio McDyess to 65% of his former self is beyond stupid.
Edward (Detroit): I love the progress the Pistons are making. Do you think they are building a championship team? Teams are becoming more star heavy, especially in the East. The Pistons have never relied on a star player. I just don't know if we can compete with Chicago and Derrick Rose, Miami with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, New York with Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, Orlando with Dwight Howard, etc. It looks like it will be a couple of years before the Pistons can compete for championships.
I can see being intimidated by Chicago and Miami. But really? You're afraid of a New York Knickerbockers team that went 0-7 following All-Star break, whose coach just resigned, who has no identity, who owes $60 million over the next three seasons to a declining Ama're Stoudemire, has no first round draft picks until 2014, has extremely limited room for improvement, and might not even make the playoffs this season?
As for Orlando, ask Magic fans how much they are enjoying the Dwight Howard ride right now. Given, I think they will be an interesting team in the playoffs (emergence of Ryan Anderson, big-game experience in Hedo Turkoglu, and I think that Jameer Nelson will play better knowing that Howard is not going to get traded for Brook Lopez, a draft pick, and a gang of D-Leaguers) - The Magic only managed to secure Dwight Howard until the end of next season. Just what does this entail, exactly? Two more quality seasons of the best center in basketball? Two more seasons of relevance? One more significant playoff run before we get the next episode of "Where will Dwight Howard get traded to?"
I am well aware that securing a franchise player to build a championship contender around matters more than anything (almost every championship winner has had one, and if nothing else, you have the meal ticket of merchandise, ad revenue, and increased ticket sales to help make money) and that finding those players is very difficult, and often takes a ton of luck. But knowing that your team is at best the third best team in its' conference, and having to deal with trade rumors all season and the uncertainty surrounding your team's marquee player cannot be that much fun by any means.
John (Richmond Hill, Ontario): Just saw the Golden State and Milwaukee trade - a good move again by John Hammond. I'm disappointed the Bucks will be picking up such talent in Udoh and Ellis as well as Kwame's $7 million coming off the books. I wish the Pistons could have pulled something like that off, especially considering Bogut is injury prone and Jackson is clearly declining. Milwaukee will now be a dangerous team in our division with two amazing guards.
Dangerous team? The Bucks now have nobody up front (not a fan of Epke Udoh), and have two score-first guards that cannot play defense. Monta Ellis could not get to the playoffs with Steph Curry (who is superior to Brandon Jennings). What makes you think he will succeed with Jennings? Now, if they add a quality big in the draft? Maybe they'll be half decent in two seasons. Regardless, I'm pretty sure that Scott Skiles will get canned before that happens.