Pistons Trade Darko

The Detroit Pistons have announced that they have traded Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo to the Orlando Magic for center Kelvin Cato. This trade does not come at a total shock, but it was somewhat suprising that the Pistons gave up their former number two draft pick. By trading away Darko, it will free up some cap space for the Pistons as they try to keep their core nucleus of players together.

Three years ago when the Detroit Pistons drafted Darko Milicic with the number 2 draft pick overall, most thought that Joe Dumars had made a mistake. Dumars passed up Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Carmello Anthony and selected Milicic. Darko barely played his rookie season and his development, or lack thereof, was over-shadowed by the Pistons winning the championship. In his sophomore season he still did not play much and his numbers were barely any higher. He was over-shadowed again by the Pistons almost winning the championship. This season has just been a microcosm of his entire professional career with the same lack of minutes in his first two seasons.

I think a big reason Darko never played for the Pistons was because of how good the Pistons actually are. They have the best starting five in the league and they never had the time to let him get minutes. They never needed him to develop into a starter, so they did not rush his development. He never played, so he was never able to show what he could or could not do. He will probably be a decent NBA player elsewhere but clearly he could not do it with the Pistons.

All-Star Game Review

Normally I would not post about the NBA All-Star game but last night's game was a perfect example of how good the Detroit Pistons are. The East was down by 21 points at half time and it looked as if the West was going to win big. However, late in the third quarter, all four Pistons reserve All-Stars checked into the game for the East. The Pistons brought back the East into the game on the way to a 122-120 win. Yes, it was the All-Star game where neither team plays much defense; but it was still impressive to watch the Pistons bring back the East against the best players in the league. This game proved that they can play against anybody. Again, it was just the All-Star game, but it was still fun to watch.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The Detroit Pistons finally got some much deserved respect for their amazing start to this season. Four of their five starters were selected to the NBA All-Star game (which will be on later today). The only starting Piston who did not make the team was Tayshaun Prince. The Pistons have been shafted in previous years for All-Star selections and it was nice to finally see them get some attention. The Pistons' goal this season was to have homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs and they should be able to achieve that goal. They have the best record in the league and they show no signs of slowing down.

Lions Sign Martz

The Detroit Lions have signed former St. Louis Rams head coach Mike Martz to be their new offensive coordinator. Martz and the Lions had been trying to work a deal for a while, and on Wednesday they were finally able to get a deal done. Terms of the deal are not official yet but it should be around $3 million for 3 years.

This was a wonderful signing for the Lions. Martz has been known to be an offensive mastermind. He was part of the "greatest show on turf" when he coached the Rams. He even lead them to a Super Bowl in a losing effort to the Patriots. The Lions' offense has been horrible since the Millen era(and even before then really). Martz should be able to make their offense a lot better with his coaching ability. The one big question for Martz and new coach Rod Marinelli will be whether they should keep quarterback Joey Harrington. As we all know, Harrington has not lived anywhere near his high first round expectations. Some believe that Harrington is not suited well for a west coast offense. Maybe Martz will tailor the offense to Harrington's skills so he can succeed for once. All I know is that Martz will make the Lions' offense better, but how much better will he make them is the key point. The Lions need vast improvement and Martz should hopefully be up to this difficult task.

I leave you with this brief overview of Martz's coaching career taken from Len Pasquarelli of http://espn.com.

"In each of his full seasons in St. Louis, the Martz-designed offense ranked among the top 10 in the NFL and twice rated No. 1 overall."

"Not counting the 11 games he missed last season, during which Joe Vitt served as interim head coach, Martz compiled a 56-36 record with the Rams. He led St. Louis to four playoff appearances, two division titles and a Super Bowl XXXVI berth. In his five full seasons in St. Louis, the Martz-designed offense statistically ranked in the top 10 every year, and was No. 1 in 2000 and 2001."

Super Bowl XL

It is hard to believe that the 40th Super Bowl will be hosted in Detroit today. The Lions will be at the Super Bowl this year but just not in the Super Bowl. It is exciting that the biggest sporting event in history will be within one hour of my house. It will be fun seeing "The Bus" coming back to his hometown to play in his most likely last game. I think the Steelers will win in a close game, but we will see what happens. With the Lions obviously being out of the Super Bowl again; it will be just another Super Bowl to sit and watch two great teams play while wishing we were cheering for out lovable Lions.