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.