Re:So how do we get ahead of the Pistons in four years?

["David A Wickerham" <aw623@xxxxxxx>]

More crap.  Perhaps Rasheed will lead the Pistons to a title, but he sure didn't show that ability when he was with Portland.  He not only didn't help the Blazers, but he managed to single-handedly sink the franchise.

Admit it, Egg.  If we had traded for Rasheed, you would have spent the last 24 hours telling us what a cancer he is.

THere are playas, and playa haters.  I don't have to tell you which one Egg is.


On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 13:43:31 EST Eggcentric@xxxxxxx wrote:
Pistons have Ainge to thank
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 2/20/2004

Who says Danny Ainge isn't committed to building a championship team? 
He took a big step in that direction yesterday -- for the Detroit Pistons. 
The Pistons owe Our Danny big time.

Ainge not only helped midwife the deal that enabled Detroit to land Rasheed 
Wallace, he also took on backup point guard Chucky Atkins, giving the 
Pistons the financial flexibility the team needs to re-sign Mehmet Okur 
next summer. Oh, and just for good measure, Ainge also threw in Mike
 James, who, lest we forget, was the only Celtic not named Paul Pierce 
to have started every game this season.

A few hours before yesterday's big, three-team, multiplayer deal involving 
Detroit, Atlanta, and the Celtics, there was concern among the Pistons 
that their pursuit of Wallace would be fruitless. Simply, they needed a 
third team to get involved because the Hawks refused to accept players 
for Wallace whose contracts extended beyond this season.

The Pistons had some guys whose deals did not go beyond this year -- 
Bobby Sura, Lindsey Hunter, and Zeljko Rebraca. But those guys did not 
square up financially with the outrageously compensated Wallace, and 
anyone else the Pistons might have wanted to include (Atkins, Corliss 
Williamson) had deals that went on beyond the season.

"We needed a third team," said Joe Dumars, the Pistons' hoop boss. 
"Danny helped us out. But Danny is a negotiator. He did what he had to 
do. He got a first-round pick and some cash."

Ainge had two players who had expiring contracts who would make up the 
difference. Presto -- Chris Mills and his deadweight deal of $6.6 million 
went to the Hawks and then James was packaged to the Pistons to make 
the numbers work. Ainge also took Hunter, but he is a short-termer.

We know what Detroit is thinking: win now. There are no guarantees 
they'll hang on to Wallace after this season; this could be the equivalent 
of Randy Johnson going to the Astros. Wallace apparently has a desire to 
play in New York and you can be sure Isiah Thomas will do his utmost 
to make that happen. But until then, Wallace is a Piston and he gives 
Detroit desperately needed scoring. The Pistons also got a serviceable 
rotation guy in James -- who has played at least as well as Atkins this 
season at one-sixth the cost -- and the needed flexibility to re-sign Okur, 
who is developing into their starting center. That was significant.

We know what Atlanta is thinking: dump, dump, dump. Much of what's left 
of the Hawks -- and it ain't much -- will be elsewhere next season, giving 
the new owners (assuming they're approved by then) and the new basketball 
people a chance to literally build from the ground up. If Bowie Kuhn were 
running the NBA, he might have thwarted this one. Atlanta is basically 
disassembling -- on purpose.

We know what Boston is thinking: on to Secaucus. If you need any further 
evidence that this season is in the rearview mirror, yesterday had to be 
the clincher. Sure, the Celtics now have three No. 1 picks in what Ainge 
deems to be a deep draft. If the season ended today, only Boston's pick 
would be in the top half; the others would be in the 20s. The Pistons also 
forked over some of Bill Davidson's private stash, which undoubtedly 
pleased ownership. But Ainge also took on $8.7 million in salary (the two 
years of Atkins's contract) for a player who pretty much defines the term 
"backup." Atkins hit some big shots for the Pistons over the last few years 
and can be a sneaky, streaky scorer. But he also was manhandled in the 2002 
playoffs by Kenny Anderson, which prompted the Pistons to go out and sign 
Chauncey Billups.

"Danny did what he felt he had to do for his team and for his owners," 
Dumars said. You can understand the Celtics' jettisoning of Mills -- 
"a piece of paper," Dumars said. That alone would have made the deal 
for Wallace work. But the Pistons wanted more. They wanted out of 
Atkins's deal ($4.2 million/$4.5 million) to use that money to re-sign 
Okur. That's the only way it was going to be a win-win for Detroit.

Dumars got the deal only so far. He then turned to the guy against whom 
he played so many memorable games in the 1980s for that final push. 
If politics makes strange bedfellows, then what does this deal say?

It says that the 2003-04 Celtics are a footnote. It says Ainge is banking 
heavily on the 2004 draft to rebuild the team. And it says the Pistons
 are one of the East's favorites now and for years to come.

Maybe someone else could have stepped into the breach to save the deal. 
We'll never know because, in the end, Ainge did the honors.