Baseball - Pistons Rid Themselves of Mistake

With Larry Brown gone it looked like Carlos Arroyo and Darko Milicic were finally out of the doghouse. However it now seems that Flip Saunders disliked them even more since he's done what Brown wouldn't do: have the guts to trade the #2 pick in the draft. On January 15th they traded Arroyo and Darko to Orlando for Kelvin Cato and a first-round pick.

Darko Milicic will forever be known as the one mistake made by this Pistons team in their NBA Finals run. Imagine if they had drafted Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade or Carmelo…How could it happen? How could Darko one day do enough to merit being the #2 pick but be so poorly researched at the same time that he can't even get off the bench?

This trade is bizarre. Detroit does have Lindsey Hunter coming back but wouldn't you wait until he's healthy to trade Arroyo? Even more perplexing is why Orlando made this trade. They gave up their backup Center for a PG. Keep in mind that Steve Francis, Jameer Nelson and Keyon Dooling are all a part of their regular rotation and are Point Guards.

And trading for Darko is like trading for Michael Olowokandi; if doing that is supposed to improve your team, you got issues. They already have Dwight Howard. They should be trying to find a SG instead. The Magic are not only giving up a Center for two players who have contracts that expire at the end of this year. No, they threw in a draft pick…to get Darko Milicic. They're first round pick last year ran away to Europe and now they're trading draft picks for Darko? That's like trading in a Rolls Royce for lottery tickets.

Considering they get a decent player in Cato and a draft pick, this is a good trade for the Pistons. Detroit has been criticized for years for drafting Milicic and now it's Orlando's turn. If he doesn't put up 15-10 numbers they'll be known as the foolish team to pick him up, at least until Darko leaves for another team.