How have you spent your first few official days of summer? For me, it has been a steady balance of golf and sunshine when not toiling away at the computer.
If you’re Joe Dumars, the past few days have been spent building the 2010 Pistons and beyond. In this new economy era, Dumars has managed to piece together an NBA caliber team while leaving considerable room under the cap to bring in some big guns over the next few years. His latest act with the steady hand came recently by drafting three versatile forwards.
In his nearly ten years stewarding the Detroit Pistons from the front office, Joe D has had a number of generally underwhelming drafts that have lacked star power or pizazz. On the Pistons current roster (excluding 2009 draft picks and NBDL members), five members arrived to the team via the draft – Aaron Afflalo, Will Bynum, Jason Maxiell, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey.
While Prince was regarded as the best of this group out of college, none of these players came to the team as a guaranteed starter. Much like the new core of draftees, Detroit’s youth movement looks in full swing with a group of tenacious defenders who are as comfortable posting up as they are from 15-20 feet.
The 2009 draft class of Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers and Jonas Jerebko represent a group of solid players who could each contribute alongside the individual(s) expected to fill Detroit’s $20 million void. With so many teams focused on the free agent class set to break through following the 2010 season, perhaps Dumars may try to jump the gun with a player who could contribute alongside Detroit’s new youth movement.