Hire is not the opposite of fire

“It's not like Joe lucked into having a hard-nosed, hard-working defensive team. He created it. Pistons fans are lucky to have the guy that built a team to that style in the first place.”

Actually, luck had a lot to do with it. You mentioned the key part here: “when the Pistons had just lost Grant Hill”. It wasn’t Dumars’ preferred strategy, it was his plan B. A graceful fall after striking out with his superstar (Grant Hill). Marketing your (seemingly) crappy team towards local likability was smart but ultimately a marketing gimmick in response to failure. That it translated to on-court success was good fortune. As Joe would admit, he got extremely lucky with Ben Wallace. It wouldn’t be the last move Joe made for publicity sake, but unlike drafting Mateen Cleaves this worked out well. Joe deserves credit for building a championship team but he had A TON of help. Its far less black-and-white than you describe.

“The greatness of Joe is the competency of the moves he doesn't make…He moves slowly and calculated… But he never debilitates the franchise."

This is like arguing for the greatness of Interpol or The Raconteurs: “Its not what they do, its what they don’t do.” Not being as awful as others doesn’t mean you’re good. Most GMs will seem competent if compared to Isiah Thomas or the GMs on the top 20 worst moves list. Joe Dumars seemed, in the distant past, to move with vision and foresight. Not anymore. What was slow and calculated about:
-trading Chauncey Billups for nothing
-overpaying/extending Rip Hamilton
-painting yourself into a corner by announcing you'd make big changes immediatly after losing to the Cavs
-bidding against yourself to get Gordon and Villanueva on the 1st day of free agency?

Even the cap-killer contract avoidance with Okur and Ben Wallace, while probably right and obvious (Joe’s received almost no heat for these decisions), were questionable in hindsight. After they left, the team failed to win another title.

“Rip's contract will most likely be unmovable and hurt the Pistons chances, but they're not franchise killers…If Joe doesn't like where the franchise is going, Gordon and Rip are still moveable.”

Moveable or not? Which is it? This is proof that logical thought is absent from your emotion-driven argument. Some awful contracts have been moved but the Hamilton one may indeed be debilitating, not to mention Gordon/Villanueva. 2002 Joe Dumars never would have made those signings.

“fans questioned him, only to find out he was right…the good in his history far outweighs the bad”

He was both right and wrong. Before 2004 he was mostly right, as you say. But in the last half decade, since the 2003 offseason, does the good still outweigh the bad? No, nearly every decision has been bad (besides the obvious Sheed trade). Its not even close, especially if you factor in the Darko debacle.


“who are you going to hire in his place? Pritchard and Daryl Morey…neither has enough of a history to show that they may go through their downtimes as well.”

Joe Dumars doesn’t have that history either. He built one team up, which is the same thing Pritchard and Morey have done. They had less flexibility than Dumars but Morey had more talent and Pritchard had draft picks and lots of money. Joe went farther but has had way more time. As for WHO?, I don’t have a thorough knowledge of NBA management personnel but I’d favor someone with an analytical bent, demonstrated intelligence (and education/work experience to back it up) over any former players blessed with favorable circumstance.

There are no guarantees with anyone new, but making the same mistake again with Joe Dumars after years of ineptitude on his part wouldn't be smart. How long till the moves made in 2003 are outweighed by the bad decisions since?

“Let's not forget that it was Joe D that brought all three of those titles to Detroit, twice as a player and once as a GM.”

Joe Dumars was around all 3. So were Rick Mahorn, George Blaha and Vinnie Johnson. So was my Dad. Or maybe each of those guys was just lucky to be around Isiah, Rodman, Daly, Billups, Ben, Sheed, Brown etc.


Without those titles they are no different than, say, the 76ers and no more of a draw for top talent.

The franchise’s desirability comes from excellent management and ownership. They’ve been wisely run by the owner for decades. The top business people (at one point, and perhaps still, the Palace and its revenue sharing agreement made the Pistons as valuable as any franchise besides, if I recall correctly, the Knicks, Celtics and Lakers, despite an obvious market disadvantage. Top training personnel. Strong marketing. Etc. This is similar to why San Antonio is a desirable destination for many (though they also have weather and tax breaks.) Joe Dumars does deserve a lot of the credit for this. But already, he seems to be living on a reputation he isn't sustaining.

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If the Pistons want to maintain their reputation they’ll cut ties with their inept GM. This isn’t reactionary “crazy talk” driven by modern what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sports culture but a logical response to half a decade of wasted opportunity, dilly-dallying, and decline. And as I keep saying, Joe Dumars, at his very best, would have done the same (witness the firing of Rick Carlisle). The job description has changed. Its time to rebuild and Joe Dumars has demonstrated he isn't the man to do it anymore.

But you’re right about one thing. Someone SHOULD hire Joe Dumars. But first, the Pistons need to fire him.