• Second overall pick in the 2003 draft Darko Milicic leaving the NBA for Europe in 2010
Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars helped build the team he played for into a perennial championship contender, but he’s made some mistakes along the way. The Allen Iverson trade still has time to work out but so far the numbers say they should’ve kept Chauncey Billups, cap space be damned. The biggest blemish on Joe D’s resume is selecting Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the 2003 NBA draft.
The Pistons cut their losses after three years with Darko and shipped him off to Orlando. Things didn’t work out in Florida for Milicic and now he plays for the Memphis Grizzlies… Well, he rides the bench for the Grizzlies. And apparently Darko’s getting tired of the splinters and wants to take his career averages of 5.5 points per game and four rebounds back to Europe.
From the Detroit News:
“A lot of days I think that because the only way to be me is in Europe,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t want to be a defensive player the rest of my career. It’s not really what I want to do.”
“In Europe, I can be a different player with the ball going through me,” Milicic said. “Here, you take a shot and you just don’t want to miss. You think too much.”
There’s no question that Darko is better suited for the European style of play. He doesn’t have to think, he can run the floor instead of posting up, and the level of competition is nowhere near the NBA. Milicic is basically admitting he’s soft and can’t hack it in the L. I’ll say this for Darko, when he’s right, he’s right.
