Detroit Pistons General Manager Joe Dumars is interviewed on the Pistons website. Here are some highlights:
KL: This is probably an oversimplification, but when you look, a year later, what the Chauncey trade achieved was to allow you to shrink and make as painless as possible the transition period. Now that you’ve used the cap space, did you envision being able to get as much done with it as you did?
JD: When we had cap space maybe eight years ago, we made a decision then – there was a question back then about going out and trying to sign one big name with that money. We made a decision back then that we wanted to come out of that free agency with multiple players. We made the same decision this year – we’re not going to go out and sign one max player and then tout that we’ve had a great off-season. As we entered the summer, we were not one max player away from being a contender, so it made no sense to go out and target one guy. We wanted to come out of this free agency with a minimum of three guys and we’ve done that with Wilcox, with Villanueva, with Ben Gordon, and to be in a position financially to also sign a veteran big like we wanted to, to also have Ben Wallace, as well. To come out of it with three or four players, that’s what we wanted to do in the first place. We believe talent in numbers wins. That’s what we’re going to continue to try to do.KL: What do you see in Ben Gordon? He’s always been a phenomenal 3-point shooter. Especially for young guys to shoot 40 percent from the line, that’s rare and he’s done that throughout his career. He showed last year that he’s also a dynamic player off the bounce, too. The rap on him is he’s a mediocre defender and he’s one-dimensional. When that dimension is as dynamic as he is offensively, do you say you can live with whatever shortcomings he might have?
JD: Absolutely. What he brings is a constant threat the minute he steps on the floor. What he brings is a guy that other teams have to prepare for. What he also brings is a guy that is not afraid to and has shown that he can make big shots when it counts. When you can acquire a guy who is a difference maker when it counts, I think you have to jump on that. He brings something that you and I talked about before, something we definitely needed – a guy that can make big shots, a guy that can stretch the defense and make 3s. With Jonas, with DaJuan Summers, especially with Austin Daye, with Charlie V, with Ben Gordon – there’s five guys we’ve added that can stretch the floor and we missed that last year. We missed having guys who could just knock shots down. We did not have enough of that. Ben leads the way on that. I think he is the primary guy that brings that to us of all the five guys we’re talking about. He’s the guy that can stretch the floor, can make 3s. He’s a shot-maker and you can’t have too many of those in this league now.KL: That’s something that’s really changed in the NBA over the past five, six, seven years, even since you won the title – guys who can really attack in the NBA are more valuable than ever because of the NBA’s conviction on imposing sanctions on defense for touching people. You now have at least three guys in Stuckey, Will and Ben who are adept at that part of the game.
JD: Yeah, and you have to keep up with the changes that take place in the game. One other thing that’s worth mentioning is that who initiates your offense has changed, too. The old way is it always had to be your point guard initiating, and you don’t see that as much right now. You see LeBron James initiating for Cleveland, you see Kobe initiating for the Lakers, you see Paul Pierce in Boston, you see Turkoglu in Orlando, Brandon Roy in Portland. That’s changed as well. Whoever the guy you trust most to make plays, that’s who’s going to initiate the offense. Not just the point guard. Those days are over
