Pistons Trade Delfino To Raptors

There comes a time to every man's life when he should realize and ultimately accept that his once proud semi-dynasty is slowly deteriorating; and plugs must be pulled, sockets must be replaced, cogs and sprockets must be unscrewed, and finally reinforce the foundation that was once great so that it may be great once more. Like every man, Joe Dumars is coming across this very phase in his life as of this moment, and he is doing a pretty good job in realizing and executing the needed actions to keep the Detroit Pistons fine-tuned. The Detroit Pistons have just traded Carlos Delfino to the Toronto Raptors for 2 second-round draft picks, one in 2009 and the other in 2010.

Now a few heads may be scratched following this strange sequence; but then again, maybe not as this is like a pinch on the arm news for most brawny sports-viewers unless the Pistons find away to actually hit the jackpot on a 2nd-rounder in at least one of their newly acquired picks. It was a great exit strategy anyway for a possible business plan that the Detroit Pistons could have come up with when they drafted Delfino 25th overall in 2003. With a history of poor draft-choices however, save for one Tayshaun Prince, it's doesn't seem pretty regarding what Dumars might do with these picks. Since the please-be-the-next-Manu-Ginobili hasn't been a major contributor as they hoped he would be, they can now ship him off to the internationally-bulked Toronto Raptors. However, I can't really see him having any impact whatsoever with the guard-overflowed Toronto Raptors as he gets to share the back court with TJ Ford, Jose Calderon, Anthony Parker, and top-reserve Juan Dixon. What Carlos Delfino adds is another international name to the roster, which helps the Raptors' campaign to have the most international players in a roster in a season; something I doubt would really help in anything that has to do with basketball.

An overall good move by the Pistons front-office. It's something that will hardly be remembered by any NBA fan and ask, "When did Carlos Delfino get here?"; but it's a good start in off-season moves. A few more of these and Joe Dumars can claim that he's on a roll and actually do something recognizable like finding a way around the Chauncey Billups free-agency issue.