Dumars Spells Risk With A"I”

by E. Spencer Kyte
Love of Sports Correspondent

After promising a shakeup during the offseason and failing to deliver – although reports indicate he tried diligently – Joe Dumars quickly reshaped the Detroit Pistons just two games into the season by dealing Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson.

Risky? Sure, but Dumars is no stranger to taking chances.

Joe D brought in Rasheed Wallace at the height of his Jailblazer days to much success, but he also struck out in taking Darko over some guys named Anthony, Bosh and D-Wade.

Still, this one makes great sense for this season and moving forward for Detroit.

The Eastern Conference is nowhere near as tough as the West, and adding a scorer like Iverson to a team in need of scoring takes them from the middle of the pack into the top tier of contenders next to Boston and Cleveland.

What it also does is increase playing time for young guys like Jason Maxiell, Amir Johnson and potentially Rodney Stuckey. Maxiell has the potential to go from being a quality bench guy to a difference maker on the defensive end much like Ben Wallace was with the added bonus of being able to actually knock down a jumpshot.

This works for the future as well, because Detroit will let A.I. walk at the end of the year and have a whole slew of cash sitting around to do with what they please. Whether that’s in the 2009 offseason or they sit on that cash for a full year until the eagerly anticipated 2010 free agent class, you can’t argue with either option. Stuckey becomes the starting point guard without question in the 2009 season and could be there starting later this week should A.I. bump Rip Hamilton from the two spot, Maxiell and Johnson - two guys Dumars and the organization love - get more PT and they 86 Mr. Big Shot’s big contract.

For taking smart chances and being willing to shake things up, Dumars has show he’s unafraid to roll the dice.

More often than not, it comes up sevens.

(More of E. Spencer Kyte’s daily ramblings on life can be found at http://spencerkyte.blogspot.com.)