Monday Poll Bashin'/Playoff makes too much sense to work

I’d like to send out a public thank you to Dave Wannstedt—purveyor of some of the worst play-calls in college football history—and Bob Stoops for crushing the BCS. Instead of the BCS sneaking by with a miserable Missouri-West Virginia championship game its absurdity will once again be called into question. No less than eight teams have a compelling argument for being included in the championship game. According to playoff detractors like Kirk Herbsreit, though, there is no need for a playoff because the regular season is a playoff. Seriously, can we just stop classifying the two sides as pro-playoff and anti-playoff and just appropriately label them idiots and non-idiots? At least then, we can avoid pretending to have any semblance of a meaningful argument on the issue.

As for the pollsters, I beg you to take pride in your ballots. It’s an insult to the informed college football public when you desecrate the right to vote in a meaningful college football poll. I don’t care who you think should be in the BCS Championship game. You can make arguments—some stronger than others—for any of a number of teams. Six teams received first-place votes in the final AP Poll so there are a lot of differing opinions out there. I have no problem with Ohio St. and LSU in the championship game. I wouldn’t have had a problem with Georgia or Oklahoma, either. However, the people who jumped Oklahoma ahead of four teams that didn’t lose this week are ridiculous. The same goes for LSU. Don’t manipulate your ballot on the last week of the season just to get the team you want to see in the BCS Championship game. LSU didn’t prove anything against Tennessee that we didn’t already know. If you think they should be ranked ahead of Georgia now, then you should’ve had them ranked ahead of Georgia last week. Stop voting for teams you don’t really believe to be ranked as high as you have them. If you think LSU is better than Georgia, then vote that way—and not just on the last day of the season. If you think Oklahoma is better than Kansas, then vote that way. Don’t vote the opposite until it counts and then switch everything around. That tells me that many voters take no pride whatsoever in their ballots until the last week of the season. That’s garbage.

I have just one complaint this week but I think it sums up the overall incompetence of the polls…

Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma

I like Oklahoma. I think the Sooners are a pretty good football team. In fact, I think it’s possible that they are one of the top two teams in the country. However, the only reason Oklahoma is ranked #3 right now is because the pollsters didn’t do their jobs. The fact that the pollsters allowed Missouri to be ranked #1 in the country is one of the dumbest examples of mass stupidity that I’ve ever seen. Missouri had played against one elite opponent this season—Oklahoma—and promptly lost by 10. Missouri beat Kansas in the most ridiculous #1 vs. #2 showdown in college football history. Kansas hadn’t beaten a single team that could even be classified as remotely good this season and still hasn’t. So, that leaves us with Oklahoma’s resume incredibly inflated simply because the pollsters didn’t appropriately rank Missouri and Kansas along the way. Records are meaningless by themselves. There are 30 teams in college football who would’ve been 11-1 with the same schedule as Kansas or Missouri. Equally absurd is the fact that Missouri and Kansas are still ranked #7 and #8 respectively in both polls despite having proven only to be better than a bunch of mediocre teams. The most absurd, though, is that Kansas received an at-large BCS bid and Missouri didn’t. Missouri is ranked ahead of Kansas in the polls. Missouri is ranked ahead of Kansas in the computers. And, Missouri beat Kansas. That is truly unbelievable. There is a fair amount of ambiguity right now but the vast majority of it is because the pollsters did such a terrible job of using any semblance of logic throughout the season. Only in college football can you get a group of 125 “experts” to vote for Georgia ahead of LSU, and Kansas ahead of Oklahoma when nobody really thinks that to be true. I hate the polls. I hate the BCS. They have ruined college football.

2007 DIBS Awards

Press Release

Nov. 29, 2007
For immediate release

ORDONEZ NAMED TIGERS PLAYER OF YEAR
Verlander top pitcher, Granderson breakout player

DETROIT — The Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes are proud to announce the results of the 2007 DIBS Awards balloting.

DIBS (Detroit Independent Baseball Scribes) is a collection of independent Web sites that cover the Detroit Tigers. Formed by Brian Borawski, Bill Ferris and Ryan Sosin in 2005 with the idea of uniting a community of fans and writers, DIBS is focused on improving and promoting the quality sports coverage taking place on the internet.

Magglio Ordonez was selected by 14 of 16 DIBS voters as the player of the year. The Tigers’ right fielder finished second in Most Valuable Player balloting by baseball writers this season. His .434 on-base-percentage coupled with a .595 slugging (1.029 OPS) made Ordonez a force at the plate all season. He hit 28 home runs and 54 doubles to go with 139 RBI. Curtis Granderson received the remaining two first-place votes. His 20 stolen bases, 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs season put him in rare air, allowing him to join just Willie Mays and Frank “Wildfire” Schulte at the time. A left-handed center fielder, Granderson got on base a .361 rate and slugged .552 (.913OPS). Placido Polanco, who completed an errorless season at second base, placed third overall with two second-place votes an 11 third.

Right-handed starter Justin Verlander was the unanimous selection for Tigers pitcher of the year. His no-hitter pitched against Milwaukee June 12 is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Tigers season, but he was consistent throughout the year and finished 18-6 with an ERA of 3.66 and 1.23 WHIP. He struck out 183 and walked 67 in 201-2/3 innings pitched. Closer Todd Jones finished runner-up with 10 second-place and one third-place votes. He made 38 saves in 44 chances (86.4 percent success) and had a 4.26 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. Left-handed middle reliever Bobby Seay placed third overall with two second-place and eight third-place votes. He had a 2.33 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. He struck out 38 and walked 15 in 46-1/3 innings pitched.

Granderson was also named breakout player of the year with nine of 16 first-place votes. Utilityman Ryan Raburn, called up from Triple-A Toledo in July, finished second in balloting with four first-place, four second-place and four third-place votes. He got on base at a .304 rate and slugged .507 (.847 OPS) while playing in 49 games. He had four home runs, 12 doubles, two triples and 27 RBI. Pitcher Jair Jurrjens, now a member of the Atlanta Braves organization after being included in a trade for shortstop Edgar Renteria, finished third in voting with one first-place vote, five second-place votes and five third-place votes. Jurrjens started seven games for the Tigers. His ERA was 4.70 to go with a 1.14 WHIP. He struck out 13 and walked 11 in 30-2/3 innings pitched. Receiving his first start Aug. 15, Jurrjens pitched a span of games from Aug. 21 to Sept. 16 where he gave up just one run per game.

The blogs that voted included:

Roar of the Tigers
Mack Avenue Tigers
Out of Bounds/Johnny Grubb
Wayne Fontes Experience
Daily Fungo
Detroit Tiger Tales
Bless You Boys
Leelanau Sports Guy
The Fanhouse
D Town Baseball
Take 75 North
Grandy Report
From the Copa
Detroit Tigers Weblog
Tigerblog
Motown Sports Revival



My ballot is below…

Tiger player of the year

1). Mags
2). Granderson
3). Polanco

This was how most people saw it. Sheff and Granderson would’ve had a battle for second if not for the shoulder injury.

Tiger pitcher of the year

1). Verlander
2). Bobby Seay
3). Todd Jones

Jones finished second ahead of Seay. I couldn’t bring myself to vote that way. Seay had a much better season statistically. That a guy with an appropriate nickname like “rollercoaster” finishes second for “Tigers Pitcher of the Year” just goes to show how dire the pitching situation was for the Tigers in 2007. Seay certainly was a pleasant surprise.

Tiger breakout player of the year

1). Raburn
2). Durbin
3). (tie) Jurrjens
3). (tie) Bazardo

This award is a bit ambiguous and I think it’s meant to be that way. Granderson won hands down with a whopping nine first place votes (out of 16). He didn't receive a single second or third place vote from the seven voters who didn't vote him #1 so there is certainly many different interpretations going on with regards to how to define "breakout player." Granderson finished 3rd in the voting for the same award last season. I didn’t vote for Granderson this year and I didn’t vote for him last year. My interpretation of “breakout player” precluded Granderson from being on either of my ballots the last two years. So, I went with Raburn first. He was a pleasant surprise and certainly “broke out”. Durbin did more than anyone could have possibly imagined back at the start of spring training before Rogers went out. Jurrjens and Bazardo were a toss-up. I was the only voter who listed Bazardo but he quietly put together a season equally impressive--if not more impressive--than Jurrjens who finished second. Both did some OK things but that was about it. Twelve players received votes in this category including Paws who is the Tigers mascot.

Paul Johnson is the best option for Michigan

Ask any college football fan or analyst who the best football coach in America is and you will likely get a plethora of answers with only one thing in common: it will be a coach from a BCS-conference school with access to the best recruits in the country. It’s much easier to recruit and, thus, win at USC or Michigan than it is at a lesser known school. Half the job is done for a coach at a school like Oklahoma or LSU. Those schools recruit themselves on name alone. An excellent recruiter and coac--like Pete Carroll or Urban Meyer--can take those programs to a new stratosphere but those schools sell themselves. There is a coach out there who doesn’t need to coach at such a school. In fact, there is a coach out there who doesn’t even need a top 100 recruiting class, ever! Paul Johnson hasn’t had a recruiting class ranked in the top 115 in his six years at Navy. Johnson maximizes talent more so than any coach in America. Imagine what he could do at a school like Michigan. Johnson would do the same for Michigan that Urban Meyer has done for Florida. Johnson faces the same questions that Meyer faced with respect to his coaching. There were numerous skeptics who said that Meyer’s style wouldn’t work against the great teams in the SEC. I’m sure the Gators are getting a kick out of that as they look at their National Championship rings. Not hiring Paul Johnson would be a monumental mistake by any institution that makes such a decision.

The resurrection at Navy

"Football is not exactly what the academy is about, but it's important for the
spirit there. They like to be proud of the athletic teams. It's a tribute to
Paul and his staff that they've brought a lot of excitement back by making Navy
very competitive in Division I-A. " (Roger Staubach) Pressbox

Facing the most challenging on-field situation that any coach could ever endure in college football, Johnson has brilliantly transformed the Navy program into a raging success. It took just two seasons for Johnson to take Navy from winless to an eight-win team. After a 2-10 first-year, Johnson has guided Navy to a 41-19 record with five bowl appearances. Navy had only been to nine bowl games in the previous 100+ years.

Navy has won at least eight games in each of its last five seasons. Navy hadn’t won eight games in a season since 1980 before Johnson arrived, with the exception of 1996 when Navy went 9-3. Care to guess who Navy’s Offensive Coordinator was at the time? Yep, Paul Johnson.

Navy has been to a bowl game in each of its last five seasons. Navy hadn’t been to a bowl game since the Liberty Bowl in 1981 before Johnson arrived, with the exception of 1996 when Navy played in the Aloha Bowl. Again, Johnson was the Offensive Coordinator.

Navy is 2-2 in bowl games under Johnson including a one-point heartbreaker to big favorite Boston College last season. Navy hadn’t won a bowl game since 1978 before Johnson arrived, with the exception of 1996 when Navy beat Cal in the Aloha Bowl with Johnson guiding the offense.

Johnson took over the worst football program in the country in terms of talent, recruiting prowess, and attractiveness. There isn’t a more difficult recruiting handicap in the country than having to explain to recruits that they must serve a five-year mandatory commitment in the military before ever sniffing the NFL? Things got so bad that Navy’s program was even worse than hapless Temple having lost to the mighty Owls in each of the previous two seasons before Johnson arrived in 2002. In those two years, Navy went a combined 1-20.

The Naval Academy is a phenomenal academic institution that churns out the best leaders in America but a destination for aspiring professional football players it is not. Most of the “best” coaches in America would fizzle out at Navy in a hurry. Name a coach and you would likely see that coach bomb at Navy. I don’t care if it’s Bob Stoops, Pete Carroll, Steve Spurrier or Nick Saban. None of them would likely sniff a winning season at Navy. Urban Meyer is the only coach that I can think of who could duplicate what Johnson has done for the Navy program. Spurrier left the cozy confines of Gainesville only to end up in Columbia, SC. His success at a lower profile college football program has been minimal at best. The dropoff in talent from Florida to S. Carolina has been too much for Spurrier to overcome. Saban coached a few years at Michigan St. with mild success. It wasn’t until he traded in Michigan St’s talent level for LSU’s that he was able to build a dominant program. Both South Carolina and Michigan St. have more talent on their benches than Navy will ever see. Likewise, S. Carolina and Michigan St. are much closer in terms of talent level to Florida and Michigan, than Navy is to virtually all of its opponents.

The only school that can claim as great of a talent shortage is Army. Bobby Ross—one of the most respected coaches in football—coached at Army for three seasons where he amassed a 9-25 record. Amazingly, that was a massive improvement over Army’s previous four seasons that saw the Black Knights go 4-32. The Service Academy football teams are at such a talent disadvantage that the only possible way a school could have a run like the one Navy has been on over the last six years is to have a vastly superior coach.

Here is another way of putting it…think of a situation—any situation—that would be the absolute greatest challenge to a coach. Let’s say you want to put every coach in the country through a “test” to find out who is the absolute best coach in America. Think of the most difficult challenge you could possibly imagine. What challenge did you think of? Is there anything more challenging than asking a coach to take over a school with the least amount of talent in the country, the most challenging recruiting obstacles, and a program that had gone 1-20 over the previous two years and 66-143 over the previous 19 years? What Paul Johnson has done at Navy is the most impressive feat that any coach in college football can claim.

Degree of Difficulty (Recruiting)

"Recruiting has always been hard at the academies and it is always going to be
that way. We try and sell the experience and the education value you get for a
lifetime. You can't change the academics or the commitment required. And there
are certain kids who don't want to have anything to do with it. We just try and
sell the positives about the program." (Paul Johnson) Baltimore Sun

I can’t emphasize enough the up-hill battle the Navy program faces in terms of recruiting. The only thing keeping Navy (and Army) in I-A football is pride. In terms of talent, there is little difference between Navy and the best I-AA teams. In fact, the best I-AA teams can sell a successful football program combined with a number of professional opportunities. Navy can only recruit players who are willing to commit their lives to serving in the military. Navy’s recruiting obstacles are apparent when looking at recruiting rankings. Navy finished no better than 116th in recruiting from 2002-2007. At other schools, success breeds success in large part due to improvements in recruiting. At Navy, no matter how good the football program is, the recruiting classes will never get better. Johnson has the same talent that his processor had in 2001-2002 that led to that 1-20 record.

"I think we need to play almost that way to beat anyone. I don’t think that
anybody is going to accuse us of ‘out-athleting’ anyone. It comes down to
execution, playing hard and all those things. Certainly if we don’t do that we
can get embarrassed by Boston College. We don’t have anybody on our team that
they recruited." (Paul Johnson) Scout

The Triple Option aka "The Spread"

"They run it all the time, and we throw it a lot, but in my mind
that's sort of where the differences end...It's about distribution of the
ball. They make sure everybody touches the ball, and the quarterback makes
good decisions about who gets the ball. Philosophically, I think we're
incredibly similar." (Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach) SOS

Much has been made of Johnson’s coaching style specifically his use of the triple option. It has been described as gimmicky and not conducive to big-time college football. Apparently, those critiques were M.I.A for the 2006 season that saw Urban Meyer win a National Championship using a version of the spread option at Florida. Johnson has repeatedly stated that his offense is best used when tailoring it to the strengths of the team. At Navy, he has to use it to emphasize the run to mask a weak passing game. Johnson has said that his offense would actually work the best with an emphasis on the passing game which is hard to imagine considering Navy averages an incredible 350 yards rushing per game (#1 in the country by close to 50 yards per game). Still, it’s not like Johnson’s offense only works against shady defenses. Last season—when every team knew that Navy would run the ball 80% of the time—Johnson’s running game rolled up 322 yards on the ground against Boston College in the Meineke Bowl. BC had the 12th best rushing defense in the country having allowed only 90 yards rushing per game. This season, Navy put up 328 rushing yards against Wake Forest which has the 18th rush defense in the country. Give Johnson the worst talent in the country and he’ll give you an offense that averages 350 yards per game. Give him the best talent in the country and……(fill in the blank). With Michigan’s talent, Johnson would put up 500 yards per game with a balanced offense. The rest of the Big Ten would be helpless to stop Michigan's superior talent combined with Johnson's superior coaching.

"In fact, this could possibly be the best passing offense ever...Because when
you run the option, it limits what (defenses) can do coverage-wise, and you can
get all kinds of one-on-one matchups (against the defense downfield)." (Paul
Johnson) SOS

"What's great about this offense is that you can emphasize whatever best fits
your people... If you've got a great quarterback, of course you're going to
throw; that's what you do to win. If your personnel is better rushing the ball;
that's what you do, because that's what you do to win." (Paul Johnson) News Observer

Discipline

Navy is an extremely well-coached football team and it shows in virtually every measurable statistic. Navy is first in rushing offense, 9th in points per game, 3rd in fewest penalties, 2nd in fewest penalty yards, 10th in 4th down conversion percentage despite going for it the 6th most in all of college football, 4th in 3rd down conversion percentage, 11th in first downs per game. Navy is near the top in every one of those categories despite there being 120 teams in I-A football. Considering the talent discrepancy between Navy and its opponents, those rankings are hard to believe.


Tradition and Values

Navy has a rich tradition in college football. It participates in one of the great rivalries in all sports against Army. It boasts a National Championship and two Heisman Trophy winners. No school offers a more grueling academic schedule. No school puts a greater emphasis on character and integrity. Navy athletes are held to much higher standards than every major college football program. There is no question that Johnson has tremendous experience in emphasizing the principles that Michigan values the most in terms of academic and athletic excellence. Don't forget that Johnson is teaching young men who are training to give their lives for their country. This is an experience that few coaches in the country can bring to the table. As far as values and integrity go, Johnson can bring something to Michigan that most coaches have never experienced. Real-world problems are constantly in play.

Pedigree

In no way whatsoever could Johnson’s success at Navy be considered anything other than a masterpiece. However, he is clearly not a “one-trick pony.” Before coming to Navy, Johnson turned around the Georgia Southern program. He inherited a team that had gone 4-7 the previous season. What followed is only equaled by Johnson’s transformation at Navy. He guided Georgia Southern to five consecutive conference championships in what is widely considered the most difficult conference in I-AA, and two consecutive national championships including a dominating win over Jim Tressel’s Younstown St. team in 1999. Johnson also won four consecutive National Coach of the Year awards. Did I mention this was all in just five seasons? In those five seasons, Johnson guided Georgia Southern to 62 wins. Only four coaches in the history of college football (any division) have won 50+ games in a four-year span. Johnson is one of them.

Before restoring Georgia Southern to dominance, Johnson had a short stint as the offensive coordinator at Navy for two seasons. In the previous four seasons, Navy had gone 9-35. Johnson guided Navy to nine wins in 1996 alone which was Navy’s first winning season since 1982. When Johnson left for Georgia Southern, the Navy program hit rock bottom. Johnson was the offensive coordinator for Georgia Southern’s back to back national titles in 85-86. Teams start winning when Johnson arrives. Consider the following:

First stint with Navy as offensive coordinator

Before Johnson: 9-35 (zero bowl games in previous four seasons)
With Johnson in '96: 9-3 (first winning season in 14 years)

Second stint with Navy as head coach

Before Johnson: 1-20 (previous two seasons)
With Johnson: 43-29 (five bowl games in six years)

First stint with Georgia Southern as offensive coordinator

With Johnson: 1985 and1986 National Champions

Second Stint with Georgia Southern as head coach

Before Johnson: 4-7 (in previous season)
With Johnson: 62-10 (five conference championships and two national titles)


Summation

When degree of difficulty is taken into consideration, Johnson is the best coach in the country by a mile. He was the best coach in I-AA and he has been the best coach in I-A. Johnson has won a National Coach of the Year award five times in just ten years as a head coach. Nobody can touch that.

There is no question in my mind that Johnson would put Michigan on par with USC, Florida, and Ohio St. in terms of college football supremacy. The most successful programs have the best coaches. They have the best game-plans and the best in-game adjustments. Johnson is the best of the bunch. Michigan would never enter a football game with a coaching disadvantage again with Johnson at the helm. The Michigan program deserves a coach like Johnson. He would be the greatest thing to happen to the Michigan football program since Bo was hired in 1969. I realize that Johnson probably won’t even be considered for various reasons that have nothing to do with coaching. If this hire was made strictly on who would lead Michigan to the greatest success, Johnson would be named the head coach yesterday. The biggest mistake Michigan could ever make is to hire someone other than Johnson. Time will tell. Hopefully, it will tell with Johnson on the Michigan sideline.

Monday Poll Bashin’/Worst #1 Ever Par for the course

I must admit that I am somewhat gleefully rooting for a Missouri/West Virginia BCS Championship game. If there’s one sporting event that could do worse in the ratings than the Pistons/Spurs NBA Finals in ’05, that would be it. If when Oklahoma beats Missouri for a second time, the BCS will luck into a non-controversial championship game involving Ohio St. and West Virginia. That would set the playoff movement back five years as BCS officials will surely refer to that one success whenever forced to defend its ridiculous championship system. Meanwhile, Missouri sits atop the AP Poll in the most absurd ranking of the season and possibly all-time. At least, S. Florida, BC, and Kansas only made it to #2. Missouri is ranked ahead of at least 10 teams that nobody would expect it to beat. Is there anyone out there—outside of the state of Missouri—who thinks that Missouri would beat Florida? If Missouri is #1, then Hawaii may as well be #2.

Just when I thought the dumbness was over for the year, this week’s polls were released…

Va. Tech over LSU

I’ve been waiting for it all season since it would be the ultimate sign of group-stupidity and unbelievably—and really not unbelievable at all when you think about it—it happened. Virginia Tech is ranked ahead of LSU. I know three months is a long time to remember but just three months ago, LSU beat Virginia Tech, 48-7. The yardage discrepancy was 598-149. Both teams share an identical record at 10-2. LSU reached its record against a much more grueling schedule. This sort of reasoning is what gets dumb Presidents elected. “Don’t pay attention to this (LSU 48 Va. Tech 7/Thousands of soldiers killed in a manipulated war). Pay attention to this (Va. Tech has pretty uniforms/Democrats love Satan).”

Texas at #17

Texas A&M had been so mediocre that its coach resigned before the administration could beat him to the punch. Texas hadn’t beaten a ranked team all season and barely snuck by a slew of mediocre teams including Central Florida, Nebraska, and Oklahoma St. So how is it that Texas—with its already empty resume—only drops four spots after losing to Texas A&M? Virginia dropped six spots for losing to #6 Va. Tech. Is there any incentive whatsoever to not filling out an absurd ballot? How the polls managed to keep Hawaii out of the top spot with its shiny undefeated record is beyond me.

S. Florida is underrated

The AP and Harris polls are the only polls to rank S. Florida and it’s only at #25. Every poll has Auburn ranked ahead of S. Florida. If you follow college football at all, then I don’t need to explain this to you so I’ll just address the voters since they obviously don’t follow college football. S. Florida has a better record than Auburn. S. Florida beat Auburn at Auburn. S. Florida has wins over two ranked teams including a win over #1/#2 West Virginia. Auburn has one win over a ranked team. I know that sound evidence is tough to accept so I’ll even dispel the myth that all SEC teams are simply better than all Big East teams. West Virginia destroyed Mississippi St. 38-13. S. Florida beat West Virginia. Mississippi St. beat Auburn. At the very minimum, S. Florida should be ranked ahead of Auburn. Realistically, S. Florida should be ranked in the top 15. It has one of the more impressive combination of wins in the country. Yet, S. Florida was lucky to be ranked at all this week. I think the new slogan for polls should go something like “where 1+1=4”.

Kansas over USC, Oklahoma, and Florida

Here is an inevitable and unfortunate byproduct of ignorant polls: when two overrated teams play a close game, we’re still left with two overrated teams. Missouri beat a vastly overrated Kansas team to vault to #1 in the AP Poll. Kansas lost to an overrated Missouri team and thus only fell to #5 in the USA Today Poll and #7 in the AP Poll. Who did Kansas beat again? That’s right, I forgot about the win over Central Michigan. My bad. Kansas has two wins over teams with a winning record; Central Michigan and Texas A&M. In all seriousness, doesn’t Hawaii have an equally impressive resume? It beat Boise St. and Fresno St. If Kansas was ranked #2 with its resume before last weekend, then Hawaii should be ranked #2 this week. Would Kansas be within a seven-point spread against USC, Oklahoma, and Florida? Don’t you love the fact that the BCS is based almost entirely on this sort of stupidity? Who needs a playoff?

The Pistons would've rocked with Kobe

Last week, rumors swirled on the internets that Kobe Bryant vetoed a trade to the Pistons. The purported trade had Kobe going to Detroit in exchange for Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Amir Johnson, and a first-round draft pick. The story was reported by three sources that included Ric Bucher of ESPN, 1270 AM radio in Detroit, and Rotoworld. Members of the Detroit media—including Krista Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press—quickly refuted these claims because of a number of tacit denials by the Pistons front office including an “unnamed source” and Joe Dumars. Dumars had said that he was furious about various trade rumors involving the Pistons and that he was not shopping his players.

Due to the ambiguous nature of the reports, whether you believe the trade was discussed by the Pistons or not is entirely up to you. There really is no right answer. Hoopsworld has an interesting opinion on the feasibility of the rumors. Chris McCosky hates bloggers and sports radio so he certainly doesn’t believe the reports. However, I have to advise extreme caution against choosing not to believe the rumors solely because of Dumars’ strong public denial. If I was Dumars and I had agreed to the trade only to see it fall through, I would do the exact same thing that he did. There is no reason for anyone—his players included—to know that a trade almost happened. It is in everyone’s best interest—especially Dumars—to vehemently deny those trade rumors. Taking his word at face value would be akin to asking George W. Bush if he manipulated a war with Iraq and then saying case-closed when he inevitably says, “no.” Dumars’ denial is nothing close to evidence that the trade was never discussed.

My opinion—and this is simply my own personal opinion void of any inside knowledge—is that a trade involving Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince was at least discussed at some point since September. It may be that the Lakers and Pistons discussed a trade in September and Kobe let it be known then that he would not accept a trade to Detroit. Whatever it was, I think the Lakers and Pistons tried to do something. It makes sense for both teams. The package the Lakers would receive would be significantly better than what it received for Shaq. The Pistons would receive the best all-around player in the NBA and immediately challenge the Celtics as the best team in the East and possibly the NBA. A Kobe Bryant/Chauncey Billups/Rasheed Wallace triumvirate would be an incredibly potent attack every bit as formidable as Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett/Ray Allen. The Pistons would probably have a stronger supporting cast than the Celtics with Antonio McDyess, Jason Maxiell, Flip Murray, Rodney Stuckey, and Aaron Afflalo. There is nothing about the trade that seems crazy in the slightest. The money works. The talent exchange works. Detroit’s window of opportunity for a championship with the current roster has come and gone. Barring an injury epidemic of unfathomable proportions that hits the Spurs, Suns, Mavs, and Celtics, the Pistons have no chance of winning the NBA Championship this year or any forthcoming year with its current cast of players. Dumars is too smart to hold on to the past for fear of change. He nearly completed a trade for Allen Iverson seven years ago. He traded Jerry Stackhouse—in his prime—for Rip Hamilton five years ago. He brought Rasheed Wallace—and his notorious reputation—to Detroit three years ago. Dumars isn’t afraid to make a deal.

If this trade was discussed—and I believe some form of it was—I couldn’t be happier with Dumars’ aggressiveness. If there was at least some discussion, it proves that he is willing to do whatever it takes to win and that he isn’t married to his aging core. That would bode well for the future because it would mean that Dumars knows he needs to make a significant move to get the Pistons back to being a championship-caliber team. I wrote a post earlier in the summer about Kobe and the Pistons being perfect for each other. I also wrote that I didn’t think Dumars had it in him to break up his team. If Joe D did talk to L.A., then I'd be happy to admit that I was wrong.

As for Kobe, if he did veto this trade—or any facsimile thereof—at any point, then I have lost virtually all respect for him. The reports cited that Kobe would not want to play for the Pistons because the remaining members of the Pistons would not be good enough to compete. Is he crazy? There aren’t more than five other teams in the NBA that Kobe could be traded to that would leave a team in better shape than the Pistons would be in. Kobe has said in the media that his motivation to get out of L.A. is all about wanting to win. I call B.S. If he wanted to win, he would be seeking a trade to Detroit rather than refusing one. Kobe wants to win but do it in a beautiful destination of his choosing. Then again, this whole thing could be a heaping serving of bologna. Nonetheless, I think Joe D is on the prowl.