JustinSane

It’s commonly agreed that Darko was horrible this season. It’s been a matter for debate if, when, and how much he’ll improve. I don’t think he’s played quite as badly as most believe however. Is he raw? Does he make too many mistakes? Yes, and yes, absolutely. However, despite often being in the wrong spot on the floor, displaying a dismaying case of butterfingers and generally looking lost, Darko some managed to do a lot right. His season’s end stats are as follows:

34 games, 4.7 mpg, .21 spg, .4 bpg, 1.3 rpg, .2 apg, and 1.4 ppg.

Horrible, right? Actually, no. Averaged over 48 minutes for ease of comparison, those statistics come out to 2.11 spg, 4.5 bpg (!), 13.0 rpg (!), 2.1 apg, and 14.5 ppg. That’s not half bad. If we add up all of the positive stats Darko racked up each 40 minutes, we get a total of 36.21. We’ve heard a lot about how much worse Darko is than other rookies. How did they do by this metric?

1. Lebron James 42
2. Darko Milicic 36.21
3. Carmello Anthony 41.45
4. Chris Bosh 31.85
5. Dwyane Wade 36.94
6. Chris Kaman 29.7
7. Kirk Hinrich 32.19
8. TJ Ford 32.26
9. Mike Sweetney 37.15
10. Jarvis Hayes 26.47
11. Mickael Pietrus 30.05
12. Nick Collison NA
13. Marcus Banks 30.85
14. Luke Ridnour 30.74
15. Reece Gaines 21.25
16. Troy Bell 18.11
17. Zarko Cabarkapa 30.74
18. David West 35.29
19. Aleksander Pavlovic 27.62
20. Dahntay Jones 25.56
21. Boris Diaw 24.18
22. Zoran Planicic 29.62
23. Travis Outlaw 35.33 (sample size 19.2 minutes total)
24. Brian Cook 33.44
25. Carlos Delfino NA
26. Ndudi Ebi 34.5 (sample size 32 minutes total)
27. Kendrick Perkins 56.2 (sample size 35 minutes total)
28. Leandro Barbosa 29.98
29. Josh Howard 35.08

Out of the 24 first round draft picks with at least 48 minutes of playing time over the course of the season, Darko ranks fifth in statistical positives per 48 minutes. Unimpressive? Meaningless, because it was all garbage time? Maybe. But consider this: Darko achieved that level of production despite countless mental errors. He was often out of rebounding position, he was tentative going to the hoop, he had a horrible start to the year from the free throw line. Overall, he mostly looked lost. His production came from raw talent rather than from refined skill. If he did that many things right without knowing what he was doing, what might he do once he gets some experience and starts to figure things out?

The mistakes he made this season are of a correctable nature and are directly attributable to youth (youngest NBA player ever actually) and lack of experience. He still managed to put up decent numbers simply because he is 7’1’’, insanely quick and reasonably coordinated. Most people feel that Darko has proven nothing and shown little to this point. I disagree. The numbers he put up basically in spite of himself show that he has terrific potential. Let’s just wait a couple more years and see what we have then

Austin Kent

You are a BBB.net mad scientist and it's awesome!

I didn't think Darko did too bad, I mean it could have been much worse. I like how he is such a force to be reckoned with on defence.

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froggyvk

I think once Darko got his first two points out of the way he did fine. It took a while for me to accept that he was going to only get minutes in blowout games. But every time they have footage of practice in the news, there's usually shots of Larry Brown working with Darko one-on-one. There's a lot of things that go into the development of a big man, especially an 18-year old, from Serbia, no less. Darko needed to bulk up, and he's made a committment to doing that. Name one 18-year old big man that's come in and posted better stats than Darko. I don't think you can as Darko is the youngest player in NBA history. A lot of people don't understand that. They see he's not playing like a #2 pick should and label him a bust. Jermaine O'Neal, Dirk Novitzski, Zach Randolph all took 3+ years to develop and Darko will likely be the same way. And also, how many players in the NBA were the #2 overall pick in the draft, and landed on a back-to-back 50 win team? You're not going to get the playing time when you've got the same players back that led your team to that number of wins.

This offseason I am going to go back and look for all the pre-season articles about Darko. There was nothing other than praise for him in there. If Darko had landed on, say, a Denver with the #2 pick, his development would be much faster because he would get playing time, like Carmelo Anthony did. But if Carmelo Anthony was on the Pistons, I think he'd be riding the pine too. 'Melo wouldn't have been able to prove himself because he wouldn't have gotten the minutes that he's getting now in Denver. Besides, Larry Brown has a history of not playing rookies. But if I'm choosing a coach to develop a eventual dominate big man, I've going to choose Larry Brown.

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MagnusPinus

Stats for 48 minutes are crap..Darko's season was not horrible.. he simply never played because he never played REAL minutes...Judging the only garbage time is impossible.. The judgement is suspended.. I hope to see him dominate in the summer leagues.

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"I'm sure he's fun for the fans to watch," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Ginobili, "but he takes a month off my life each game."

boykins32

I'm not going to come on here and bash Darko because I (along with everyone else in the US) haven't seen him play for any real amount of time. But I know I'm not the only one who would say that multiplying his minutes per game by about eight to find how he compares to some of the best rookies to come along in years is ridiculous. We'll find out about Darkoin the next two or three years or so.

MentalPowerHouse

His stats per 48 are not comparable to the likes of Bosh, Melo, James, etc. because as you said he played garbage minutes, especially when alot of times they looked for him.

Any arguement based on such stats will lack merit, that said, he did show potential. Anyone calling him a bust are leaving themselves open to a huge mistake. But he is not good yet.

fear the fro

I am not sure how valid that evaluation actually is either, but basically what you have to remember regarding Darko is A)he really does have amazing physical skills and B)he is the youngest player in the NBA. It's just a matter of him maturing as a person and a player before he can put those skills to good use.

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It's time Detroit to go to work!
Ben Wallace for President
Rasheed Wallace for Vice-President

Jwick

Well put, GOOD JOB!

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LegaC

OT but is Darko going to play in the Olympics?

MLKG

Yes. Oddly enough.

Detroit is one of the best teams in the NBA, but the only Piston who will be playing in the olympics is the 12th man.

ian

isn't Ben playing in the Olympics?

Stank You Very Much

DetBNyce

^^^ I wonder who that was...

rainman

i am definitely in the camp that says that garbage minutes dont mean much. the kid is too raw to be any kind of player in the league anytime soon. sure he has great physical ability but he cant seem to shake the shyness of his game when the whistle blows. he should be out there crushing some of these guys he's going against when he gets on the court. i think when he gets tired of being mediocre his game will take off, not sure when that will be though.