Rasheed complimented Ben, much how we hoped Antawn would compliment Shaq or Andy. Antawn was the pro's pro, a proven shooter, and a proven rebounder; while Rasheed was the head case who didn't want to be "the man" and preferred floating out to the 3pt line where he'd knock down 30% of them rather than working in the post where he was supposedly unstoppable. While he could D up the best PFs in the league, he was rarely motivated to care. Nobody else in the league wanted to touch him. I mean what else can you say but kudos to the Pistons for making it work and integrating him so quickly? Everyone expected it to blow up in their face. And ultimately without Ben, they couldn't sustain their front court D.
But yeah, certainly we can't control who will be available to us. We thought Shaq could handle Dwight, but we didn't pull the trigger the year before when we could have used him, and we never got the chance to face Orlando in the playoffs when we did have him. Nobody remembers that Detroit gave up a pair of first round picks to facilitate the deal. Would fans be screaming if we gave up a pair of first rounders to get Shaq from Phoenix? Or to pry Artest away from Indiana, or Sacramento? Heck, how many of us thought Ferry overpaid giving up a 1st rounder for Antawn? I know I did.
It just shows the value of pulling the trigger on the right deal at the right time - even if you have to overpay somewhat on a guy with little value. Imagine the alternate universe where Antawn was the one feeling spry and KG was the one feeling all gimpy kneed, and Antawn was delivering 20/10's and raining 3's from beyond KG's reach while Shaq/Andy protected the rim.
Just our lousy luck ...
