(the young Milicic, shown in his customary winter/spring position)
The excuses are about to stop. With Larry Brown out in Detroit, it’s now time for Darko to respond.
We can talk all we want to about rust (he hasn’t played in two years) and conditioning (it’s tough to keep in shape when you’re the towel boy), but the Pistons had to be disappointed in what appeared to be an indifferent effort by Milicic.
The rust will come off with playing time and the conditioning will improve. But what happened to the aggressive play that convinced the Pistons that Darko was not your typical Euro softie? Darko had flashes when he looked very good, but much of the time he just didn’t look like he cared.
That had better change or Flip Saunders will put him on the same seat on the bench that Larry did.